The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

Rendezvous prep… last minute logistics.

Get ready to Rendezvous! 

It’s funny how people perceive things differently. My daughter’s car has been in the shop quite a bit this week so I’ve taken to walking the 2.5 miles or so to and from school so she can use mine. I view it as a chance to get in some “free” exercise in a functional way. Perhaps it’s because I live in the world of special education where I strive to teach skills through functional activities that I completely have this point of view and it’s quite obvious to me.

I can’t tell you the number of people that have insisted that they give me a ride home from work. I know that they’re trying to be nice but my responses of “No, thank you, I’d rather walk” are met with incredulous looks. Then, assuming that I’m just being polite in not wanting them to go out of their way, they insist even more strongly. “No really.. I WANT the exercise.”

I view it as: Why would I want to take a ride home just so I can drive to the gym to go walk on a treadmill or use another cardio device for an hour when I could just walk home and get it over with in even less time? Not that I’m opposed to doing cardio at the gym if I’m already there lifting weights but honestly, I’d much rather be outside any day of the week. Walking to a destination is much more practical than just walking for walking’s sake. (Of course taking my dogs for walks can be filed under the functional category as well since they need the exercise too.)

So, thanks for offering but I’ll politely refuse and smile all the way home.

By this time tomorrow, I will be an extremely happy and relieved girl!

A light at the end of the tunnel? 

I am so in need of a vacation and to get away from it all…

This too shall pass… 

So, in light of the post last night about what this week looks like, you can be sure that there will be no time for the things that I actually WANT to do like:

• go to the gym
• finish the book (Wicked) that I’ve been trying to get to all weekend
• start the next book in my TBR (to be read) pile
• do a post-draft podcast
• finally do another Muse
•  work on  two shawls for the Rendezvous
• continue on my decluttering and spring cleaning

The heck with needing a 25th hour… I need a clone!

It’s 10:30 and I just finished the A New Earth webcast with Oprah and Eckhart Tolle and although I need to get to bed, I need to go over my to do list first so that I can let it rest and get some sleep. I’m currently stressed out because Bella’s been barking all night and I’ve taken her out 5 times in the rain since I put her down. Since she only peed the first 2 times, I keep taking her out because I don’t know if she’s still got more business to do or if she’s just not tired. (A little birdie told me that they napped a real long time on the couch with Dad today.)

Anyway, we hit the gym after school then went to the market tonight. (It was quite the day at work because there were two shootings (resulting in dead teenagers) over the weekend so the school is on lock-down and everyone was all riled up. It’s a very sad situation and there’s rumors of retaliation so the streets at dismissal were full of police cars from our district and the neighboring communities. This is a very scary reality in the inner city…..

Tomorrow I have a faculty meeting, a special Ed meeting Wednesday before school and one after school, a hair appointment on Thursday afternoon and Jake’s wrestling banquet at night. On Friday, I have a doctors appointment first thing in the morning and the girls are getting their stitches out after school. We have plans for Saturday and then on Sunday I’ll be at the Special Olympics all day with my students.

This week I don’t have many free periods either…. lunch duty Thursday… GRRRR! and my “Lucky Day”… the day that I don’t have a single break and also have to teach the entire group falls on Friday. I haven’t planned yet for that and the ASSessment is due next week.

Right now, there doesn’t seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel.. and if there is, it looks to be the train coming to hit me head on. Sigh…

Tomorrow at 2:31 pm my spring vacation begins. And believe me, I can’t wait. It’s been a very frustrating and stressful couple of weeks. Of course, it’s no surprise to anyone that the Alternate Assessment is to blame. I’m currently in the middle of an ongoing dialog between our technology department and the site that I need to connect to to enter the data into the system for the datafolios. I can’t connect to the server from school and time is running out. I’m not even close to being done and every time I try to sit down to work on it, I can’t connect. Today, the emails were flying and I’m hoping to get access tomorrow because I’ll be damned if I have to spend my entire vacation week at home working on it.

I have lots of plans for next week and I’m in dire need of this vacation. I’ve had 3 migraines in the past week and I hadn’t had one in over a year prior to this. I’ve also been having back spasms for the past couple of weeks and that’s likely related since it’s not uncommon to carry stress in the lower back… So, I’ll spend an hour a day during vacation working on it but that’s it. My principal is going to have to accommodate me when I get back and help me find the time to do it during working hours.

Here’s the agenda for next week:

• Keeping my fingers crossed that my new gym will be open. It’s supposed to be ready this weekend and it’s perfect timing to hit the gym every day.
• Take the dogs out every day for a walk in the woods.
• Pedicure and Manicure
• Yardwork and gardening, including clearing the backyard so I can start using my clothesline and shut off the dryer until October.
• Scrape and paint the bathroom.
• Continue the move to wordpress for as much of my website as possible.
• Get caught up with Pats news, update site, and podcast.
• READ, READ, READ!

Speaking of reading, I haven’t switched over the link yet but I’ve moved my Book Nook to a Wordpress platform. The new home will be here.

It’s really Thursday night around 9:00 and I’m already in bed with my book bag. This has been an incredible week chock-full with meetings and commitments. I’m thankful that tomorrow is Friday and the weekend is almost here. I didn’t get a chance to do any assessment work because of the schedule this week at school so I’ll have to get some done over the weekend. I had meetings every day after school so my new routine of taking the girls out for a walk in the afternoon hasn’t happened all week. (Kinda tough when you don’t get home until after 6:00 each night!)

Tomorrow, we have our last bowling practice in the afternoon and Special Olympics Bowling on Saturday. We’re heading to a dinner at the church on Saturday and although I haven’t checked the weather, I’m hoping that it’s springy on Sunday so I can get out and enjoy nature and take the girls out to break up my assessment work.

As of now, I’m opening a book and reading until my eyes close… which will likely be after a paragraph or two after this week!