Juggling Life

The BlogHer Post!

So . . . since BlogHer 2011 is in San Diego it would be foolish of me not to attend. I am going with few expectations beyond meeting people in person that I know through the blogosphere. I am not going to learn how to "monetize" my blog. I would love to be paid for my writing at some point, but not for this blog; I love the community and the freedom to write whatever and whenever I want. Plus, I'm a terrible salesperson.

In addition, I can barely remember to pick winners for the giveaways I host. Which reminds me . . . the winner of the E-Mealz.com giveaway is . . .

#1 (randomly chosen):

Looks interesting. I'm not sure it would work for me long term, but I'd be interested in trying it to see. Especially since it includes Aldi, my basic grocery.

Posted by: Katherine | July 05, 2011 at 08:50 AM

Back to BlogHer: My plans are somewhat loose--I haven't even looked at the schedule--but I do have the important things penciled in.

• Lunch on Thursday with my dear friend, JCK from Motherscribe. This will make our third "in real life" meeting. As an added bonus, I'm rooming with her Saturday night in her hotel room. I can't wait.
• Dinner on Thursday night with one of the smartest bloggers I know (and her equally smart daughter; her husband is coming too, but I have no idea how smart he is!), Magpie Musing.
• Friday night Suzy Soro from Hollywood: Where Hot Comes to Die is going to spend the night here (she will sleep in the very same bed BOSSY slept in). Suzy and I are two people that pretty much have nothing, lifestyle-wise, in common, and yet we get on terrifically. I'm pretty sure that hanging out with Suzy is going to mean I get to meet Tanis from Attack of the Redneck Mommy. And that? Might cause me to swoon.
  
• Saturday--my in real-life friend Deb of San Diego Momma (who I happened to meet through blogging) has arranged a luncheon which will include several spectacular people including the inimitable VodkaMom. I know, be still my heart.

Those are the plans--the rest remains to be seen, but I assure you I will keep you posted and report back. If any of you are planning to be there, please let me know so we can be sure to meet.

BlogHer is next weekend--this weekend is the Water Polo Junior Olympics; Mr. Fix-it, Social Butterfly, Peanut and I are heading to Irvine to cheer on Danger Boy and his 18U team. We'll be gone through Tuesday, so posting may be light, nonexistent OR I may have great photos and be dying to share them with you. Who knows?!

 

 

Minha Casa é Sua Casa

 

Carla, the matriarch of both her own family of two girls and the 17 players from her husband's team, and me at their farewell dinner Sunday night. She is emphatic about being able to have me stay at her home in Sao Paulo and was so gracious in thanking me for having her family stay at my home. She gave me a very special embroidered towel made by her grandmother and some really cool shirts for the kids. It was really a pleasure to be able to have them stay with us.

I may only speak English and she only speaks Portuguese, but the language of making someone feel welcome and appreciated requires no words.

Reading Between the Lines

Danger Boy dug out his favorite childhood books--Orson Scott Card's Ender Series--last Thursday and has been reading non-stop since then. He took a break to play some few water polo, but he read in the car and on the deck and all day long today.

My friend and I were kayaking and she commented on all the reading DB was doing this weekend between games.

I shared with her that it seems like a natural thing for a reader to do--before you make a major life change like moving across the country to go to college one might turn to one's favorite books for comfort and familiarity.

She was quite impressed with my armchair psychoanalysis.

DB did something else this weekend that made me really smile.

Background: His friend and teammate's little brother is autistic and is a great sport about spending endless hours at water polo games. It really helps him with his math skills as he counts down the time until he can leave. "Four periods left?!" "Three periods left?" Michael gets along with everyone, but especially DB and one of the moms.

We were leaving the last game for our 100 mile drive home. As I started the car and set the A/C to arctic blast to combat the 95-degree heat, DB commented, "That Michael is just a ray of sunshine in my day!"

 

 

Crossing the Finish Line

What a difference a few days makes. It was on July 18 that I was blogging about being burned out on the work I was doing to finish my master's degree. On Friday July 22nd I decided to quit whining and just get 'er done.

I got up at eight and hit the laptop and books all day. One of the assignments for week three was to interview a tech specialist at a school; I'm sure it's no biggie during the school year, but it turned out to be more work to find someone than to write the paper. I had calls out to a former professor, my BIL was looking to hook me up with someone he deals with at a private school and my good friend, Becky, was on the hunt for me down at the district office. I was getting a little stressed since I'd started trying to find someone several days before to no avail, but finally on Friday at three I connected with someone. Relief!

I took a break at four o'clock to walk five miles with a friend, but I came home and dove right back in. I was on such a roll that I emailed the professor to see if she would unlock the final for me. She did and by nine o'clock I was done.

Or rather . . .

I WAS DONE!

I have learned so much this last year and thoroughly enjoyed most of the program, but it is such a freeing feeling not to have any more assigned readings, discussion boards, videotaping, papers or deadlines.

How did I celebrate?

I drove 400 miles in two days, watched water polo games, ate Mexican food with my stepsister, drank margaritas with my friends and just luxuriated in having crossed a very large item off of my life's to-do list.

 

The Passport, Explained

Kellyg was puzzled as to why Danger Boy needed a passport because he was going to be close to the Canadian border, but didn't need one all these years when he lived half an hour from the Mexican border.

The thought process went a little like this . . .

When I was a teenager in San Diego it was rumored than some teenagers started going to Tijuana around their 16th birthdays because the drinking age in Mexico was 18 and the bars on Avenida Revolucion didn't card. That's what I heard anyway.

Naturally those teenagers continued to go to Tijuana after they were 18--unless, of course, they had fake ID cards and then they didn't go the bars in TJ until after last call on the American side of the border.

This whole proposition sounds a little dicey to me so I figured we'd just circumvent the possibility by not having passports.

Also, I don't think there are drug cartels running amok in Canada right now--at least I hope not!

Bureaucracy. Grrr.

Danger Boy needs a passport since he's going to be an hour and a half from the Canadian border come mid-August. Today he had an appointment at the post office and took his application, check, birth certificate and driver's license. He was turned away because his official (with the embossed seal and everything) birth certificate was not "long-form."

I called the County Registrar's office to find out about getting a long-form. No problem--wait in line, show driver's license, pay $19 and get the long-form certificate.

Me, puzzled, to clerk: So the birth certificate he has now was adequate to get his driver's license and the driver's license is the only I.D. he needs to get the long-form?

Clerk: Correct

Me: What is the difference between the long-form birth certificate and the one he has now?

Clerk: It's on an 8.5 by 11 piece of paper.

Me: That's the only difference?!

Clerk: Correct

Me: Okay, the way I see it his possessing this long-form birth certificate does nothing to enhance proving that he is who he says is. Am I wrong?

Clerk: Nope. You're absolutely correct.

Me: Okay, he'll be in tomorrow.

 

If you've got a great story of idiocy in government please share!

What Social Butterfly is doing with her summer . . .

 

        I've said it before . . . I wouldn't mind being reincarnated as one of my own children!

Senioritis? Short-Timers Syndrome? Burnout?

My master's compadre, fellow teacher and friend Leane, and I are in agreement. With 2.5 weeks to go until we finish the last class of our 13-month long Master's in Instructional Leadership Degree we are D.O.N.E. Seriously--stick a fork in both of us--at the same time if you want.

This last class is (snooze) Technology and Data Interpretation. I'm sorry to say I  don't think it would have been interesting even five classes ago when we were still somewhat bright-eyed and bushy-tailed over the whole program.

Of course we will get it done. Of course we will do our good-enough best work. Of course we will celebrate mightily on July 27.

In the meantime we log on, do our reading, participate in class discussions and send each other snarky text messages as we work.

And then? Because we are gluttons for punishment? We will plan our next academic adventure--Single Subject Credentials in English (we both have a credential that only allows us to teach through 9th grade English).

But first? We are taking the month of August off and devoting the eight hours a week we spend on school to something more exciting. Something along the lines of sitting down and doing absolutely nothing!

 

The Accidental Hostess

                 American-style weenie roast w/s'mores at Mission Bay

Almost every summer (and sometimes for longer--much longer) our family has hosted teenage water polo players from Brazil. This year Danger Boy said he didn't want to serve as a host because he didn't want to be responsible for anyone in his last few weeks at home. That seemed home--he has ended up doing a lot of driving and entertaining in the past.

The emails asking for host families kept coming and I kept not responding. I heard throught the grapevine that people were sure I could be counted on in a pinch. I told the coach and a couple of other people DB's feelings, and that I wasn't going to ovveride him.

On Thursday I got a desperate call from the coach that they just needed some place for a few players for the weekend (some people willing to host were out of town for the weekend). I told him that I was game, but he'd have to convince DB. Apparently he did.

That's how we ended up with Daniel, Octavio and Yema for the weekend. DB has been a wonderful host--though me bribing him by paying for his food at Wings and Things has probably eased his pain.

The boys are going with another family Sunday night after we all get home from a team barbecue.

Except that turns out not to be the end of our hosting.

Our coach had offered to let the coach from the Brazilian team (and his wife and two daughters) stay with him. Now Coach Victor has many wonderful qualities, but after visiting his home for the first time the other night (arranging stuff with the boys) I will say that awareness of the appropriate sleeping environment for a family is not one of them. He lives in a studio apartment in a very questionable area of town and has two dogs. I wasn't even up the stairway before I was saying, "NO WAY IS THIS FAMILY STAYING HERE."

So we're trading our three teenage water polo players for a lovely family. Mrs. Coach refused to accept my invitation/edict to stay in my spare bedroom (which is larger than the coach's whole apartment) until I agreed to come to Brazil and stay at her home. I think I can do that.

I guess I wasn't being lazy by not deflating the airbed from the family visit earlier this summer. It turns out my subconscious knew what it was doing!

The coach and his wife have two large rental vans and they'll be out and about doing touristy things with all 17 boys all day and most of the night, so DB is not responsible for entertaining anyone and I can feel good about the fact that this family will never know what their accomodations might have been!

Working 8-5 . . .

For the past two days I've been teaching both a morning and an afternoon class. That means I leave the house at 7:15 and get home about 5:45. It sucks. Big time. I have always said that people who say, "Being a stay-at-home mom is the toughest job I've ever had!" just aren't doing it right. When I was teaching full-time I would get to school by 7 and often not leave until 4 (and then work at home), but there's something relentless feeling about not getting done with work until 5--the whole day is shot!

Thankfully this all day thing was just for a couple of days--Friday I'm just doing the afternoon class and then I'll be back on the cush schedule I detailed in this post. Thank goodness--I'm having kayaking withdrawal!

About the job . . .

I really like it! I'm super surprised at how much I'm enjoying it. Truly it is the students that are making it so enjoyable. The actual content of what I'm teaching (pharmacy tech stuff) doesn't thrill me, but after working in the biz for 25 years I must admit that I am remarkably knowledgeable (it's amazing what you absorb and remember by working 5 hours per week).

Back to the students . . . they are an interesting mix of recent high school grads, thirty-something moms wanting a career now that their kids are in school, and military retirees using their G. I. bills. Most of them are quite eager to learn--always fun for a teacher. Because they are adults and they're paying a pretty penny for this education I figure they realize they will get out of this what they put into it; motivating them is not my job (whereas in high school motivating students is the hardest part of the job), teaching them is my job.

What's really wonderful is they're pretty thrilled with me, too--who doesn't like that feeling?

I'm going to work through mid-August (with a week off for Junior Olympics and BlogHer) and then probably continue to sub for them in this program and also as a General Ed instructor. That will enable me to keep my primary focus on getting a full-time secondary teaching job, but keeping something on the back burner as well. 

I will say that if I wasn't interested in a) following my passion to educate young people and b) get a job with benefits and a pension plan the 4-day a week half-day schedule could totally sway me to reconsider my career choice!