Hello hello hello hello
Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Is anyone there? Is anyone there?
Echo Echo Echo Echo
Oh, don't mind me, just yelling into the infinite abyss that is my apapparently empty, forgotten, and neglected blog.
I was just sitting here on my April break, lamenting in my head over needing to put real pants on to go to Walmart. You know, for the 34239402398 things I was just prescribed for this nasty little sinus infection I've picked up. (And when I say real pants I mean out of these yoga capris into some more formal pants like long sweatpants.)
To avoid doing so, and give myself some time to eat another Popsicle I decided to watch some Youtube. Because, you know, that's what I do now.
As I was watching that I realized that instead of watching everything off of my school account I should create a new one with my blog email.
Oh shoot. My blog.
The one that's been receiving emails/comments from Russian spammers asking me to "Click this link, you very much have good points in this article!!!!!!!! plz read my how to make computer sales go up. Click soon!:):):)"
I mean it's not like I forgot about it completely.
Okay, for the month of October I did forget about it completely.
But it turned into one of those things where I would think about it, and the thought of it made me feel bad about how I'd stopped doing it, and then because I felt so bad about not doing it I would avoid it.
You know, like when you need to check your bank account but because you know there's probably not as much money as you'd hope so you avoid it.
Or when you know you have a huge paper due the next day and you feel overwhelmed and instead of starting it you decide to watch one more episode of SVU. Or take a nap.
Avoidance, procrastination, etc.
Is this the first time this has happened to me? No.
As those of you who have been following me for a while might remember, I went on hiatus for about 4 months between October 2011 and February 2012. My first post back last February where I apologize, feel bad, and recap my life can be read here.
Alas, this year it was not a meager 4 months, but a whopping 7 month blog hiatus!!!!
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Whoops.
So what is it? I don't know. Maybe I'm not cut out to be a full-time blogger.
Maybe if I planned "hiatuses" from my blog for a couple of weeks big ones like this wouldn't "accidentally" happen.
Maybe I need to get into a routine when school hits in all of its flames and fury.
Maybe once winter I go into hibernation like a bear. (That would explain the extra pounds over winter.)
Really, I think only the ancient Mayans know the answer as to why I go on these super long hiatuses. And that secret died with them, their society, and their horribly inaccurate calendar.
Whatever the case, I am back. I don't know if the next time I'll get around to posting is tomorrow or next month but I know after this one I'll feel a little bit better about coming back to this neck of the woods.
With that said, I know that writing in my blog is really for me, but I would like to apologize to all of my bloggy friends whose blogs I fell behind on reading. Part of avoiding my blog is avoiding other because it reminds me how much I'm not doing on mine. I have been a bad bloggy friend and for that I am sorry. I will start catching up today, because you know, I didn't want to accomplish anything over my April break anyway.
So without further ado, I shall update on all of the things that I have been doing other than writing here in a quick list.
1. Teaching
I think this is probably the biggest culprit for all of that time. I'm still teaching a mixed language arts and social studies curriculum. (We call my class Humanities.) It is technically the same thing as last year (reading, writing, geography) except this year it is with my new 7th graders instead of 8th graders.
While they are MUCH "easier" than my 8th graders last year (read my last post in September titled Believing in Karma), they of course come with their own challenges. But thank goodness are they a nice group of kids.
7th graders are younger and need a lot more support in reading and writing, so I've had to shift a little more focus off of geography and onto language arts. Thankfully I work with the best team in the world who have been picking up on some geography pieces that I couldn't hit. I also am using my April break to plan what hopefully could be a really cool/quick geography unit.
Plus, I have them next year so I can always fill the geography gaps into my history units whereever I need to. In the end I feel pretty good about what we've done with this group of students and just how cool it is to work with other teachers who support you and have the same goals.
But man am I tired whenever I get home!
Also, I've found planning for school and grading papers takes up whatever time I am not napping on the couch when I get home. So that's a chunk of time.
2. We moved into a house!
Calm down, we're not real adults that bought a house or anything.
We were put into a situation where it was either be miserable in our apartment that we'd lived in for the last 2.5 years or find another place to rent. It was stressful, and our rent is a little higher, and the space is actually a little smaller, but it the end I think it worked out really well for us. We're now in a one bedroom home that we are settling into quite nicely (read: no one living below, or above us, YIPEE!) and after a few weeks it is starting to actually feel like home.
3. We got rid of cable.
I mean all the way. After the neighbors downstairs that we really got along with moved out last November, we couldn't afford to continue with all of those channels on our own. (We were splitting the cost, we got it approved by the cable company, I am not a theif.) We went down to just the basic channels, and then decided that to watch 3 channels we were being charged A LOT OF MONEY . So we decided to just ditch it completely. How do I manage you ask?
4. We got an Xbox, Hulu, Netflix, and Kinect.
So we're those people now. Who have to wait the next day to watch our TV shows and marathon entire seasons in a day. But it is actually less expensive than cable! And the Kinect is SOOOOOOO COOOOL.
5. I am a Whovian.
That's right. I have found Dr. Who, and I never want to go back to a time where I didn't have the Doctor in my life. Unless he wants to show me this time by sweeping me off in his Tardis, then that would be fine. After we got through all bazillion episodes of the seasons that started in 2005, we now patiently wait until the new ones are uploaded to watch online as the new seasons happens. We haven't watched the super old seasons but will probably do that next winter when it's too cold to do anything but marathon something on Netflix. I'm officially a geek and I don't care.
6. I got in really great shape, and then out of it.
In the fall I did a lot of running. I used my iPhone for the Couch to 5k app and the MapmyRun app, both of which I highly recommend.
Then it got cold out, but with our new Kinect we also got the Nike Training "game".
I have game in quotes because it is not a game. It is a virtual trainer that sets up a program for you depending on how many days a week you want to work out, and then they kick your virtual butt. It tracks your movement, shows your body on the screen and tests any improvement you've made every 4 weeks. It includes cardio, strength and lots of body weight stuff. Dave and I were totally into it, and encouraging each other to make sure we "met up with our trainer and didn't skip workouts.
So that was my winter workout until our new neighbors moved in downstairs in late February. They said they were okay with the pounding and hammering that would come from our workouts but because of the situation didn't want to give them any reason to complain about us. So that meant no workouts on the Kinect for us. :(
So for the next month after that I pretty much did nothing except for walks with the dog, because you know running in the dark on lots of icy roads kind of freaks me out. The thing about my body is if I'm not doing something intense I get out of shape real fast. Super depressing after making so much progress for two months. But then...
7. I just started coaching middle school track again.
Literally 2 days after we moved track season started. I'm not a head coach, technically I'm just a volunteer. But I play a pretty big role in practices and do a lot of the workouts with the kids. I have some returning from last year so it's cool to work with them again and have new athletes to work with as well. I do a lot with the distance runners but help out wherever I'm needed. It's nice to see students other than the 70 that I teach every day. It's a different experience and it's rewarding. Hopefully when a track position either comes up in this district or if I decide to teach somewhere else, doing this will pad my resume to get me a full-time (PAID!) position later on. And, let's not forget, doing workouts with teenagers beside you is actually a great way to whip this chubby butt back into shape.
8. Spending time with family and friends.
I'm at that age in my mid-twenties where everyone's lives are changinging. My youngest sister and Dave's youngest brother are getting ready to graduate from high school this spring. Family is moving around getting new jobs. Friends are getting married and GASP HAVING BABIES!
My life, and the lives of those aroundound me are changing. I've been trying to make sure I spend whatever spare time I can soaking in all of the moments with those I love because man, has life seemed to be moving and changing fast lately
9.New laptop
The laptop I had in college was starting to run a little slower and run out of memory so with the help of an employee purchase program I got myself a shiny new MacbookPro and I looove it.
10. Being Responsible(ish) with money.
So I mentioned getting rid of cable to save money. While painful, it was necessary. I've come to realize that soon I will have to start thinking about expenses that seemed super far off but, after watching everyone else buy houses and have babies I realized that hey, I'm in my mid-twenties, those things are probably not too far off.
And shoot those things are EXPENSIVE.
So I've been doing things like putting part of my paycheck aside into a savings, and consolidating debt, and budgeting groceries, and not impulse buying a candle whenever I see it at Target. Have I been perfect? No. But I think we've been doing pretty okay if I may say so myself. And plus, if I have a little money saved away I might be able to take one last super awesome vacation before I have kids in a few years. Which I heard cost like, more than everything I've ever owned added together. Yup definitely need to save up for a vacay before that!
11. Spending time with my husband. (And my cat and my dog.)
I know this is the umpteenth section I've mentioned it in, but as I watch people remodel new homes, get second degrees, and have kids, I've really tried to take some time and enjoy just hanging out with my husband in my rented house that doesn't contain any homework for a masters program or little rugrats running around. All of those things are things that I would like to have in 2-3 years, but I've realized more than ever that I want to enjoy just being married and hanging out with our little family of two people, a dog that thinks he's a person, and a cat that thinks it's a dog, before it all gets complicated and I become one of those real adults.becom
12. Pinteresting, Facebooking, Twittering, Youtubing, etc.
Even though I dropped things here, when I wasn't doing numbers 1-11, I was probably on my phone pinning, or retweeting or watching a stupid video. It's so muuch easier to go look at content than to have to come here and create it. It was my way of staying connected, but took much less brain power than creating anything here.
So there you have it, what I've been up to. It's been a busy 7 months but they've been great.
I do have to say though, it kind of feels nice to be back.
So readers, have you ever gone on a planned or non-planned hiatus? Did it feel weird coming back?
Let me know in the comments.
Also, I've got a lot of reading to catch up on in the blogs that I do follow, and new blogs to go and find that I'm sure have sprung up in the last 7 months. So please put any links to important blog posts of yours that you think I should read that I might've missed, or links to other blogs that you think I might like in a comment or email.
Finally, any tips for getting back on to the blogging bandwagon or how to be better with posting more regularly, would also be appreciated in a comment or email.
Magic spells to fight procrastination or add more hours to the day are also welcomed.
Stay awkward,
Tricia
*note: I did not really proofread this at all. I was too lazy after typing all of that, you know, needing to go pick up prescriptions in my big girl sweatpants.Typing a note in little font takes much less time and brainpower.
Hope you enjoyed all of the spelling mistakes and awkward sentence structures that I'm sure made you cringe.
I'll be here all night.
