(no subject)
Greetings from the high school computer lab. It's been a while since I've written. I read friend posts everyday but I've just been too tired to write recently.
Work
I've been working a ton so far this school year. I'm in the middle of an 8 school days in a row stretch and worked 13 of the 20 school days in September. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing for being the first month of school because teachers are generally around a lot the first and last month of school. So far I have 8 days booked this month. I really need the money so this is great.
Things have been so tough for me recently that my parents had to cover my car insurance last week and they gave me about $50 during the course of the month just for gas. I had a baggie of $13+ in change and it's pretty much depleted now. I ended the month with only 65 cents in my bank account. Yesterday I deposited a check for coaching, 1/3 of what I'm getting paid, and it was such a relief to know it was there.
Volleyball
Coaching is going alright. My team had a meltdown of sorts two weeks ago at practice. My two captains on junior varsity have been promoted to practicing with the varsity and splitting their playing time between junior varsity and varsity. Now that they are gone there really isn't any leadership from the girls during practices. The girls were beginning to struggle with one of the drills and began getting down on themselves and down on each other. I actually had to just stop the drill, get them together, tell them to "knock of the shitty attitudes and take a two minute water break. And talk to no one!" They came back, I could see a couple of them had teared up a bit, but I pumped them back up the best I could at the time and tried to get them back on track. Despite the horrible practice we won the game the next night (it also helps that the three girls who play down from varsity are quite good and provide the leadership I need during the two-out-of-three games they get to play in).
Also of some note, my one tall middle hitter (she's 5'9") practiced up at varsity most of the time on Wednesday. I think Blanford wanted to see how well she would do with the varsity girls. She's still a big project and has to work on her passing a great deal but I say a lot of improvement on her hitting in blocking that it was just crazy. I've been trying to hammer a couple technique things into her head lately for hitting, blocking, and all around movement.
The varsity is currently 2-4 but I would not be surprised one bit if they finish the season 8-6 or 9-5 and make it into districts. We were so flat the first week of the season and dropped two games that we would win now.
More school
One more girl, who happens to be a volleyball player, but that is not the point here, is back in Tenino. She has been in foster care for several years now because of her mother's drug use and some physical abuse. She made her way to Tenino and was living with a couple who takes in the bottom of what the state has to offer as far as foster girls go. She's a bit of a drama queen but has really done well here and has been in FFA, Leadership class, and volleyball. Two weeks into school the court made a preliminary decision that she would be returned to her mom, who wanted her back after 5 years or so, and also to get her out of our state's poor (not quality, but amount of money) foster care system. While she was at her mom's for two weeks she took multiple picture of her mom's drug paraphernalia that was left out, her mom and boyfriend high, and (from what I heard) had audio or video of her mom high saying that she would never stop using drugs. At court on Tuesday she presented her evidence and she was immediately taken out of her mom's custody. She's now living in the district again with family, out of the foster care system, and I'm relieved that she is back with us. She belongs in our district and with her friends and teachers who care so much about her. I'm not sure if she'll be back on the volleyball team and if she is whether she'll return to varsity or with JV, but I hope she comes back.
Band & Music
Had a dinner meeting with Kyle, my band's ex-lead guitarist, on Monday. It was really positive and we're going to try having him back in the band. Everything just seemed to make sense to have him with us right now. I had to explain to him how I support his music 100% and that the bulk of his song writing needs to go there and how this band is my main creative outlet for songwriting. He agreed with that, which was awesome because it was my main sticking point. He just wanted to make sure that he was appreciated for his contributions, which he definitely was but we never really said it aloud.
I saw Trivium last Friday night. I told a couple students that and they were shocked. The other bands pretty much sucked but Trivium was bad ass. Grant took me and paid for gas, which was great. I felt bad for him taking me but I realized that I've paid for two Tegan and Sara concerts we've gone to and the Jenny Owen Youngs show we saw in May. But who cares, as we've joked before, we have a "joint bank account."
The class is in here in 3 minutes, time to wrap this up!
Work
I've been working a ton so far this school year. I'm in the middle of an 8 school days in a row stretch and worked 13 of the 20 school days in September. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing for being the first month of school because teachers are generally around a lot the first and last month of school. So far I have 8 days booked this month. I really need the money so this is great.
Things have been so tough for me recently that my parents had to cover my car insurance last week and they gave me about $50 during the course of the month just for gas. I had a baggie of $13+ in change and it's pretty much depleted now. I ended the month with only 65 cents in my bank account. Yesterday I deposited a check for coaching, 1/3 of what I'm getting paid, and it was such a relief to know it was there.
Volleyball
Coaching is going alright. My team had a meltdown of sorts two weeks ago at practice. My two captains on junior varsity have been promoted to practicing with the varsity and splitting their playing time between junior varsity and varsity. Now that they are gone there really isn't any leadership from the girls during practices. The girls were beginning to struggle with one of the drills and began getting down on themselves and down on each other. I actually had to just stop the drill, get them together, tell them to "knock of the shitty attitudes and take a two minute water break. And talk to no one!" They came back, I could see a couple of them had teared up a bit, but I pumped them back up the best I could at the time and tried to get them back on track. Despite the horrible practice we won the game the next night (it also helps that the three girls who play down from varsity are quite good and provide the leadership I need during the two-out-of-three games they get to play in).
Also of some note, my one tall middle hitter (she's 5'9") practiced up at varsity most of the time on Wednesday. I think Blanford wanted to see how well she would do with the varsity girls. She's still a big project and has to work on her passing a great deal but I say a lot of improvement on her hitting in blocking that it was just crazy. I've been trying to hammer a couple technique things into her head lately for hitting, blocking, and all around movement.
The varsity is currently 2-4 but I would not be surprised one bit if they finish the season 8-6 or 9-5 and make it into districts. We were so flat the first week of the season and dropped two games that we would win now.
More school
One more girl, who happens to be a volleyball player, but that is not the point here, is back in Tenino. She has been in foster care for several years now because of her mother's drug use and some physical abuse. She made her way to Tenino and was living with a couple who takes in the bottom of what the state has to offer as far as foster girls go. She's a bit of a drama queen but has really done well here and has been in FFA, Leadership class, and volleyball. Two weeks into school the court made a preliminary decision that she would be returned to her mom, who wanted her back after 5 years or so, and also to get her out of our state's poor (not quality, but amount of money) foster care system. While she was at her mom's for two weeks she took multiple picture of her mom's drug paraphernalia that was left out, her mom and boyfriend high, and (from what I heard) had audio or video of her mom high saying that she would never stop using drugs. At court on Tuesday she presented her evidence and she was immediately taken out of her mom's custody. She's now living in the district again with family, out of the foster care system, and I'm relieved that she is back with us. She belongs in our district and with her friends and teachers who care so much about her. I'm not sure if she'll be back on the volleyball team and if she is whether she'll return to varsity or with JV, but I hope she comes back.
Band & Music
Had a dinner meeting with Kyle, my band's ex-lead guitarist, on Monday. It was really positive and we're going to try having him back in the band. Everything just seemed to make sense to have him with us right now. I had to explain to him how I support his music 100% and that the bulk of his song writing needs to go there and how this band is my main creative outlet for songwriting. He agreed with that, which was awesome because it was my main sticking point. He just wanted to make sure that he was appreciated for his contributions, which he definitely was but we never really said it aloud.
I saw Trivium last Friday night. I told a couple students that and they were shocked. The other bands pretty much sucked but Trivium was bad ass. Grant took me and paid for gas, which was great. I felt bad for him taking me but I realized that I've paid for two Tegan and Sara concerts we've gone to and the Jenny Owen Youngs show we saw in May. But who cares, as we've joked before, we have a "joint bank account."
The class is in here in 3 minutes, time to wrap this up!