Maybe I should write a book

I have a writer friend who always says that she thinks everyone should write.  She thinks I should write a book.  To be honest, she thinks everyone should write a book.  Hanging out with her reminded me that it’s been a while since I’ve written anything for the blog.  My friend thinks I should write a self help/advice book.  I’m note sure the world is ready for my brand of advice.  In most situations I think you should quit whinging and do something about it.  Attitude matters.  If you have a positive attitude there is a higher chance of you being successful.  If you start out negative, how will you make it through the bad times?

I wonder what my book chapters should be?  Any ideas?

Relationships- romantic, familial, friends
Job
self esteem
what to do when things go wrong
Don’t try to change people
Practice makes perfect


I believe in the power of the mind and a positive attitude.  I’m not saying that life is all roses and sunshine but you have to get over the disappointments as quickly as possible.  Learn your lesson and keep it moving.  If you don’t learn them you’re doomed to repeat the lesson until you do.

Now, where to start?  The first chapter should explain how this book is different from other self help books out there.  I’m going for the tough love angle.  It might seem like some of my advice is difficult to follow but nothing good comes easy.  

I’m going to chew on that for a while.  You chew on it too and let me know what you think.

Wild wild south

Saturday we made a trip to Arlington, Va to go to the cheese and wine shop.  Not a wine person but the cheese it to die for.  Pictures and reviews are on the way.  We were going to have dinner in the city since we were driving through anyway.  I've never been to Ben's Chili Bowl so that was our    destination.  Uh, Cinco de Mayo anyone?  Well a holiday that is relatively unknown to Mexicans is widely celebrated here is in the US.  Apparently, it is a date of some battle NOT the Mexican Independence day (which was my guess).  No one in Mexico gives a shake but every bar in town was filled to the brim with revelers.  As we made our way to U St I started to notice the thick crowds wearing brightly colored tchochkies from Oriental Traders.  The closer we go, the thicker the crowds were.  We drove around for a while before just heading back home.  Next time we'll have to go earlier.

hola amigos.

It's been a while.  I don't know what I've been doing.  Nothing much really.  I figured it was high time I said hello.  I'm watching Flash Point and thinking about what fabulous tales I can regale you with.  At work I've been learning about Tall Tales so I could always wow you with a larger than life story of  perseverance.

 I started this last week and I'm just back here now.  I had a pretty busy weekend.  If you know me at all, you are aware that I am not the world's greatest cleaner.  I'm a woman on a mission.  My house must be decluttered or else.  Today I practically burned out the shredder.  I went through my old file box and cleaned out the crap.  Then I organized the new files that needed to go in.  I have a box where I'm placing give away items and several shopping bags and boxes for give away books.

 Side Note: If you itemize your taxes you need to keep detailed records of your donations.  IRS is going to ebay.com to price stuff for your deductions.  This year I had some receipts that were blank and I had to try and recreate the contents.


Anyway, I'm trying to do this a little at a time.  Last week I told a group of students that if they spent the same energy doing the work as they spent complaining about it, they would be finished.  time to take my own advice.  I'm still complaining but I'm putting some muscle behind it so something actually gets done.  Laundry is pretty under control.  I still have work to do in the other bedroom but it's moving along.  Today's major success was the shredding, hands down.  I filled the basket 3 times and there's still more.  I'm getting ready to use my groupon for house cleaning.  Y'all know how you have to pre-clean for the cleaners.  I also figured out that my vacuum cleaner might be broken.  It was super loud making me think it could be broken or clogged (another reason to call the professionals).  Once I get back on track I'll be ok.

Alright, bed time for me.  Sweet dreams of clean houses to you all!!


PS-  Did I mention how delicious the apple butter is?  If you want to try it and are local let me know.

Moving and shaking

I'm all ready for the week. I've checked the Zumba schedule and I'm all set for Monday and Tuesday at 5.  Bless Divinefiesta Fitness for having classes at a time that's perfect for me.  To be honest, they have a class that is perfect for almost everyone since they have 5, 6, and 7 o'clock start times.      My clothes are packed and ready to go.  I've got lots of lunch options waiting to go into the lunch bag.  Testing starts on Monday so I need tons of snacks.  My school is so cheap they can't afford to give snacks to the teachers who are helping to test the kids.  Nice.  The student's aren't the only ones who are trapped in the room and stressed out for the next 2 weeks.

Oh well, bed time.

Mistresses and Flashpoint

I've got some new shows working.  Mistresses is on the way out.  BBC America replayed the show not too long ago.  I forgot how good it is.  4 women are friends and each of them has a unique situation.  One mother of 2 who's a 911 widow, a single doctor who can't seem to keep a relationship going, a married lawyer who is having a hard time conceiving until she has an affair and 1 party girl looking for the next good time.  We follow them through all the trials and tribulations of life, marriage, relationships, kids and more.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0969007/

Show number 2 is Flashpoint.  It's an action packed show about a special ops team that diffuses bombs, rescues hostages and takes down all kinds of baddies in each 60 minute episode.  There are 3 seasons on netflix streaming plus the current episodes.  If you like action give it a try.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1059475/

Get your mind right

Spring is on the way and many of us need to do some spring cleaning.  This blog is inspired by a friend who is busily purging as we speak.  God bless!  I am a pack rat but not a hoarder.  I like stuff.  I can't help it.  Every once and a while I have to go through all of my stuff and get rid of some.  I have travel books from the 90s and textbooks from the millions of grad courses that I've taken.  Some of the classes were crap when I took them yet I still keep the text.  Why?  Not anymore.  I'm on a mission to clean my house.

I've been putting it off for a while now but I am finally motivated enough to do something.  I already have a bag of books and a few other things set aside.  I think I'm going to turn my porch into donation central.  I can pack all the boxes and bags as I go and store them out in the sun room until NCC can come and get it.  Believe it or not, they are the only charity shop that will come pick up at my house.  I support them because they come here but they also have a good mission.  I am not motivated enough to drive the clothes anywhere but I can drag them to the front door.

My second bedroom has become a place for misplaced things.  It was the box room for ages then I cleaned it up.  It was a bedroom for a while and not it is a junk room.  I don't know about you, but I don't pay the mortgage every month to have an unusable room.  My first line of attack is going to be the sunroom book shelves.  I can toss all of the old text books that will never get used and the ancient travel guides.  The information is outdated so why bother to keep them?  Next is my file box.  I need to keep my important papers together in a safe place.  I don't want to have to scamper around looking for important documents.  Next, I'll change the box-room laundry table back into a bed by folding all of the laundry.

Right now the best thing I can do is go to bed so I can wake up for work.  Anyone else have SPRING CLEANING on the brain?

End of an era (MI-5 Spoiler alert)

I have devoted many years to Harry Pierce, Tom Quinn, Zoe, Danny, Zaf, Adam and the rest of the Spooks at MI-5.  I feel like I've been on The Grid with them for 10 seasons and now one of the best spy shows ever has gone dark.    The final episode shows that Harry's entire career was formed by a Russian master spy/double agent Chick!  Girl power.

It was a great ride with my dear friends but I'm glad we are finally done.  Well done having Tom Quinn finish off the guy in charge of the group that caused Ruth's death.  Too bad Harry and Ruth never got the timing right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spooks

           

it hurts so good

I went to ZUMBA (Tuesday) and now it hurts.  Well, it did a few days ago.  My plan is to go again in the morning before I get going for the day.  I'll be heading down to Whiteholm to see the folks and pick up some packages then back here to take on some boring household chores and a healthy dose of Kindle reading.

I used to read a lot but now I don't seem to have time.  I had to force myself to stop reading pleasure books when I started grad school because I knew that I would never get anything done if I read novels instead of dull educational articles.  2 degrees later, I'm finally able to crack open a book with out guilt.  The kindle is great.  I just got a library card and I am learning the joys of free books.  It takes some planning because of the possible wait time but the price is right and I don't have to spend money on a book that is going to be read once.  I have 2 ebooks checked out now.  I'm almost finished with the first one and I have not the second.  It's like a book numbers game.  You have to estimate how long the wait will be based on the number of people in the queue and the number of total copies.  The good thing is that you can always add it again if you make a miscalculation.

SIDE NOTE:  This was written Friday night but finished Saturday morning.  I'm sad to say that I didn't motivate for a Zumba but I did workout at home with Comcast so all is not lost.

What's for lunch?

I've been trying to think of a blog topic for a few days now and I can't come up with anything interesting so, here is something mundane.  Lunch!


I love lunch but I hate thinking of what to make.  Packing a lunch takes planning and for the life of me I can't get it right.  I tend to pack a bunch of random stuff that I can eat on the fly.  I think I more well rounded/thought out lunch.  I'm off to a bad start since I have not packed anything for tomorrow.  I'm going to throw a bunch of yogurts into the bag and keep it moving.  I do better when I cook dinner because I always make a little extra for the next day.  When I don't cook dinner, lunch is always a reach.

I'm all about problem solving.  Here are some efficient lunch plans:

1. buy cold cuts weekly and assemble lunch at work
2. cook on Sunday night and eat leftovers for lunch the rest of the week
3. buy lunch every day
4. hire elves to magically pack lunch and poof it into school bag.
5. ? ????

Feel free to add in your lunch time success stories.  Happy Sunday!

 

knock 3 times and scratch once

Passwords are bane of my existence.  Ok, maybe that is a little dramatic but the sentiment is true.  Everything has a password and they are getting increasingly complex.  There have to be 8 characters with one number and a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.  Give me a break.  What happened to the days when your password could be your name?

You need a million passwords just to function these days.  I have a few at work and a ton at home.  One for the credit card, another for the bank, netflix, hotmail, gmail, facebook, and this blog.....I could go on and on.  I can't keep up so I break the number 1 rule of passwords: I write them down.  I know it's shameful but with 15 - 20 accounts I just can't keep up.  My Dad solves this problem by using some passwords safe program.  Great idea until your computer gets wiped out and all of your passwords go with it.  The other problem is that you might need to access your password protected account when you're away from your home computer.  Then you're SOL, sorry Daddy.

My new solution is to keep my list of passwords and account names on the Cloud where I can always have access.  It's still not the safest idea but it works for me.

How do you deal with those annoying passwords?

Don't over do

Testing has started and I'm already fed up.  The school year is 10 months and I will only teach for 7 if I'm lucky.  Why, you ask?  August and September are full of testing, paperwork and scheduling    February and March are chock a block with WIDA and MSA and the soon to be dropped TN2.  Add in Mock testing, assemblies and field trips and there you have it.    It's no wonder that the kids don't make a ton of progress.  More than half of the students in my school are English Language Learners.  The ESOL team is 8 people, most of them full time yet we're still the red headed step children of the school.

Wait, that's not entirely true.  There are some teachers that totally respect what we're trying to do.  I see my students 2 or 3 times per week for 30 minute sessions.  It's hard to fill in a life time of gaps in an hour.  Some days I wake up and wonder if it is all worth it.  Then there are days like today.  Early meeting and testing all day super yuck.  I walked in with another teacher so work's with my students.  She shared a conversation that she'd had with him.
Teacher: Do you like going to ESOL?
Student: Yes because she makes poetry easier to understand.

That's why I go to work every day.  A student once told me that "we always do the same thing in ESOL that we do in our class but we look smart because we already learned it with you."  My student's this year are da bomb diggity.  I'll be sad when they graduate.  As much as I complain about grading and planning, I really do like what I do.  The kids are great but I could leave some of the other BS behind.

90 minutes or less

Maryland is a beautiful state.  I spent a weekend learning about the history of my state and viewing the natural beauty that make this a great place to live.  All of that within 90 minutes of my house.  I wanted to stay in a B & B but the prices were too high.  The Holiday Inn Express Kent Island/Annapolis was a cheaper option.  I was not thrilled but I booked a water view and hoped for the best.

Look at that!  Not bad for the Holiday Inn.  They also had free breakfast.  Right over the Bay Bridge and centrally located between several picturesque historic towns.  Everyone thinks about visiting the Eastern Shore during the summer but I'm here to tell you that off season the the way to go.  Forget the crowds and hot weather.  You have to check the opening hours on some of the attractions but for the most part, things were open for business.

Kindle Love

If you read, you need one.  I know you like books but nothing beats the portability of the e-reader.  You can check out books for free from the library.  You can carry hundreds of books in your purse or backpack at one time.  Are you on vacation?  You can bring all of your travel guides and read up on your destination.  You can highlight, bookmark and search the book to find the best hotspots.

At home, I send myself links or documents so I don't have to carry the laptop to the kitchen to make a recipe that I found online.  Peanut butter Chocolate bars.....uh huh.

Try it and you'll love it.  Kindle

Did I mention that you can dress it up?  All my accessories in hot pink...GPS aka Hyacinth, phone, camera case and Kindle cover at the bottom of the stack.  How cute is that?

End of the weekend

Lots of things happening but not very much blogging.    First off, take a gander at this deliciousness.

Peanut butter Chocolate bars are so good and easy to make.  Mine actually looked like the pic on the blog.  I had 2 of my favorite people over on Saturday and I made these to celebrate a birthday.  I'll definitely be making these again.

I watched the movie The Guard.  not what I was expecting but still pretty good for $1.99.  I'm finishing up series 9 on MI-5 while everyone else is freaking out over the superbowl.  I could care less.  I've got a nice book to read on the Kindle.  I'm set for the night.