mail

Happy Illustration Friday on a Saturday! This week's prompt is "mail".

It's that time of year when many of us are relying heavily on the mail. I just got a message today that the last of my gifts from amazondotcom have officially shipped. They've got a week to get here. Preferrably sooner.

But I went with the message-in-a-bottle theme, because it seemed like more fun than mail order stuff. It's kind of like blogging. Just throw something out there and see what happens.

Besides, after the Christmas mail arrives, the bills are sure to follow.
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it's a start

Or is it a "STOP!"

I got a little part-time job today. Our elementary school needs a crossing guard, to start after the New Year. I dressed in my loudest clothing and applied.

I now just need to complete the paperwork and get officially trained, and the big flashy stop sign thing and bright orange vest are mine. I'm actually quite looking forward to it.

See, this isn't just some little neighborhood street like in the kids' books. I will be reigning terror on a 5-lane, 40 m.p.h. BOULEVARD, baby! I will OWN it for approximately 2 hours a day. All these years of pent up bicycle commuter traffic frustration are about to surface.

As expected, it doesn't pay a whole heckuva lot. But like I told Magnum:

"No vamos a ser ricos, pero voy a ejercer un poder mucho más!"
(He's doing the learn-spanish thing too, so we speak it to each other, it's hawt.)

Translation: "We won't be rich, but I will wield much power!"

Bring it.
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just a ramble

Okay, remember when I was all busy with class sessions and tutor students and internet troubles and Spanish lessons and everything?

Well, the class ended, the tutor students ended, the internet troubles ended. At least I'll always have Spanish lessons.

I've been thrown into reflective mode now that I've got the time. See, I like my job, as in I like WHAT I do. But, I don't particularly like WHEN I do it. The "when" being evenings and/or weekends. The nature of our classes is such that our students typically work or go to school during the day, so our classes are offered on evenings and weekends. Not so good for la familia

I had a little chat with my boss, who was very understanding and helpful, and I'm cutting back my hours.

I want a day job. A part-time, fun, fulfilling, purposeful day job. That pays. I've been reading a career counseling type book from the library, and that's been helpful. Mostly it's been helpful showing me what I don't want to be doing.

Truth be told, material wealth isn't high on my list of priorities. Really, just ask my neighbors. But apparently, I like to be kept busy doing something that's of use to SOMEBODY.

In the meantime, my house is (relatively) clean and the dog is much walked.

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Silver Liningness Sunday

I'm not sure, but I think I've been remiss with the silver liningness posts. However, I do remember that I gave thanks for our slaughtered Thanksgiving turkey...

Either which way, let the resumption... uh... resume!

Firstly, we got a new internet service provider this week. The *bomb blast* is no more. I was able to actually attend all of my online classes this week without a glitch, yay. Said classes wrapped up at the end of the week. Big Test yesterday.

I'm thankful that it was an enjoyable class, despite the one-week of connectivity hell. One feature of these online classes is that two teachers are assigned as opposed to just one as in the "brick and mortar" classrooms. This was the first time I'd worked with this particular co-teacher, and we had a good time and hopefully made strides in leading the students to the promised land. This tag-team teaching approach helps me to be a better teacher.

In movie news, Magnum and I watched "Brothers". We'd seen the original Danish version a few months ago. This is a gritty, provocative story, and I typically like the original foreign versions of movies better than the Hollywood. In this case, however, I liked the Hollywood version better. Although it was difficult to see Spiderman as a Marine Captain, everything else worked nicely, and I thought the acting was exceptional, including the young girl who plays the oldest daughter. I felt the wife in the Danish version was kind of a ditzy space cadet, and I didn't particularly like her. Natalie Portman did a better job. It's not perfect, but I'll give it 4 grenades out of 5.

The clases de español continue, and I think I'm making progress. I can almost sometimes understand "Planeta Salvaje" on Telemundo.
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phenomenon

Hello and happy Illustration Friday, where this week's prompt is the open-ended "Phenomenon".

So I tried to get a little abstracty-ish mysterious-ish weirdy-ish and ended up with this-ish (solar eclipsy-ish). But call it whatever you want.

Either way, it's nice to be back into the weekly pattern. I totally missed last week's entry, but I was in the aforementioned throes of work busyness and technical issues with a bit of laziness thrown in. I hope that was just a rare and unnatural phenomenon.

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and another thing...

I mentioned the internet connectivity issues (which are hopefully fixed now - crossin' my fingers) keeping me from regular blog time. The other piece of it is...

I'm a little burnt out on computer time. See, there's the online class that's going on. It's 4 hours/session, 4 sessions/week. Then there's the stressed out online tutor students. That's a lotta computer time for me. And I'm still doing my computer based Spanish... Yo estudio espanol de la computadora!

SO, that means that when I'm not teaching and I'm not learning, and I'm not dealing with Tech Support, it's time to JUST WALK AWAY. In other words, all this responsible behavior is keeping me from my slacker hobby of blogging.

Be clear, however, that it will not last. The class ends this week. Big test this Saturday, so stressed or not, the tutor students are done. And I have little work on the horizon until after the New Year.

In the words of Arnold The Terminator... (right, like I would really say it)
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virtually real

Hey, remember me?

Ack, it's been a week. We're having troubles with our internet service. Really, the troubles aren't THAT bad, if we were just regular subscribers, but they're wreaking havoc on my online classrooming.

So, I've been on the phone lots with tech support. They probably see the caller ID, and think "oh crap, it's her again...", but geesh, who do I gotta sleep with to get a reliable connection around here?!?

Anyway, we're switching providers. I think I've given the current crew - won't mention any names, but rhymes with "BOMB BLAST" - more than three strikes. They're out. New guys' time to shine. The switch happens on Monday. All this in the middle of a 4-week long online class. I've got a 2-hour online tutor session later this afternoon. I'm just hoping the ship holds together for that.

BUT OTHER THAN THAT.... it's been good times as usual around here.
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