My Nerves and Soul from December 20- January 1st

#retaillife

Goodbye Old Friend

About a week ago, our beloved cat, Cheech, passed away.

Before this, I never understood pet owners who grieved over their pet's passing.  I couldn't understand how an animal can bring out emotions so raw and painful.  

It is unfortunate that now I understand.  

At the same time I am fortunate to understand.  Understand that love has no bounds or limits.

He was an aloof son of a bitch but in his own way he taught me to love in ways I did not think possible.  Also he turned me into a cat lady.  

We miss you, Cheech.  

I'll miss you tripping me in the hallway and meowing at ungodly hour every morning.

I got home around 9 pm last night after work.
This was after being in school from 8-3.

The plan was work on some projects that are due next week but as soon as I changed into my pajamas it was game over.

I laid on the couch and was immobile for about close to an hour and when Chris came home I was delirious trying to stay awake.

He decided to order Chinese food and have it delivered which rarely happens (the delivery part). 

I fell asleep before he finished his order.

Whenever I hear success stories of how people 'did it', attending school full-time AND working full-time, I am just baffled at their level of resilience.

How do people function on anything less than 5 hours of sleep consistently?
I can barely speak in full sentences without a solid 7 hours of sleep and 4 cups of coffee before noon.

I guess that's why they're successful and I'm sitting in my pajamas eating leftover Chinese food blogging about it.

 

It's fall!

The season of pumpkin spice lattes.  What's with all the hate towards pumpkin spice lattes lately, by the way?  People will find the most mundane things to hate on.

The past few weeks have been stressful.  My cohorts are extremely anxious and stressed at all the workload that's been piled on us.  I am really regretting keeping my part-time hours at my job instead of just working on weekends like I had initially planned.  I just have to work on time management better so I guess this is a good practice of discipline.  

I am very much enjoying my time spent at the school I am placed in.  My partner and I have been crashing after lunch so I started bringing a kettle to school so we can make some coffee for an afternoon pick-me-up.  Our cooperating teacher loves it, too.  

One thing I have gotten out of my experience so far is that teaching math is HARD!  75 minutes is just not enough even when working with small groups.  My partner was a math concentration so she is definitely more patient and on point more than I am.  Me, I'm still thinking like a college student trying to explain advanced concepts to elementary students.  I think they tell me they understand things sometimes just to get rid of me.

We're already halfway through the semester.

8 more weeks to go.

8 more weeks of projects, papers, reflections, reading after reading after reading.

Field Work

Our cohorts finally found out what grade and classrooms we are assigned to this semester.

I am in a 6th and 7th grade math class.  I am pleasantly surprised since my concentration was history but since I still have interest in teaching math I am really looking forward to it.

According to our advisory professor, our dress codes are pretty strict:  No jeans, sensible shoes (no high heels, open toed shoes, flip-flops), no short skirts, nothing tight, hair pinned away from face, no distracting makeup or jewelry. 

I don't know what I am going to wear.  I have two Old Navy Rockstar jeans I wear on heavy rotation throughout the week for work and school but that's obviously out.  (Which is too bad since they are SO comfortable).  I have few colorful pants I am hoping I can get away with but not sure if they are considered sensible.

Also, I googled my Cooperating Teacher and she seems awesome.  I won't go too much into details for obvious reasons but she seems like a great teacher to shadow and I expect to learn a great deal on teaching of mathematics from her.

My cohorts and I are really excited.  What I am not excited about it waking up at 6 am tomorrow.

After going two days without being able to hug and kiss my husband because I have pink eye

I'm in dire need of a human touch.

I'll probably eat my words later but I'm getting pretty darn excited about starting this program.

You gotta love this time of blissful ignorance of what's to come before shit actually goes down.