Catch UP!

It has been a LONG time. Seeing as how my "other" blog friends have recently outdone me with blog updates, here it comes. A review of what has been happening in my life since almost all of my countdowns have expired. Lets start with the job. I really really wanted the Newman job; unfortunately a master-degreed, well educated career teacher got the job. That left me with no job here at Metcalf *dry-eyed* *boo-hoo* and no job anywhere. What to do? Until the last day of school for teachers; May 25th. I am in my portable, clearing out the last bits of boxes and turning in lesson plans, when I get an unexpected call from the new principal at Santaquin Elementary in Nebo School District. She had gotten a gander at my resume and wanted to schedule a phone interview. Sure thing. Which in fact turned into a very positive interview and I got a good feeling from it. Problem was, she was in Utah and I was in Texas. Lets leave it at that for a moment.

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A big exodus out of Houston has begun. Kite Runner has decided to try her luck in greener fields- the greener fields of Georgia that is. So once again I found myself in a city with not many people to pass all this luxurious summer time off with. A tribute to one who goes before me... Everytime I go to open a new straw I will think of KR.

Here's to the straw "fortune telling" gig Paying It Forward.

What do you mean HPLuvr? The thing is first you carefully slip the straw wrapper off the straw, and then tie it into a knot. But DON'T pull the knot tight- yet. First pause and think about someone. Once you have that one person clearly in mind, quickly pull the straw wrapper tight in one quick motion. If the wrapper breaks cleanly in half- and I mean IN HALF as in there is no knot left to speak of -then the person you were thinking about is thinking about you right then.

Obvious attempts that continued to fail. But not for lack of trying.

Good Luck to KR!

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Then there is the night time. Lets start with SCHOOL IS OUT FOR THE SUMMER! So the last few weeks of class were fairly tiring. To say the least. The Nazi Regime team took back our textbooks and then told us to continue with the effective, standards-tied, objective-driving lessons. Babysitting the kids more like it. Well, we survived. But there was that one Friday night after I had changed out of my "spirit school clothes" and settled in to watch my DVR-recorded, ER reruns. When I am awakened by a loud, repetitive noise. Wait a minute I think to myself... why is my alarm going off? I looked out the window and it is still insanely dark outside. And I am not too out of it, it was Friday yesterday. I don't work on Saturdays.

*Confused*

This is when I sit up, rub my eyes, and notice that along with the loud annoying alarm sound, there is a coordinated flashing light. Uhhh?

Then I finally realize what it is:

I grab some public-appropriate pajamas, my purse, and Ronald and book it out of my apartment. Where I wait at 12am with all of my neighbors until 12:45am, by which time no firemen or anything has arrived. Does that make me nervous? 45 minutes of THAT sound going off? Good thing it was a false alarm. Or else I would have not only been homeless but all of my stuff would have been firewood. Marshmellows and a metal-coat hanger anyone?

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Continuing with the subject of waking up- without the aid of my alarm OR the fire alarm- the mornings of our first week of summer vacation; Ronald had a bit of trouble adjusting to the new schedule. This won't make much sense unless I describe our normal school year schedule. My radio alarm is set for 5:40am. Music softly begins the wake up process in which I can hit the snooze button until 6:15am, when the alarm takes over, again I hit the snooze button until 6:30am. At which time I roll out of bed and hop into the shower, all the while talking to Ronald who has followed me and is waiting for me to get out of the shower. And once out of the shower I finally feed Ronald and he is happy with me and out from under foot. I would scoot around and leave the apartment around 7:10am, by which time Ronald was usually ensconsed already in his early morning nap spot :) *waves of extreme jealousy* This worked mutally well for both of us. Except when summer vacation began. The sun would slowly peek through the hole that has been made in the blinds, and Ronald would 1) begin pawing my face to wake me up, and when that failed to get the desired results, he would 2) hop up onto the small table in my bedroom and begin to push off my sunglasses one by one. This usually got me out of bed by the 2nd or 3rd pair of glasses clattering to the floor. Thankfully by the 4th morning of me hopping angrily out of bed and picking up the sunglasses off the floor, Ronald Weasley finally got the picture that "We get to SLEEP IN. No need for the wake-up calls".

Case in point: Now I am the one making wake up calls.

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Now back to my job situation. So the ladies currently residing in Provo were so kind as to allow me to come crash their place and allow me access to their vehicles and time. I set up a few interviews with schools in the Nebo school district. Let me tell you the first interview I went to did not go so well; the principal showed up in jeans and was so rushed that I felt as though I should have shaken his hand and left as soon as I sat down. But the clincher was when he took an "important" cell phone call from his wife to reassure her that he would still be able to meet her at the Walmart for their family day out. Oh well. Afterwards I was able to continue my seemingly unsuccessful search for housing. I don't consider myself one with lots of baggage- both figuratively and literally- but that must be outside of cities within 15 minutes of Provo. All these beautiful apartments that I can now afford, and then those fateful two words *NO PETS* These issues kept me tossing and turning until 5:30am the morning before the BIG interview.

By the BIG interview I refer to the telephone interview that I had before I even left Houston. I woke up with time to spare to both get ready and find a school that is 25 minutes away. I drive out to Santaquin, get lost, and then proceed to make a frantic phone call to the school. "I'm lost, but if you can give me some directions I will be there ASAP". The response? "The principal will not be into this school until after July 1st. Try at her old school." Oops, something I should have clarified BEFORE driving all the way out to Santaquin. But before you get too worried, I called her old school, cleared everything up, and batta-bing I am now the newest employee of the Nebo school district. To report to my new job by July 9th. Santaquin Elementary 4th Grade Teacher.

Only one thing is still up in the air... Exactly what is the meaning of this?