Work is dumb

I think the students are just about as over the idea of school right now as I am.  I have absolutely no urge to do anything productive right now, nor do they.  I actually had to administer a standardized test this morning, so my own classes were in a different room with a different teacher.  I gave them an article to read and a set of questions to answer.  I'm sure it was all pretty riveting.

To add to the aggravation, I am having to sub for the girl who can't seem to get well again today.  I have no idea what's wrong with her, but she has been out so often this year that I find I am surprised to see her when she is at work.  I know there are systems in place to get subs for such things, but it seems that a lot of us have to step in and cover classes pretty frequently.  It's annoying.  I don't have a clue what these classes are, what the kids should be learning or if any of the content is actually getting through.  Certainly, it stinks to have a personal crisis that causes you to miss work so often, but I feel like there isn't a whole lot of learning happening.

Okay, Dunlap- shake it off.  You're sitting in a room full of teenagers, not breaking rocks in the hot sun.

I am thinking of heading to the grocery store after work today so I can get the ingredients to make the stuffing for this weekend's Allen family get together.  We're having the first of what promises to be a series of Christmases.  10th- Jeanne's side of Cas' family, including aunts, uncles and cousins.  A week later on the 17th, just Jeanne, Dave, Chad, Becky Zoey, Cas and me.  A week after that on the 24th, we head to my parents' house in Richardson for the big Hinds family celebration, and another week after that, it's New Year's Eve.  We're not clear on what happens for us to ring in 2017, but certainly, we will do something fabulous.  There is talk of watching the fireworks at Reunion Tower as well as a strong argument for staying in and celebrating at the house.  Decision pending.  We're ready, though.  There are exactly two things that haven't arrived in the mail for us to wrap, and anything else that should be under the tree is coming in the form of a gift certificate or a Groupon.  The tree is looking pretty good.

In the meantime, I just want to get out of this classroom and back into mine.  The kids finished their worksheets in about 20 minutes, leaving 55 minutes of unstructured time.  Greeeaaat.

Feliz Deciembre

November is gone. Cas and I had two thanksgiving dinners, finished our Spanish class and made a triumphant return to Group Dynamix for their "Adventure Sunday" promotion.

It's Sunday now, but on Friday we redeemed his birthday gift.  I had bought us a pair of tickets to see John Cleese and Eric Idle at the Majestic theater.  It was a spectacular show.  The whole thing was like being in the writer's room for an episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.  We laughed so hard.  I laughed hard enough for my stomach muscles to feel it the next morning.

We're starting our December, now, and we have just had our last uninterrupted Saturday for the year.  This week, we will enjoy the Allen family Christmas with Jeanne's side of Cas' family.  That should be a pretty good time.  It will be nice to get everyone together for something happy, since the last time we all gathered was to say goodbye to Stephanie.

The following Saturday, we have a Christmas celebration with just Jeanne, Dave, Chad, Becky, Zoey, Cas and me.  That has to happen before Chad and Becky go to her parents' celebration in South Carolina.

The Saturday after that, we have Christmas Eve with my family and the last Saturday of the month is New Years Eve.  We are planning out a big evening for that, as well.  It's shaping up to be a busy month.

Somewhere in the midst of that, Cas Sr. and Anne will be around.  Presumably, we will get together with them at some point to celebrate the holidays.

Last night, we pretty much wrapped up our holiday shopping, as well.  The last thing we actually needed to buy was presents for Zoey.  I can manage a lot online, but Cas kind of feels the need to go to a toy store and actually touch the toys.  Mission accomplished.  He was like a kid in a toy shop, just a little older.

We went for hamburgers and cocktails after that, then back home to watch a movie.  Even something as silly as a toy store trip and a hamburger is fun for me and Cas.  I stuck around the house this morning just long enough to eat breakfast with him before heading to Richardson.  There are three more weeks of school for me before Christmas break.  Cas only has two weeks left- our breaks are staggered by one week.  He gets off on the 16th, and I get out on the 22nd.  That means I go back a week later than he does in 2017, though.

I have all my lesson plans in and my website up to date.  I just have a little more work to do with my grade book before I can call it quits for the day.

I am also waiting for a phone call from the Fiat dealer in McKinney.  I am just days away from being the proud owner of a brand spanking new Fiat Spider 124.  It's going to be beautiful.

I'll post photos when the car becomes mine.  Can't wait for the slow boat from Italy to arrive. 

But not a real green dress, that's cruel

I am so happy Cas and I had a very good weekend.  The Monday I am having at work is a little more tolerable because of the very excellent weekend we had.

On Friday, I went out for a little bit after work with some other teachers.  I didn't stay long, though.  Cas and I had a nice, quiet evening at home.  Earlier in the day, a friend of mine mentioned that the Barenaked Ladies were playing Saturday at a place in Carrollton called The Switchyard.  Evidently, Carrollton does an outdoor festival there every year, and this year, the headliners were a band I love.  When I mentioned this to Cas, we immediately made plans to go.

Of course, we heard the classics.  We heard If I had a million dollars
If I had a million dollars
I'd buy you a green dress
But not a real green dress, that's cruel.

I kept inviting people to come with us, but as it turns out, nobody wanted to go.  It was for the best, anyhow.  We had a really great date night.  And the show was amazing.  Cas and I had seen the Barenaked Ladies a few years ago- the same week as Dan and Laurie's wedding, in fact.  The overwhelming feeling we both had was that it was really great to watch a band who is having a lot of fun playing music.  They have more fun than any band I know.  They have a great time.

It was a beautiful night and the weather was perfect.  The show was great, and as a bonus, it was really easy to get in and out of the venue.  We just took a train to the park, then we took a train back to the car . Perfect.  

I am holding on to a lovely weekend today as I teach classes in the library.  My classroom was flooded again.  I don't even understand how this is happening.  They supposedly fixed the roof.  Who lets a roof leak recur with that frequency over the top of a computer lab?  I mean, honestly?  Not only is that careless, but it's stupid.  I spent the first 30 minutes of my day today trying not to cry.  

Okay- that's it.  I am good, now.  I have officially gotten it all off my chest.  

Back to work.  I'm doing a lesson about job interviews and first impressions today.  Blegh.  It wasn't my first choice, but then again, it's really hard to teach kids to make vector graphics with no technology...

The first 100 days

I had this little countdown app on my phone that would tell me before July 27th how many days until my wedding.  I even put the little picture of a bride, a groom and a palm tree on the app so it would be all cute.  Cas liked it so much that he had me send him the image for the last few days before our wedding so he could include it in his photo album.  It was pretty cute.  

Turns out, when you pass the date you were counting down to, the app starts counting up.  That's how I know I have been Mrs. Dunlap for 99 days.  We are also staring down the barrel of a presidential election, and a lot of candidates like to make promises about what they would do with the first 100 days.  I thought this was a good opportunity to recap.  Cas and I have nearly had our first 100 days.  So far, so good.

We came home. 

We had the world's most unique reception weekend.  

We spend the last weekend before school floating down a river on an inner tube.

We went to a wedding in Duluth

We had birthdays.  One each.  

We learned a lot of Spanish

We went on a sky coaster

We beat an escape room

We did some rather dull, adult-y things, too.  We've compared medical insurance policies and I have gone through about a half dozen name change procedures with different organizations and state agencies.  

But, as far as the first 100 days ago, I think we are doing pretty well.

Much ado

Whew.  Last time I got on here and wrote anything, it was the day Cas and I went to the fair.  That's been a minute.  Since then, I had three evaluations at work, held a DTR application writing session at my house, put a newspaper to bed, went to a party at Laura's house, had dinner with Cas Sr. and Anne and handed out some candy on Halloween.  I have either got to get back into writing this blog or abandon it entirely.  To be determined...

But no matter, things are going swimmingly.  Cas and I went to an escape room on Saturday.  Actually, we had kind of a huge day Saturday.  We got up and put on our very most American T shirts.  His had Mount Rushmore on it, and mine was from The Smithsonian.  We went to our local public library and voted a week and a half early, then we went out for a very American meal- a hamburger.  We even went to a very patriotic restaurant- Liberty Burger.  After that, we had to go get oil changes.  Kind of a let down from the excitement of the morning, but we do it right.  We drop off our cars at the place, cross the street and sit on a patio drinking margaritas until the vehicles are ready.  It's really the best method I have found for waiting out service on the car.

After such a big morning (and some margaritas...) we took a nap and got up just in time to make our appointed time at the escape room.  I had never been to one before, and neither had Cas.  You have to solve clues and open locks to uncover an answer to a mystery, which, when solved, will allow you to escape the room.  Ours was a medical mystery.  We had to discover patient zero in a deadly pathogen outbreak and figure out where he got it.  From that, we could decide which of the possible antidotes would work, then we could rejoin (and presumably cure) the world outside.

It was pretty fun, and they had a photo op at the end.  Of course.

Today, Cas and I have something decidedly less fun- his cousin passed away last week, and there is a viewing at the funeral home this evening.  I already wrote to our Spanish teacher and let her know we would be missing class today, so everything is all set.  I just have to get home and change clothes really quickly after work.  Not fun, but I want to go for Cas.  He probably doesn't need me there, but I am pretty sure he wants me there.

Up, up and away

Things have been pretty busy this semester.  The block schedule and the extra students have not been without a bit of extra work.  This month has been pretty tough, in fact.  Cas and I have been running pretty much non-stop.  

We've been going to our Spanish class every Tuesday.  We've had a few fancy dinners and such along the way- mostly as a celebration of my birthday or his birthday or both.  It's my school's parent teacher night this evening, and I have spoken with a dozen parents.  Considering that I had 211 students at my last count, a dozen is a pretty small group.  

Yesterday, we went to the State Fair.  I had every intention of taking Cas to a place called Zero Gravity for a ride on a thing called the Sky Coaster.  It's just a harness on a string that lets you swing back and forth, only it starts out super-high in the air.  It's a heck of a ride, in fact.  Cas and I needed the win that day.  He has a cousin who is very ill.  We went to see her Saturday.  We were glad for the chance to visit.  We wanted to go a week earlier, but she was just out of surgery and in no mood to see anyone.  Like I said, we were glad for the chance to visit Sunday.  

But Sunday was a blast.  We did the Sky Coaster, we stopped by my parents' house and we watched the second Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, or as I call it, the televised dumptster fire, episode two.  Good day.  

Here's a photo of the sky coaster in four frames.  Enjoy:

 

Look, I've been busy...

The first semester of this year has been absolutely packed with activity. Every single weekend, Cas and I have had at least one thing to do. Most weekends, we've had two or three.

When we returned from Duluth, we had to celebrate both of our birthdays with both of our families on different occasions. 

Jeanne did something very thoughtful for Cas, at my recommendation. When we. Had our wedding reception, we ordered two cakes. A wedding cake, and a grooms cake. The driver for the bakery was in a car crash, so we got a different grooms cake then we had ordered. I told Jeannie of the story, and thought it may be a nice thing for him to have as a birthday cake. Well, you only need to tell her something like that one time. We had a wonderful birthday cake:

It was entirely too rich, and way too delicious. These are not exactly the worse problems to have.

At this very moment, I cannot remember exactly what has occupied all of the hours and minutes and seconds of our time, but we have been very busy.

Have you ever been so busy that you don't know why you are busy? That's where we have been for the past few weeks.

I think it might just be the challenge of back to school coinciding with both of our birthdays. Incidentally, Cas got me a semester of continuing education Spanish classes. It was a lovely, thoughtful gift; I sense some Latin American travel in the offing. I got him tickets to see John Cleese and Eric Idle together at the Majestic theater in December. That should be amazing.

We have finally settled down a little, it would seem. Tonight, Cas and I are going to spend one of the gift certificates we received as a gift when we got married. It is to a restaurant called Neighborhood Services, and that place is pretty fancy. I have been there once before, and the food was amazing. I May try to sneak a nap into my afternoon first, as I was up late working on in the newspaper. I am not sure if I will have time, though. I am supposed to go out at about two pm and meet with mom so we can get our toenails painted. We've invited my old friend Reema to come with us. I hope I can stay awake all afternoon. I was up pretty late.

The first newspaper of the school year went off to the printer at about 2:30 am, so now I am able to focus my energy on having a good time for the remainder of the weekend. Not a moment too soon.

It's probably time to get a shower, and tidy up the house a little bit. It's amazing how junk for tends to accumulate when you don't have time to put it where it goes.