J'Espere

is the reason I haven't been writing much lately. Or at all in almost a month?? Seriously? The good news is....I have a job! I'm a librarian! For real! It's exciting! I keep putting up exclamation points about it! What's interesting about a job like this, and I suspect most teaching jobs is that you come out of school with a particular ingrained philosophy. Essentially it's based on whatever is trendy at the moment and I have discovered I am no exception. So far I find myself not trying to fight the system, understanding that all an administration cares about is test scores, and encouraging kids to read outside the box anyway :-). The school I'm at does Accelerated Reader (of which I'm not the hugest fan) and is a PBS school and is a massive school! The first week I lost my assistant, which was not fun. 680 students, more than 30 teachers, and I'm it for the library. While we have some amazing volunteers, as you can imagine they are not the same as havin...

Enough said. Really. I have spent the last few weeks sending out cover letters and resumes, setting up phone and in-person interviews. Sitting in front of panels listening as they explained what my job would be and asked me questions about everything from what I would do if a student removed all the balls from each mouse in the computer lab, if the county I worked in withdrew all funding, or how I would work a children's program for high risk kids. I have received offers and feel fortunate that a few places think I would be a good fit for their library. Finally, out of eight interviews, one interviewer asked me why I would be the best fit for their library, and why they should choose me. I wish it were obvious what was going on in my head. I am a good fit because I am young but not too young, I have fresh ideas, but I'm thrilled to be learning from those with more experience than me. I am a good fit because once I dug up a rare article on Colombian guerrillas written in Spanish...

"My hair is curvy." - Z.H. That's what he said, and it cracked me up. Out of the mouths of babes, right? I think it might become my mantra. Today I watched as he tried to conquer the high dive. He climbed up the stairs (they have stairs for high dives now??) and stood on the board, staring down at the water, which must seem 100 miles away. He stood and stood until someone came through who wanted to definitely dive off the board. So the lifeguard kicked him out. I went over and asked him what happened, and he shrugged, said he felt a little scared, and immediately threw himself off the smaller spring board. I completely get it. What I liked about watching him this morning was his amazing ability to recover. When I arrived, he told me that he had gotten a blister that burst on his hand from monkey bars yesterday, and then this morning he had a swim lesson and playtime at the pool. But he seriously just threw himself back into his life. When he couldn't go off the high...

My Life in Something Small Current mood: confident Category: Blogging So, since the last time I posted, I have: a. fallen in love b. written a master's paper c. started training for my second marathon d. seen the mountains in two seasons e. returned to yoga after a long absence f. graduated with a Master's degree g. become the most over educated Nanny I know of h. has more time to actually think about what i want to do than at any other period of my existence. I don't think I've ever been this excited about being unemployed in my entire life. Usually i run around like crazy looking for the next gig to get me through but this time I'm determined to take it slow and figure out what it is that I'm looking for. Back in the fall all I was doing was running, putting aside all my other training and trying to seek out something that can't be found by simply moving. In the spring I was so focused on my master's paper I almost destroyed several friendships and w...

So y'all probably think I am insane. I ran 26.2 on hilly, rocky, roots everywhere terrain with named hills like "The Wheels Fall off" and "Devil's Spine". That was the 6th annual running of the Umstead Marathon. It's not a qualifier because it generally takes even elite runners more time to get through the hiking trails and up and down never-ending hills. And this was my first marathon. Prior to running a marathon I never considered myself a runner. An athlete, yes, but I only ran if it was after a ball (soccer and field hockey), someone was chasing me (soccer, field hockey, tag) or it started raining when I was on a walk. It just didn't really interest me that much. Then, when I got into triathlons I began running a very minimal amount. Everything was in 5k races, so I only had to go 3.1 miles. the first time I ran that far without stopping I definitely felt it. Now I think of that has a mere jog in the park. I started training for this in Novembe...

Actually normally I don't blame things on Friday the 13th. I mean, what are you going to do,right? Weird things happen to me all the time and Friday the 13th only rolls around occasionally. But this morning was an exception. For starters, i was going to be early to work. That never happens. I think every employer I've ever had can attest that even with my enthusiasm for various jobs and clientele, I am rarely to never early. Most of the time being there on time is a stretch for me. But this morning was different. This morning I was up, fed Nigel and Lucy, and even had time to watch part of the Westminster Show I dvr'd earlier this week (that's right, I'm not ashamed. Those dogs are freakin' adorable.) I decided I'd made the right choice in not going to the gym and giving my body a break (ran 8 yesterday). I sipped my tea and made some more for a to-go mug. I sauntered (okay I walked fast) to my car, hopped in and was able to get right on 40 without a hitch. ...

Ideally I should be writing my master's paper right now. Actually scratch that. I should be writing my master's paper every waking second I"m not working on something more important. Like blogging or constantly updating my Facebook status. So here it is. Blogging. I'll be a dork and say I had an amazing weekend. I think that everything about it was perfect, from company to spending time in the mountains to playing Taboo slightly drunk. And I realized that I like how old I am, and I like where I am right now. But will not continue to like it if I don't finish this degree and move on to the next thing. Master's papers do something weird to your head. Like you start overanalyzing your life and begin home and self improvement projects like you would not believe. I am dealing with it by planning summer trips, vaguely job searching and playing with paint chips as well as using my drill (best money spent in '07!). Instead of working on sorting data and building ...