Inspired by Laura

Things I love vs. Things I hate.... which list will be longer???

Love:
1. Lorna Doone shortbread cookies
2. CSI Vegas
3. My puppies, even Kirby
4. Microsoft Publisher
5. when the kids choose one of the learning centers I made for them over the same "toys" they usually play with
6. Routines... how sick is that?
7. Sensual Amber from Bath and Body Works
8. Being clean with my hair already straightened

Hate:
1. Parents who think their kid is smarter than s/he really is
2. Feeling unmotivated
3. My lack of short term memory
4. cheap vodka
5. beer
6. playing the "I'm more __________ than you" as in, "Man, I'm tired" "Yeah well at least you got to sleep for 4 hours. I was up all night, and then I got up earlier than you and went to bed later and worked harder and yadda yadda yadda" IT DOESN'T MAKE ME ANY LESS TIRED! It is ok for both of us to be tired. Tired has lots of room, it never kicks ANY one out. This goes for hungry, cold, full, hot, bored, busy, overwhelmed etc. It is ok for two (hell, even three) people to have similar feelings and needs.
7. Liking TV as much as I do
8. Bathing.... god, when are they going to invent a clean pill???

Every once in a while

Every once in a while, you meet a person who fills a hole in your life. The kind of person who you really feel honored to have known. But more so, you feel pride because they cared about you. Because they are such amazing people, it is a compliment that they thought you are special. And you wonder if you're really worth it. And you wish you had more time to prove it to them.

Paranoia

I don't have kids... and I've never been a victim of identity theft, but seriously... some people are RIDICULOUS!

We had our Kinder registration today and I'm standing around praying, Dear God (that I don't believe is really there, but there's no one else to talk to so why not...) Please don't let these parents have anything to ask me. Please don't let them care... let me go home...

I see this wild banshee (is that a word?) of a child covered in fake tattoos running around. Now, I'm not one to talk trash about tattoos, I have a couple myself, but this demon spawn was honestly running through the cafeteria full blast pulling his shirt over his head to show the principal his stripes of fake tattoos all over his chest and stomach. Wow... flag that one for a "NOT in My Class."

Then I see his mom talking to our nurse... the final step to registration. And I see our nurse's face tighten up as though she's holding back. I tried to eavesdrop but all I can hear is something about his SSN. Oh god, she's one of those parents. The one who is afraid that someone is going to sneak into the school via the internet connection in our classroom and snatch their child up and run them to Mexico to be a sex slave. But then she continues talking about how she's a very active parent and wants to be really involved in the classroom and yadda yadda yadda...

So... I wait until they are finished (20 minutes) and as the nurse is highlighting the kid's name on his folder, I ask what that was all about... Mom doesn't want to give the school the kid's SSN... she wants us to issue him a state id number for them to use to keep track of him. Whatever, paranoia... oh but it gets better... she also requested that if the number that is issued to him contains the number 666 he will need to be issued another number.

Well... if she's afraid of the devil, she probably won't have a problem with us doing Christmas shit in class... Halloween... that will be a different story.

Who gets BITTEN at work????

Lion tamers
Alligator wrestlers
Snake charmers
video crews for the discovery channel during shark week
Kindergarten teachers

which of the above does NOT belong?

Seriously, who gets bitten? Me. HA!

Little spaz who isn't even in my class tells me he's soooo hungry he's going to eat me up! Then pretends to lunge for my arm to take a bite, except he didn't have much for eye-mouth depth perception, he freakin' bit me!

Didn't break the skin, but CSI could have gotten dental impressions from my forearm. So, I had him sit out until his mom came to get him (this was during extended care - after school).

So I check my school e-mail and get this in my inbox:

I heard this afternoon that ***** bit you today at Extended Care. Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. Please be assured that we take this kind of behavior very seriously. ***** had a strong talking to and consequences tonight, and he will be giving you an apology tomorrow. Please let me know if there is anything else you think we should do to address his behavior, or if there is anything else you think we should know.

Thank you very much for all that you do for our children. And I apologize again for *****'s behavior.

Aww poor little spaz! I wrote back and let her know that he was just playing and he didn't do it in anger... all in a day's work... for lion tamers... and kindergarten teachers...

The Picture.... or sound.... of health

I'm in tip top shape. Just listen here: http://home.mckallip.net/dl/knee/j-knee.wav

Yeah, that really is what my knee sounds like. awesome.

Something I probably shouldn't be happy about

ok so I'm the newbie at my job. The last person hired on my team was hired 7 years ago.... so when I found out that my district was opening a new school next year, it was understood that I would be the first to go.

Not that I liked that.

I love my team, we are nothing alike, but we have so much fun. Generally when I can leave early, I don't, because I'm in someone else's classroom BSing for an hour.

So, a month or so ago they redistricted the school and we found out that we would be losing a teacher at my grade level. Fine... I'll go...

I'd been thinking about how much it is going to suck and how I'd miss seeing my teammates. Last night I was thinking well... if we go to KToT (yeah, that's Kindergarten Teachers of Texas... I'm cool, you're jealous) next year, maybe I'll still stay with them. Would that be mean to my new team? Do I care? Nah....

I got to school a little bit early today in anticipation of a new student. Who home schools their kindergartener only to enroll him in public school in late March????? The principal comes over the loudspeaker and tells us to check our e-mails right away. Aww man, we must have a meeting or something or maybe a fire drill...

But no, lo and behold it is a letter from the superintendent saying that construction has been delayed on the new school and it will not be opening for another year! I GET TO STAY!!!!!!! I immediately forwarded it to my mom, John and Jamie, who have all listened to me whine about how much I don't want to leave. Then I hear KRUUUUUUUUUUUUUPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Yelled down the hallway. It was my team leader who came running down the hall to hug me after she read it. We all met out in the hallway and jumped up and down and got giddy and excited!

It was complete cheese. But I loved it!

So annoyed

DISCLAIMER: This whole post isn't about how much I work out or how many calories I burned etc. (So, Laura, you can read it and not want to gouge my eyes out)

Ok, so here I am... working out for the 4th day in a row this week thinking, "well, even though I'm sleeping until 10 am each day, at least I'm getting up and working out after that." So, I turn on exercise TV and bust my butt for about 45 minutes and decide, ok I can do this for a few more minutes. I flip through the new listings and get angry that they took off my favorite workouts and then Ta-Da! I find Tae Bo!

Now for most people, dancing around comes somewhat naturally. I'm not most people. So any cardio type workout I can find that doesn't have me booty dancing following 642 steps is super. I've done Tae Bo before and it is simple enough for me to follow along with out feeling like I should be drinking a 40 while doing it.

Push play and get ready.... wait, what does that banner in the background say? Faith?? what? Find my inner strength? Who is Billy Blanks kidding? Ok fine he's pretending this is some eastern philosophy based work out. Whatever, let's get on with the punches and jabs..... "What's that clap for?" Why I don't know Billy, do tell!

JESUS CHRIST!

huh?

Find your strength within! Jesus will give you the power to complete this work out. If you feel like you just can't make it, Praise the lord!

Wow, I didn't know Jesus could cure fatigue. I thought rest and hydration did that.

so I refuse to do the claps and then he tells me to punch it up to the lord. and I refuse to do that.

WHY MUST MY WORK OUT BE A RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE!?!?!?!

If God is going to make my work out better, super. I'd prefer that he didn't make chocolate taste so good. Then I wouldn't need to work out in the first place.

So, we're standing on one leg and kicking with the other, Billy tells me that if I'm falling to call on the power of God with my inner strength to help me stand tall. Man, and all this time, I grew up thinking that balance was what helped me stand tall. That Jesus must have a sick sense of humor because I sure have fallen plenty of times in my life.

I can just picture Jesus sitting up there with his disciples saying hey man, watch this little girl, she's going to try to roller skate, we'll test her faith...

Let me set the scene, I'm rocking out to NKOTB with my side pony tail and my pink hand me down satin jacket (with denim shorts of course) scrunch socks and some rented roller skates. ohh-ohh -ohh-ohh-ohhh Hangin' Tough! whoa... whoa!!!! CRASH!!!

Jesus: ha ha! She didn't ask me to help her not fall, she didn't use her inner strength, now look at her on the ground sucka!

Me: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY ARM IS SNAPPED IN HALF!!!!

Needless to say, I won't be sticking to a Tae Bo work out. I'll stick to Satan Strength Training. Until god makes chocolate and ice cream taste like asparagus and asparagus taste like chocolate... I'll leave the church out of my work outs.

Why I love Austin

Reason # 567832098674095

While sitting at home on a Sunday afternoon with the windows and doors open... I look down out of our upstairs window and see three ladies walking two horses by on our sidewalk.

John's Response, "You wouldn't see that in DC." No you sure wouldn't. It is good to be home. It is even better to be home and be on Spring Break.

ok one more....

I WANT ONE!!!!

Supa Cute

Here is one of my Panda pics. SOOOO cute, not even the best picture I have, but I just wanted to throw one up here for tonight.

Let me tell you how much I'm looking forward to waking up in 6 hours and getting ready to go back to work.

This trip was planned perfectly. Took Mon. and Tues. off, I'll go back to school Wed-Fri and then it will be spring break and I'll have 9 days off followed by a work day. Ahhhh... I guess I can handle that schedule.



Anyway, say hello to AJ and Kirby's future friend. I will have a panda someday.

lotsa

Lots of things have happened since the first night here. I saw Giant Pandas... by far the cutest animals in the whole friggin' world. I could die now and be relatively happy. I'll post pics on here when I get back home and I'm not stealing internet.

Also, we met some really nice people, made me feel like this place isn't so bad after all, but then again... these really nice people were from Texas :) ha. Small world.

Tomorrow is our last day. The museums here are free and AMAZING! I (heart) the smithsonian institution. We're going to the Spy museum in the AM and then heading back to nice, lovely, kind, sweet and warm Texas.

HOLY CRAP!I

I know I'm a non-urban girl, but jesus christ, this place is kinda scary for me. Will update later... if we don't get robbed/attacked by homeless people/killed/mangled in a subway.

Laura, how did you do this for over a year????????????

I respect you so much more now.

Sunday... Dangerous Sunday

I have come to realize that cleaning is dangerous. I should never have to do it. I sliced my finger open while trying to dust. Then I rammed the shop-vac handle into my knee cap. I can't risk it any longer. From this moment on, I will save what's left of my limbs and stop cleaning.

Reading

I read a lot. Everyday. Some of it is good, some of it is shit, some of it is news, some gossip, some poems, some kid writing, some labels, some e-mails, some blogs, some lyrics... but by far, the BEST thing I read today was: "If Britney Spears weren't so fucking stupid "country," her personal and professional life might have turned out quite differently!"

As you can guess that came from the "some shit" and "some gossip" categories, but still. I think it applies to life more than it should just take out Britney Spears and replace it with any of a slew of names of people I know and viola! It makes sense.

I made a pretty good dinner tonight. Sometimes I get so hungry that I have NO idea what I actually want to eat. Today that resulted in me throwing everyone of my cravings into a pot and cooking it over low heat for a while.

I should go to sleep.

PS I love seeing "no misspellings found" after writing a blog. I really am smarter than the average Joe. Except I just tried to spell Joe with a G. oops.

I am sorry

I'm sorry for the awful colors in the previous posts. I would change them to save your eyes, but I'm too lazy. Just know that with my new template, I will chose colors that work well with this layout.

Yeah Yeah

Ok so here's another hobby for me to start and then give up on... I'm good at that.

I've been pretty busy. That is a lame excuse. I've thought of things to write about, but I get distracted by life, gossip pages, dogs, and sleep.

Here's a quick update: it changed years, then months a couple of times and here we are!

I started working out 5 days a week. That takes up a lot of time, what with the showering I now have to do.

I also gave up drinking cokes. I don't know why, but I'll tell you, my class did the hardboiled egg soaking in coke to see what happens and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to drink them again. That shit was gross. Even after we all scrubbed it, it was still brown and it was staining through the egg shell.

I'm trying more and more to be a good teacher. It dawns on me sometimes that Holy Shit! I'm their Kindergarten teacher! They will remember me FOREVER. So, how do I want them to remember me? The mean teacher who was perpetually unprepared? Or the tard of a teacher who let them have fun and sang and danced WITH them rather than just watching? Probably a little of both.

I wrote a song a few minutes ago, it is to the tune of the Toys 'r us

I don't wanna work out
i'm a lazy slob.
I don't wanna work out
but even if I did...
I'd rather have a drink instead!

copyright 2007 jkrupa

ugh, i'm cursed

So, no less than 3 hours after posting that, my mom calls to tell me that one of her cats got hit by a car and she's not sure if it is going to live. Gah!

It is of course the cat she got for me when I lived by myself in Austin, a friend for AJ.

poor Lucy.

Cats and daytime television

OK I'll admit it, I've done a lot of channel surfing over my break. I have worked on very very very little school stuff and not nearly as much housework as I would have liked, but whatever.

So, I'm watching yet another episode of What Not to Wear (god, some one nominate me! I want $5,000 to spend on clothes) and they keep showing all these commercials about cats, cat food, kittens, etc. etc. And I watch them and feel NOTHING. I just don't understand how I can be so dog obsessed and honestly I like lots of animals, hell I'm a Krupa, I have to like them. But I see these people preparing plates of food for their cats (with fucking PARSLEY!!) and all I can think is what a waste of time. One commercial actually said, "I love how special he makes me feel." talking about her cat. How does a cat express that? By glaring at you from across the room.... by shitting in your favorite potted plant in the living room?

I can't jump on the cat bandwagon. I just can't. I know there are a ton of disgusting habits that my dogs have, but I can at least yell at a dog for being gross and get a reaction out of him. Try yelling at a cat and all it does is that stupid back arching stretch equivalent to a big fat middle finger. I guess that's why I don't like cats. They are like that kid in class who is soooo bad and all you want to do is make him/her cry, but you get NOTHING. Why bother?

And why is it cats are always associated with chicks? All of these commercials are of mid-thirties women adoring their cats and apparently having enough time/money to prepare their little demons a feast of salmon with a side of ornamental greenery served on a fine china plate. I saw a book in Barnes and Noble called something like What you can tell about a woman by her cat. The book's counterpart was What you can tell about a man by his dog.

Am I less of a woman because I don't like cats? Because the thought of them rummaging through their litter boxes and then walking across the kitchen counter makes me want to vomit? Because I don't appreciate being randomly attacked and mauled when I try to pet my animals? Because I need the tail wagging approval of my puppies telling me, "Good throw! Let's do it again!" when we play?

eh, whatever.

hmm...

I make myself laugh more than I should admit to.

Pretentious is...

blocking the whole milk case to argue with your boyfriend with his cashmere scarf about which type of organic milk to buy. You vote for the carton because you can "taste the plastic" of the jug.

jerk.

by the way, i saw your crack when you bent over to inspect the milk, it was hairy and i didn't like it. Low rise jeans are for women, not men.