After 7 years in Columbia Heights (along the same three block stretch of 11th St no less), I am moving West! All the way to … 18th St! I am crossing 14th AND 16th Streets, which is blowing my mind, and coming to rest at a cheerful yellow house in Mt. Pleasant. There are decks, there is gardening potential, room for my bike, high ceilings and wood floors. I’m pretty pumped.
Teacher lady, if you don’t stop clapping in my face to pump me up, I will cut you with my water bottle.
Also, stop singing along with the song into the mic.
for a successful Summer School:
-If you want one thing and another person wants something else, you should both budge a little. (This became “Budge for your friends.”)
-Everyone has a bubble around them. Sometimes it’s OK to pop another person’s bubble. Sometimes it’s not OK. (This became “Ask before popping someone’s bubble.”)
(Created by 1st & 2nd graders)
I don’t watch TV regularly, but I am definitely watching this show this summer:
Love in the Wild
http://www.hulu.com/watch/254729/love-in-the-wild-love-in-the-wild-premiere
It has all the elements of terrible reality TV - self-centered and beautiful people, battling it out for wilderness adventure victories AND love, in the jungle of COSTA RICA. It is a mix of Survivor, the Bachelor/Bachelorette, and (for those of you that remember this gem) Paradise Hotel. I think my brain is rotting just thinking about it. But in a totally enjoyable way.
The women made some poor choices for their wardrobes, though: who wears dangly earrings while rafting and hiking?
Have you ever sneezed with a mouth full of cereal? It’s not pretty.
In other news, I think I’m allergic to dogs/cats/lizards/frogs/something else in this house that I’m housesitting.
A week ago I began my 4th summer as a teacher. However, this summer I am gainfully employed, full time, through the Center for Inspired Teaching. I’m helping train and mentor their new cohort of incoming teachers. (Teaching teachers. Very meta.) By August they will be prepared to enter classrooms in DC and either be a lead teacher (eeee!) or a resident teacher (learning from a lead teacher).
Deciding to give up my summer of leisure was a quick decision, but a tough one. I jumped at the chance to support and shape new teachers. One of the most powerful feelings in my life is being able to teach my students skills and knowledge that help them in their learning. Being able to help 30 little ones progress through a year of school feeling empowered and engaged is awesome. Being able to teach 30 teachers to then go into their own classrooms and do the same for their 30 students… Well, 30x30 = 900, a much wider impact than myself in my own classroom.
However, doing both of these jobs back to back? It’s a little insane (I had my last day of DCPS school on Monday, June 20 and then was at job #2 at 8:45am on Tuesday June 21). No sleep til Brooklyn! Or in this case, August 6, where I’ll have one week off before it’s back to job #1. So I’m definitely not bored this summer. Perhaps I should change the title to “Not Burned-out Yet.” Ah well, I still hope to update with exciting adventures - in work or play.
Sometimes, very rarely, I have a sudden attack of “OH MY GOD MY BUTT IS HUGE AND MY THIGHS CAN CREATE THUNDER AND I HATE MY ARMS AND I CAN’T SEE MY ABS ANYMORE” - it happens to everyone, even people who can see their abs on a regular basis. So when it happened this weekend, I decided to instead think of all the bigger (pun intended) problems in the world, like war and famine and global warming and how hard we are all working for change and how sometimes it just feels like we aren’t moving anywhere. I mean there are REAL problems out there! But instead of sufficiently guilting my brain out of the self-centered thought cycle it had started, I succeeded in almost giving myself an anxiety attack. Not only was I unhappy with my body, but the entire world as well. EEEE.
So obviously the negative body image thoughts were not eviscerated by more negative thoughts, thus I turned to positive thoughts, like how much I really like my new apartment, and the fact that I am on summer break and can use my time however I feel, and how much fun sailing and the pool are. And how I had a huge carton of Mint Chip ice cream in the freezer, and how lovely it is to sit on my front steps eating Mint Chip ice cream.
Body image, you may try to sneak attack negative thoughts on me, but I got you beat with my Ben & Jerry’s.
It also doesn’t hurt to train for a half marathon, for the record. Balance!
in the past few days:
-awesome film about pickup soccer: pelada at avalon theater, with dinner at comet ping pong before
-nats game with EPA folks. they are all friendly and make excellent guac, dip, and salads. Jeff learned about melon ballers. someone reassure him that he’s not the only one who had never seen this kitchen tool before?
-JulyPA Festival at Pizzeria Paradiso where they have Bell’s Hopslam on draft. AMAZING.
-enjoying(?) Mad Men, season 1, in which i constantly try not to roll my eyes and yell about the blatant sexism and misogyny occurring on the screen in front of me. 46 inches of sexism may be too much. hoping the plot starts getting more interesting.
You are the only thing that can get me out of bed before 6am on my summer break. That’s commitment for sure.
