Yesterday was so very exhausting
Woke up at 5:30 so I could shower and eat and leave by 6:30 for Detroit. Driving and everything was fine, except I forgot my sun glasses so the morning sun was a bitch. Get to Cobo at about 7, half an hour early so that's good. Walk in for my Michigan Test for Teacher Certification Basic Skills test and there's this big line that wasn't really moving at all, so I was kinda freaking out since they said that if you arrive after the testing starts you may not be allowed in. Well I didn't realize that testing didn't start until 8 and that the 7:30 reporting time was when they started the checking of ID's and everything.
So we all go down to the basement finally and they tell us to find our seat based on our seat number on our admission ticket and they had number brackets to give you a general idea of where to go. Well they were still really dumb with this whole thing, because the numbers ran all the way from left to right over the entire room, which clearly had 3 separate sections to it. So I'm going back and forth in the middle section because my seat was supposed to be 2 away, and I thought it might continue across so I follow it across but it jumps down like 200 numbers, so that can't be right. Well after having to ask one of the helper guys, I realized that the rows didn't line up very well across the sections, so I was just one row back from where I had looked before -.-
Once you found your seat, your ATAs (never found out what that meant, but the helper people for your section) were supposed to come over to you to check your IDs that you brought. As people were still coming in and everything, they told us to raise our hands if we hadn't been checked yet. Well there was like a group of like 6 or 7 of us in our little section that were raising our hands for like 20 minutes no joke. And only YOUR ATA could check your ID, not just any of them. We didn't realize this right away which added to the frustration because the section ended a row in front of us who had their IDs checked pretty quickly, and then the section that ended like 3 rows behind us got checked quickly too. Our little section was the last ones to get our IDs checked because our ATA was really slow or something. The main proctor had to give him attitude since we were running late.
So anyway, we finally get our test and I start working. I realized from the front cover of our test booklets that the girl sharing the table with me was taking the exact same test, Basic Skills test form A. It's like, that's great planning to make sure nobody cheats, since all this stuff is determined by computer in advance. Whatever, I wasn't going to cheat and I didn't notice the other girl even looking over at all. But yeah, we started the test, the reading section was pretty easy although some of the questions definitely gave me a "huh?" moment, which me and the girl stayed pretty much at the same pace for that. Then I got to the math section and I just blew right through that, it really felt incredible, lol. Then I did the writing section which my prompt was really easy. It was something along the lines of "everybody gets advice. Tell of some advice you've received and how your life has improved because of it" or something like that, and it was meant to be an essay to be read by a journalism professor. So it was really easy. I actually filled two full pages and then like a quarter or something. Funny enough though, once I finished my writing section and therefore was done, the girl next to me was only finishing up the math section hehe. So then I handed in my work and headed back home.
I was only there for a couple minutes when it was time to go pick up some of the stuff for Mike's retirement party and pick up grandma and everything. So no rest for me lol. But yeah, did the running and we get a call from Barb saying that Mike's already there and we don't have to worry about being late type thing, but he still only thinks it's a family BBQ and not a surprise party for him yet. So we get there and we have to hide our car a bit since it's full of balloons and the cake and everything and Jamie was gonna try to get him to leave for the store in a few minutes. So I guess they finally leave and we all try to hurry to get everything set up, all the food and the decorations and everything. It definitely was getting a little stressful with trying to do it all so fast and people having different ideas and trying to say which one was the one we should/needed to do. But it all worked out, and Mike was genuinely surprised, so that was nice. Got to really play with the cousins a bit more today than I normally do which is always fun. I am now babysitting both Tuesday and Friday now, since Emily can't do Friday cuz she already has another gig, and I already said I'd take Tuesday so I don't want to back down on that one I guess. I may call in my resources though for Tuesday in case I get bored or something in the middle of the day ;-) haha!
After that whole party, I was finally able to take a nap for a while. Then I got up and went over Roman's house for a camping meeting to make sure who's bringing what major supplies and everything and make sure we have everything covered there, and then to figure out all the food that we need to get. I'm really getting excited for it all though, should be a lot of fun! After that, we went up to Sonic and then came back to his house and watched Knowing. It was actually pretty good, although the second major accident shouldn't have been that severe, physically speaking lol. I was surprised at how graphic those scenes were though, I mean I've seen a lot worse, but they were pretty long and did some POVs that showed people really getting smacked and smashed and everything. And I didn't like how quickly he just picked up this whole meaning behind the numbers and how obsessive he got with it right away. Still good overall though. And very interesting, especially the ending. Who'd have thought that you could actually tie in science, aliens, and religion....
So we all go down to the basement finally and they tell us to find our seat based on our seat number on our admission ticket and they had number brackets to give you a general idea of where to go. Well they were still really dumb with this whole thing, because the numbers ran all the way from left to right over the entire room, which clearly had 3 separate sections to it. So I'm going back and forth in the middle section because my seat was supposed to be 2 away, and I thought it might continue across so I follow it across but it jumps down like 200 numbers, so that can't be right. Well after having to ask one of the helper guys, I realized that the rows didn't line up very well across the sections, so I was just one row back from where I had looked before -.-
Once you found your seat, your ATAs (never found out what that meant, but the helper people for your section) were supposed to come over to you to check your IDs that you brought. As people were still coming in and everything, they told us to raise our hands if we hadn't been checked yet. Well there was like a group of like 6 or 7 of us in our little section that were raising our hands for like 20 minutes no joke. And only YOUR ATA could check your ID, not just any of them. We didn't realize this right away which added to the frustration because the section ended a row in front of us who had their IDs checked pretty quickly, and then the section that ended like 3 rows behind us got checked quickly too. Our little section was the last ones to get our IDs checked because our ATA was really slow or something. The main proctor had to give him attitude since we were running late.
So anyway, we finally get our test and I start working. I realized from the front cover of our test booklets that the girl sharing the table with me was taking the exact same test, Basic Skills test form A. It's like, that's great planning to make sure nobody cheats, since all this stuff is determined by computer in advance. Whatever, I wasn't going to cheat and I didn't notice the other girl even looking over at all. But yeah, we started the test, the reading section was pretty easy although some of the questions definitely gave me a "huh?" moment, which me and the girl stayed pretty much at the same pace for that. Then I got to the math section and I just blew right through that, it really felt incredible, lol. Then I did the writing section which my prompt was really easy. It was something along the lines of "everybody gets advice. Tell of some advice you've received and how your life has improved because of it" or something like that, and it was meant to be an essay to be read by a journalism professor. So it was really easy. I actually filled two full pages and then like a quarter or something. Funny enough though, once I finished my writing section and therefore was done, the girl next to me was only finishing up the math section hehe. So then I handed in my work and headed back home.
I was only there for a couple minutes when it was time to go pick up some of the stuff for Mike's retirement party and pick up grandma and everything. So no rest for me lol. But yeah, did the running and we get a call from Barb saying that Mike's already there and we don't have to worry about being late type thing, but he still only thinks it's a family BBQ and not a surprise party for him yet. So we get there and we have to hide our car a bit since it's full of balloons and the cake and everything and Jamie was gonna try to get him to leave for the store in a few minutes. So I guess they finally leave and we all try to hurry to get everything set up, all the food and the decorations and everything. It definitely was getting a little stressful with trying to do it all so fast and people having different ideas and trying to say which one was the one we should/needed to do. But it all worked out, and Mike was genuinely surprised, so that was nice. Got to really play with the cousins a bit more today than I normally do which is always fun. I am now babysitting both Tuesday and Friday now, since Emily can't do Friday cuz she already has another gig, and I already said I'd take Tuesday so I don't want to back down on that one I guess. I may call in my resources though for Tuesday in case I get bored or something in the middle of the day ;-) haha!
After that whole party, I was finally able to take a nap for a while. Then I got up and went over Roman's house for a camping meeting to make sure who's bringing what major supplies and everything and make sure we have everything covered there, and then to figure out all the food that we need to get. I'm really getting excited for it all though, should be a lot of fun! After that, we went up to Sonic and then came back to his house and watched Knowing. It was actually pretty good, although the second major accident shouldn't have been that severe, physically speaking lol. I was surprised at how graphic those scenes were though, I mean I've seen a lot worse, but they were pretty long and did some POVs that showed people really getting smacked and smashed and everything. And I didn't like how quickly he just picked up this whole meaning behind the numbers and how obsessive he got with it right away. Still good overall though. And very interesting, especially the ending. Who'd have thought that you could actually tie in science, aliens, and religion....