Nothing Like the Christmas Spirit!

While driving around Downey running errands, King and I were enjoying the Christmas music on the radio, muddling through the words to Feliz Navidad, when I stopped at a four-way stop sign. I yielded to the car on my left and, when it was my turn to go, I started going straight. Just after I started into the intersection, the car to my right decided to go straight. I had to slam on my brakes, sending Kingy onto the floor in the backseat (poor guy). I had gone first and, obviously, had the right of way. But then someone honked at me. At ME! I didn't do anything wrong. So I looked over to the honker, on my left, and saw two guys gesturing and, presumably, yelling not-so-nice things at me. I pointed to the car that had gone in front of me, what the heck did the guys want me to do? And then, without pause, I lifted a certain finger that I rarely lift. Then moved forward and continued my Feliz Navidading. A minute later, I realized what had just transpired and found myself laughing at the entire situation. Merry Christmas dude in the red Toyota who decided to honk and yell at me, Merry Christmas.

Twiddling my Thumbs (Better settle in, it's a long one!)

After being publicly called out on Angela's blog and then noticing that I'm at the very bottom of Kristi's blog list, as in I'm the most delinquent blog out there, I figured I should do some catching up. I haven't blogged since May 17th and since then, trust me, twiddling my thumbs is something I just haven't had time for. In fact, since May 17th...

My Spring semester classes ended and I earned a 4.0 in both of them. Both classes really should be undergrad courses and seemed to be designed for people who have never taught in an actual classroom. I was so much more challenged, intellectually, in the fall and was a bit disappointed with the courses this semester. I discovered that earning my Master's is more about dedication, determination, and perseverance and that it really isn't about intelligence at all.

We went to Cambria/Paso Robles for the weekend with Katey and her boyfriend, Kenji. Kenji lives in San Francisco and Katey in Tampa. They fly cross-country regularly and, though Kenji is in the same state, I haven't seen Katey since our wedding. We made a plan to meet up halfway between Kenji's place and ours and, aren't we lucky, the halfway point also happens to be a great place to taste wine! Paso Robles is known for their Zinfandel, which is my favorite. Plus, the city of Cambria, where we rented a house for the weekend, and the city of Paso Robles, and most of the wineries within it, are very dog friendly. So, for this weekend excursion, we didn't have to leave the dog behind. He was even allowed inside one of the tasting rooms. The five of us had a great time driving through wine country, singing about "mini sirloin burgers," playing Cranium, and catching up. Well, to tell the truth, Katey and I never have to catch up, we simply continue on as if we'd seen each other yesterday. That's part of what makes our friendship, one that's been in existence since 1987, the best kind of friendship there is. We went to Adam and Lindsay's for a Memorial Day BBQ. They have a great place in Sherman Oaks, about 26 miles from us in Downey. Their apartment complex has a pool, a couple of hot tubs, tennis courts, basketball courts, and a great place near it all to have a cookout. We were able to meet one of Adam's best friends from home who also lives in SoCal. They always have great parties and, as always, we had a great time. Luckily, it wasn't a repeat of last year's 4th of July party. The one I missed. Because I was passed out. The whole day.
On May 28th, our school had our annual Premios de Oro awards ceremony. Translated, it means "Prize of Gold" for all of you gringas reading this. :) I was shocked and humbled to find out that I had been nominated by a colleague and chosen by the PTSA to win the PTSA honorary service award for my dedication to the school this past year. I got a plaque and everything! I tried my darnedst to find out who nominated me but either nobody knew or they were swore to secrecy. It really made me feel very special and appreciated.

We spent an afternoon/evening watching the Red Wings win one of the Stanley Cup playoff games with our friends Dave and Robin and their new daughter, Riley. Even she's a Red Wings fan! June brought with it a ton of exciting events for me and my class at school, all of which were planned by yours truly. We had two retirement parties for one of my paraeducators, an end of the year BBQ for the entire class, I had to plan a presentation for a colleague who also retired, our annual trip to Knott's Berry Farm and, of course, graduation. My co-teacher and I also get gifts for all of our paraeducators, our general education T.A.'s who work in our classroom, the general education teachers who work with our kids throughout the year, and the support staff at the school. The first two weeks of the month were spent running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting all of the loose ends tied up.
I also started my summer session class at CSULB the first week in June. It's a course on Program Evaluation and I'm taking it as an elective. Since I didn't get my credential in California, my undergrad program in Arizona didn't quite match up and I'm short 6 credits for my Master's degree. I had to take electives in the field of education or psychology and, with the limited number of classes offered in the summer, this one just happened to meet the criteria. It meets twice a week and is supposed to run from 5-8:45; however, our instructor has let us go at 7:45 every class session and not one of us has said a word. The first couple of times that she has said "we only have about five minutes left in class" at 7:40, everyone just kinda looked around thinking "nobody better say a word" and nobody has. A few of us were just joking around that maybe our instructor is thinking the same thing. Who knows. It's only a 6-week course and our last class is on Thursday. In fact, I should be working on my final paper and presentation right now...

I went to the doctor the first week of June for a physical and all looks good. Well, almost all. My doctor and I had a very frank discussion about my weight and, although I'm totally aware of my weight problem, I found myself near tears telling him how hard it is to have to have struggled with it all my life and blah, blah, blah. He told me that I could stand to lose, get this, 60 pounds!!! 60. I've known where my healthy weight range is and I was totally aware that it was 60 lbs away but to hear the doctor say it made me feel, quite honestly, pretty shitty. However, I know that it is all for the good of my health and the health of our future babies-to-be. My doctor also recommended an appetite suppressant, called phentermine, which I've been taking now for just over a month. He said it can be a good tool to support my changing habits. I have to go in monthly to weigh in and talk with him before getting another batch of pills. I haven't felt weird when taking it, except for when I take a pill and have a couple of drinks. I started with 1/2 a pill a day and am now taking a whole pill but 1/2 at a time. It's crazy what it does to my appetite. I'm just not hungry. And, when I first got them, I thought it wasn't necessarily going to work because my problem with weight loss hasn't been hunger. In fact, it's just the opposite, I eat even when I'm not hungry or past the point of feeling full. But, food just doesn't have the same appeal to me anymore and my relationship with food is starting to change at the very basic of levels. I'm starting to eat to live rather than live to eat. When I went in for my monthly check up and for my next bottle, I had lost 11 lbs. Works for me! My plan is to use this tool through the summer and be done come September.

After school let out, summer school started right away and, of course, I'm teaching it again this summer. Hopefully, if all goes according to plan, this will be my last summer teaching for several years, if not forever. My first week of summer school was a bit rocky as I was TOTALLY PMSing and, therefore, unnecessarily stressed out. There is another teacher working with me even though we only have a total of 26 students attending. With all of the budget cuts, I was certain that I'd have all of the students for summer school. I'm very grateful that I don't because, when we split the kids into two groups, I have a very manageable 13 students - a class size I haven't seen since I was working at the elementary school. It's a very nice reprieve from the usual 30+ in the classroom at the same time. This week my hormones were more under control and it was a lot of fun. Two weeks down, three more to go...

Mark's been busy lately too. He is on the opening management team for the newest BJ's Restaurant, which is located 1.3 miles from our house! He actually rode his bike to work last week. The restaurant is not even finished being built yet, although watching the progress is amazing. Mark and the other three managers have set up shop in an empty store next to the restaurant and have been interviewing prospective employees for eleven hours a day for the past two and half weeks! Before he started, I kept asking him what exactly four managers are going to do all day before the restaurant even opens. I had NO IDEA how crazy the hiring process was going to be. They have appointments for 100 interviews everyday plus they take walk-in applicants. People are waiting two or three hours just to get an interview. He said it's so hard to turn those people away but he has had to it quite frequently. When it all started, they needed to hire 260 employees and expected to get a few thousand applicants. It's such an insane process, he comes home exhausted every night. One positive thing is, though, that he works from 8 am until about 7:30 every day so we have our evenings off together and he's been off on Sundays and that will continue for a few more weeks. We were joking around that we're like Ozzy and Harriet now with the same schedule eveyday. That's something we have never had.

Mark also quit smoking! (Insert maniacal cheers and applause here) He's been cigarette free for three weeks now and doing a really, really amazing job. He's using nicotine patches to help him out but quitting is not easy and I commend him for giving it a go. I've been reading research to him about how much his body has healed already and all of the positive things that will come from his knocking out his addiction. I really am proud of him.

So, here I am, on 4th of July, sitting at my computer. Mark's working this morning/afternoon so we don't have any major plans. Plus, our baby is terrified of fireworks and has been freaking out every night for the past week and a half since people have been lighting them off. We've given him 1/2 a Dramamine the past couple of nights, something that a friend of mine's vet recommended for her Rottweiler, and that has seemed to help. For those of you who know King, he is probably the most relaxed and mellow dog out there. But, man does he HATE fireworks. Lucky for him, it'll all be over soon. We may go to our friend Dave's place, if he doesn't mind if we bring the dog, or we may go hang out with Mark's friend Mark who is staying at an awesome place for the weekend in Newport Beach. Or, we may just stay in and relax with the dog. Our little family of three.

Randoms

Kristi has tagged me to list 19 Randoms...

1) I surely hope the Dodgers win tonight, they need to prove that they can carry on as a winning team without the steroid-enhanced Manny Ramirez. I wonder how he'll be received by the fans when he comes back in July...

2) State testing is over!!! Almost 2 weeks in my office testing my students 1:1 lead me to drink 3 martinis in a very short span of time this afternoon.

3) Almost everyone I know has trouble sleeping. The only trouble I ever have is that I need/want to sleep ALL the time.

4) Sometimes I think Diet Dr. Pepper really does belong in the dessert aisle.

5) Mark's off tomorrow night. What're we going to do? His schedule gets pretty rough for the next couple of weeks.

6) I can't wait to see Katey in Cambria on the 22!!!

7) NBC Thursday night is pretty darn great.

8) I should call my mom back, I bet she's still up.

9) Classes are almost finished for the semester. Only two more papers and two more finals to go!

10) I am addicted to Sugar Free Red Bull.

11) Kingy's 5th birthday is Sunday! I think we're going to take him to the beach.

12) Haven't been to the gym since Easter Sunday - Spring Break and our trip to Michigan threw me way out of my routine. But now I can't find my membership card and I really want to go back tomorrow.

13) It's crazy it's May already!

14) Mark and I have the house to ourselves until May 28th - his parents are in Montenegro.

15) If I lose 1 lb/week between now and when we go back to MI, I can lose 33 lbs by then.

16) If I could have a drink with anyone living or dead, John Lennon would be my first choice. Vin Scully would have to be in my top five.

17) Gifts that travel cross-country from us are always at least two days late.

18) Somebody told me today that I smell like summertime.

19) I was invited to a baby shower for another American girl who married an Albanian. We like to stick together.

RACHELLE, BECKY, & KRISTIN - TAG!!! YOU'RE TURN TO LIST YOUR 19 RANDOMS...