Goodbye, dear student teacher. Hello full load again...

My stress levels were nice and low; around a 3 or 4.  Add ten, carry the one and multiple it by the square root of 42 and you've got a value close to my current stress level with work.  On top of it, there's some crazy things happening beyond my little corner at work that I don't even know how to explain.  I love my workplace, but things beyond my control are trickling down all the time and I'm unfortunately in the splash zone.  (And might I add not the 'fun' splash zone, like at Sea World.)

I was previously floating along nicely because I had a student teacher.  She did very well, and I took every opportunity to pass on my knowledge to her.  At times I felt harsh.  I make myself feel better by reminding myself that I was only trying to show her the positive and negative aspects of how she was planning, teaching and grading.  She knew her content very well, but since the practicum was so short she didn't have the time to really start 'owning' the curriculum with respect to creating, tinkering and drafting up her own materials such as presentations and activities for students.  It is a shame that student teaching programs only provide a short two or three month experience in the classroom.  I think they should be more time to really see how the inner workings of a school and its students and faculty.

I guess, however, that people can't just attend graduate school and also work as a student teacher all year long.  I did it, but I was fortunate to have the means to do so.  Not everyone has that luxury and bills do pile up, of course.  Just as I managed that crazy year of student teaching, I'll manage without her now, stress or no stress.  I'm enjoying my classes, despite the good coming with the bad.  That always seems to be the way of it at school. There is a lot of joy and pain.  As Carl Sagan said;

“You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”

This helps when I have trouble describing what it is like teaching, because it comes pretty close to how I feel.  Teaching is lonely, and shows me some harsh truths about humans.  But, more often than not, the beautiful dreams shine through the horrible nightmares.  

Soggy Mess

I didn't think I was menopausal, but I've been waking up sweating and gross repeatedly over the past couple months.  It is likely because I now have a toaster oven heating system.  Baseboard electric is kind of a pain in the ass, but I like living where I am so I will have to continue to work with the system.

Anyway, I have managed to figure out for a few nights a bone dry solution and there seems to be no rhyme of reason to the sweating pattern.  I can't figure out if my down duvet is too heavy, or I'm wearing too many clothes or if the temperature is too hot or too cold.  

I start cold, then at some point between 1:45AM to 3:00AM I wake up damp with sweat and hot.  I change clothes, pull the bedclothes back and try to get back to sleep.  I'm in bad need of suggestions, even though I've already asked my sister-in-law.  She lived in the apartment before I moved in and owns the place.

In other news, I just watched the new Star Trek Beyond trailer.  I'm a little concerned over this new Kirk-Lady romance thing going on, but the supporting characters' roles seem to be strong and dynamic, which is what amps me up for the movie.  I'm a huge Bones, Scotty and Spock fan.  Is anyone a bigger fan of Kirk?  I'm not against Kirk, I just like the other guys so so much more!

Anyway, good luck to everyone else in their slumber endeavors!

"Answer is..."

DAILY DOUBLE!

Just kidding.  I turned the tv on after I returned home from the gym tonight and hopped in the shower.  After, as I was sitting in my bedroom in a towel, I yelled out "OH NO I'm missing Jeopardy!" However, after a moment of ubsurd disappointment and panic, I realized the sounds coming from the living room were only from Wheel of Fortune.   A great wave of relief washed over me, ala Patrick Bateman.

To me, Wheel of Fortune is akin to all the movies leading up to next week's release of the Force Awakens; it's just the sad opening act to the main event, Jeopardy.

Say Crack Again

I busted my neck.  I think it happened because I have been having trouble sleeping.  I find myself at 1:45AM waking up sweating to death after going to bed really cold.  The same happened last night and I fell back asleep after changing clothes.  However, in the morning when I was waking up, I was also sweating and gross but my neck was really sore.  I moved it around, and that usually results in a popping sound and a release.  That was a bad, bad idea, though.  It cracked, but in a bad way.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6emncMoo41qiagllo1_500.png

I now have jolts of pain through the right side of my neck to the point where I can't rotate my neck or head much. Tilting my head up or down also produces pain.  This has happened before a few times.  I had my doctor take X-ray's my neck and shoulders a few years back, but that shower nothing.  They gave me some movements to practice and I never followed them, so my bad there.

The thing is, I am convinced this is stress related.  I, like so many others, hold ALL my stress in my shoulders and neck.  While having a student teacher and working out consistently has helped reduce my workload and stay fit, I'm concerned I have back and joint issues that are making my neck return to its horrible state.  It didn't help that I had things to do every day after work this week.  Case in point; my after school meetings were really long yesterday AND I got a flood of texts when I got out of work which snapped my body into instant chaos mode.  Ugh.

So....what do I do?  Stop working out?  Are me works outs going too hard on my joints?  Is this actually maybe a problem with my feet and alignment?  Do I need to stretch more?  Am I not meant to do high intensity interval training?  Is it too high impact?  Are my cracking habits really the culprit?  Is it only my stress?  Is it dehydration?  WHAT IS IT?

How do I get all these questions answered??  It is driving me bananas!  We should just all totally stab caesar.

The Hungry Ganges

I can't spell 'games' very well, so I guess I'm taking a Mother Ganges take on The  Hunger Games.  Uhh, no.  Anyways...I went out last Tuesday before Thanksgiving to see the last installment of my adorable pita bread and his companion catnip's adventures in Panem.  I don't give a fig for the girl, but my dear pita bread is so awesome.  I love that actor; he is so dang cute. But couldn't he be a bit taller?  For a girl who is 5'7", it is frustrating. If  you're about 5'5" I envy you, ladies.  I love heels, and feel like a amazonian crazy woman when I wear them.  But, I do love them, so I do it anyway.

Okay, back to the mockinbird stuff.  I meant it when I don't give a fig for catnip.  She is always dour, doesn't give way in the much of  personality, and can't ever decide what she wants to do until she is actually doing it.  Every time she 'heroically took action', I want to shout at her "HELLO McFly!!"

She never came across to me as a very charismatic character so I never bought into her.  I also never bought into Team Gale.  Gale was in the first book for about a hiccup's worth of time, and that is all I saw him as: a blip in catnip's life.  Oh yay, they went hunting together.  Big woop.  Then the movies built him up, and I just didn't get the gist of the whole love triangle.  When I was reading, I never felt it was not a very strong dramatic theme in the plot.  I think I missed something.  Did anyone else feel that way about Gale?

So the hunger whatevers aren't going to be a big fandom for me, EVER...but I will say the Infernal Devices series is starting to pick up and it has got all the pacing, romance, action, conflict that I crave.  I can't decide if I am team Jem or Will.  I'm only on the first book, Clockwork Angel, and not too far.  I admit I sneaked a peak on the wiki for the book series and know more than I should now.  My snooping has changed my suspicions of how the series may unfold, but I didn't snoop too much to spoil reading the series.  Thanks to Ginny, for giving me the recommendation of the series.  (I think it was you, right??)