DVR

Now that I live on my own, I obviously have to pay for everything. I thought Time Warner Cable was only in the northeast. Unfortunately it's here in North Carolina too. They gave me 3 months of DVR free when I signed up for cable and Internet. My three months is up and I decided to get rid of the DVR box. Now I can't tape my shows. I was trying to save a few bucks. The cost of cable and Internet is unreal. I now miss my DVR a lot, but I'll get over it. I almost got rid of digital cable too but decided to keep it because I can still get shows on demand. Gotta love 1st world problems!

Credit Card

I was looking at my credit card bill yesterday for the month and was not happy. As always, it's higher than I expected. Then I started thinking that next months bill would be smaller because I didn't plan on making any big purchases. I was wrong. I made two expensive purchases last night alone! Tomorrow, if my chair comes in like it's supposed to, I'm going to add several hundred more to that credit card bill. My month doesn't end until May 20. I'm doomed! I've used my credit card so many times online that I have almost memorized my 16 digit number! I know I'm good with numbers but that's disgusting! Maybe one day I won't spend so much money!

Cherokee, NC

One of the biggest things I miss from New York, besides my family and friends of course, is gambling. North Carolina has no off track betting like New York does. It doesn't even have a horse racing station on TV so I can watch the big races. Of course some huge races, like the Kentucky Derby, which is this Saturday, will be nationally televised. However, there are a lot of other races I am missing because of this. The closest casino in North Carolina is in Cherokee, NC. That is 5 hours away from me! I believe they have a casino cruise in Myrtle Beach, which is two hours from me. We didn't look into that though. I just booked a hotel in Cherokee so that my friend and I could go to the casino Memorial Day weekend. So I'll be traveling 10 hours round trip just to get my casino fix in. At the rate I keep spending money on sporting events and everything else I'm doing, I'm going to go broke soon! I don't care. I want to have as much fun as possible when I can. I can't wait until Memorial Day weekend!

Spring Break

As always, spring break flew by. It's amazing how much anticipation there always is for breaks. Everyone gets extremely excited about it. It always feels like it's so far away. Then it comes and goes quicker than a blink of an eye. The next countdown will be to the end of the school year. I believe we have 40 school days left. A few of those will be without students, which will be great. Unfortunately though, if I do summer school, that starts up immediately after school finishes. At least they will be half days. I hope this break has rejuvenated me for the rest of the school year!

One Plane

I've flown on a lot of planes before. I have never flown like I did today. I took a plane from Albany to Baltimore. Then I stayed on that plane and went to Raleigh. I've never stayed on one plane, made a pit stop, then continued on. They asked me to get off of the plane since it was an hour lay over. However, I was able to get on about 10 minutes before everyone else. That allowed me to sit right up front so I could get off right away. That didn't end of mattering too much since it took forever for my luggage to arrive. It was a different experience in my flying career.

Afternoon TV

I've been watching TV most of the day since I have nothing better to do while home in New York. I've discovered that afternoon TV is awful! There is nothing good on at all. That sure makes the day go by slower than usual. If I had my car here, at least I could have drove to the mall and walked around or whatever. Other than being bored today, I've had fun in New York but am excited to get back home to North Carolina tomorrow.

You Haven't Lived Until You've...

You haven't lived until you've cleaned up your grandparents waste from their lawn. I visited my grandparents today for the first time in a few months. I raked their lawn, which wasn't as bad as it normally was because it was just spinners and not loads of leaves. They have been having problems with the pipes where their waste travels through. There's a huge tree with massive roots that are growing into the pipes causing waste to backup and seep out into their yard. It's quite gross. I had no plans to clean it up. My mom called someone and they said it would cost between $200-500 for someone to professionally clean it up. I didn't want my grandparents to spend that much money so I stupidly volunteered to clean it up. I can't find a word to describe how disgusting this task was. However, I saved my grandparents a lot of money and did a good deed. The shower I took after never felt so good in my life!

Visitor

Although I was a visitor in my own home in college, it feels weird being a guest in my own house now. It's probably because I know that barring any catastrophes, I definitely will never live in this house again. I'm sleeping in my old room and do everything else the same. It's just different. It's hard to explain. I'd rather stay at my old house than a hotel because this is free!

Driving Barefoot

While driving to the airport today, my feet were getting sweaty while wearing my flip flops. I decided to take them off for a bit and drive barefoot. It felt really weird. My mom has told me she doesn't feel like she has control of the car if she uses cruise control. I love cruise control. I didn't feel like I had control of the car when driving barefoot. I was so worried my shoe would get stuck on the pedal or something. Needless to say, I didn't drive barefoot for very long.

Spring Break

Today was my first weekday of spring break. Naturally it went by way too quickly. I'm going home to New York tomorrow night until Saturday. That too will fly by way too quickly. It will be nice to go home and visit friends for a few days. It won't be nice to deal with the cold weather. It's supposed to be around 80 all week here. In New York, it's supposed to be around 60. My friends are going to Myrtle Beach and I am not. That's depressing. Oh well, I'll be going to Myrtle Beach sometime this summer, hopefully...

Freaster

Since I wasn't home to spend Easter with my family, I spent it with my friends. I made a ham and sweet potatoes for 8 people. There is enough leftovers for at least a week. It's better to have too much than too little. That's ok. We all had a ton of fun. I am lucky to have a group of friends that I have made in such a short amount of time.

Sweet Potaotes

Sweet potatoes are absolutely delicious. However, making mashed sweet potatoes are a pain! I bought 4 huge sweet potatoes to make for Freaster tomorrow. Freaster is what my group of friends are calling our friends Easter. Peeling the potatoes was a pain, cutting them into smaller pieces was very hard since the potatoes were so big, and cooking them in the microwave and then mashing them took a very long time. When all was said and done, it took me over two hours. I made a huge mess too, after spending an hour this morning cleaning my apartment. I then had to clean up my kitchen again. I hope my friends have a huge appetite tomorrow because I have enough sweet potatoes to feed a small army!

Teachers

It's funny to think hear what a child's perception of a teacher is. They think we live at school. Whenever kids see us outside of school, they are shocked. Most kids don't realize that we like to have fun. Most of them don't think we get excited about vacations even more than they do. Well, let me reveal a little secret. We do know how to have fun and we get very excited about breaks. Unfortunately, the next 9 days will definitely fly by...

2 Hour Early Release!

Tomorrow was supposed to be a work day for teachers and not for kids. Now because of all of the snow days, the kids will be there tomorrow too. We found out this morning that we will get out two hours early. Why they waited until the last minute to decide this is beyond me, but whatever. Tomorrow is going to be a day where there is no learning going on anyway. I'm not sure why they even bothered making it a day with kids. Oh well, again, this is something way out of my control. All I know is that I can't wait for work to be over with tomorrow and then have the next week off!

Turn Boring Things into Songs

I've heard of teachers who take boring topics and turn famous song lyrics into that topic. It's a lot of work, but very effective because the kids will learn it. I am awful at knowing important details of the common core standards. If I have interviews, I will be asked questions about them. Therefore, I need to learn a little bit about them. On YouTube, someone turned the boring topic of the common core standards into Lady Gaga's "Born This Way". It's called "Common Core This Way". It's really catchy and informative. If you are a teacher and really want your kids to learn in a unique and fun way, then you should turn topics into songs.

Almost Very Bad

I went to the bank today and brought both of my account books. I stupidly put both account numbers on each book. I did my transactions and left the bank. As I was at a red light about a half mile away, I noticed that I only had one of my two books. I immediately made a U-turn and went back to the bank. The teller who I worked with saw me and handed me my account book. I thought I might have left it at the station where everyone gets the slips and fills them out. If that was the case, anyone could have gotten my account number. I was very lucky that I left it at the teller station and that she picked it up. I also got a phone call from the bank that I didn't see until later telling me I'd left my book. The moral of the story is to be very careful when you have important documents that you don't want other people to see!

Bees

Now that the weather is getting nice, there are a lot of bees and wasps showing up. When I open my apartment door, there are always 4-5 huge bees hanging out flying near my head. When I come home from work, they are still there greeting me. Someone told me they are just wood bees and are completely harmless. I don't care. I don't want a bunch of bees flying around near my head. This is something for me to look forward to for the rest of the spring and all of summer...

Pretzel Bun

I've seen so many commercials from different fast food joints and restaurants for pretzel buns. I've always wanted to try one but never have until yesterday. We went to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner and I got a burger with bleu cheese and bacon on it on a pretzel bun. I must say I was pretty disappointed. It didn't taste nearly as good as I thought it would. They also burned the bun a little bit. None of us were pleased with the service or the food at Ruby Tuesday's yesterday. Oh well, it happens.

14-16 Hours

I talked to a principal at another school last week and he asked me how much time I spend a day doing teacher related things. He said that most teachers put 14-16 hours into each day. I never thought about it that way. It makes sense though. I am now at school from about 7:20-5 Monday through Thursday. That's almost 10 hours. I am doing something school related the entire time. Then when I get home I am typically filling out some sort of paper work or making lesson plans or something. I don't think I spend 14-16 hours, but I definitely spend 11-12 most days. Naturally we only get paid for 8 hours a day. Being a teacher is one of the few professions where you do just as much work outside of the work place as you do in school.

10 Year High School Reunion

There's a Facebook group that I was invited to join about a month ago for my 10 year high school reunion. That will officially happen in June 2015. That's scary. Anyway, they have already set up a date and location. It will obviously be back in New York. I won't be going unless I happen to be in New York. There is no way I will make a special trip all the way home just to see people I couldn't care less about for a little while. I am still in contact with a select few people from my high school by choice. I don't feel a need to see several hundred others who couldn't care less about me. I feel like it would just be awkward. We will see what happens by next June. It's a long way out.

Things to Do

When I went to the Devils game with my friend the other day, we started talking about all of the things we would love to do in the near future or distant future. Let me tell you, for me, this list is long and all of them cost a lot of money. Here is everything I can remember:

-Go to Cherokee Casino, which is about 5 hours from me
-Go to Myrtle Beach
-Go to the NCAA Final 4
-Go to the Kentucky Derby
-Go to the Breeder's Cup
-Go to Italy
-Go to Hawaii
-Go to Busch Gardens
-Go to a Duke vs. UNC basketball game

That's all I can think of for now. I'm pretty sure there were more items. We are talking about going to the casino Memorial Day weekend and Busch Gardens eventually. I'm sure Myrtle Beach will happen in a few months since I'm only about 2 hours from there. Everything else is a dream that if they happen, will happen a long time from now when I find a money tree that's growing. You have to have dreams and something to look forward to, right?

Mental Health Day

I wish I could take a mental health day. I badly need it. However, I can't see myself taking a day off from work doing nothing. One reason is because I'm scared to death to leave my kids with a substitute teacher. I know that the kids were excellent for the sub they had before me. I don't understand what happened to them for them to act the way they do now with me. Another reason I won't take the day off is because I'd feel horrible taking a day off to do nothing when I know I should be at work. So many teachers have told me that with this school, we need to take a day or two off. I don't know. It's just not what I do. I only have 3 sick days as it is and only .6 of a personal day. I think I'm heading to bed very early tonight. That might help me calm down a bit.

Reviews

I love clicking on one of my books on Amazon and seeing that I got a new review, even if it's a bad one. Today it wasn't. Someone gave my 1st book 5 stars and this person can't wait to read the next book in the series. That's always good to see. I know my books won't please everyone. But book one has 9 5-star reviews and 2 4-star reviews so I'll take it!

Yet Another 5K

Apparently I'm a better runner than I thought I was. When I was a kid in 4th, 5th, and 6th grade, I ran in the cross country track meet. That was a one mile race. I would typically get between 70th-90th out of about 100 runners because I was heavy and very slow. Saturday, I got 6th out of about 185 runners. My time for 3.1 miles was 22:47, which is by far my best. I got 1st in my age group. They didn't give away medals this race. For getting first in my age group, I got a $20 gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods. I felt like I was crawling at some points of the race. I was able to finish very hard, which is always good. I really enjoy doing these 5K's because I am able to push myself and see how fast I can go. I hope to do another 5K in the near future.

Devils Game

I went to my first New Jersey Devils hockey game last night. Yes, it was my 4th time going to PNC Arena since moving here. I have gone every other week for the past 6 weeks. I'll have to look up what event is going on there in two weeks and go to it. My friend and I sat in section 119, which was dead center ice! We sat in the last row back, but it was still very close. If we got any closer, the view would not have been as good. We were so close that I could actually read the names on the back of players jerseys. The best part of the game was the fact that the Devils won. They still have a slim chance to make the playoffs with only 4 or 5 games left. If they do somehow make the playoffs, they will lose first round to Pittsburgh or Boston.

Pollen

The last few days, I have gone out to my car and it was yellow. It's only April 5th and pollen season has already started down in the south. I have no idea when pollen gets heavy in New York, but I feel like it's much later in the season than this. As I said earlier this week, this past week's weather was in the 80's all week. This is the reason I moved to North Carolina. I love the fact that it is this warm this early into spring. I better buy some windshield washer fluid because I'll be using it a lot if the pollen is this bad all spring and summer long!

Japanese Steak House

I just got home from a Japanese Steak House. I have a 5K run tomorrow morning. Eating Japanese food hours before a run was definitely a bad choice. Naturally I ordered a big meal and ate all of it. The amount of rice they gave me could have fed a family of 4. I ate it all. Then they gave me steak and chicken. It's 11:18PM and my run is in less than 9 hours. I am so full right now I can't even think. I think tomorrows 5K run is going to turn into a 5K walk. I have no idea how I'm going to survive!

Chicken Plant

There is a chicken plant a few miles from the school I work at. I pass it going to school and coming from school. Almost every morning when I drive by, it smells absolutely awful. There are no words to describe how putrid that smell is. The bad part is that that smell travels all the way to the school. I often see large trucks with many chickens on the way to that chicken plant. I wonder if the chickens know they are about to die. You would think chicken would be cheaper here since the plant is so close. Nope! Chicken is very expensive here. Oh the joys of traveling to a school in the middle of nowhere.

City That Never Sleeps?

Since I started tutoring today, I decided to get up around 5:15AM and work out before school. I cannot begin to tell you how surprised I was to see so many cars on the road that early! There wasn't any crazy traffic, but there were many, many cars. There were more cars than I expected to see so early in the morning. When I got to the gym, the place was packed! There had to have been 50 or more people there. Everyone besides me looked wide awake and ready to go. It was very surprising. I am completely drained right now at 8:03PM. I'm not sure I'll be going to the gym that early again any time soon.

Changes

My fellow first grade teachers somehow convinced me to do tutoring with them Monday through Thursday from 3:30-5. That now means that I will go straight from 7:30-5 with one 45 minute break that I sometimes get. That also means that I need to decide if I should work out at 5AM before school or work out after school and not get home until after 7PM. If I worked out after work, that would mean that by the time I eat and cleanup, I'll be ready for bed. Both options are awful. For now, I have decided to work out before school so that I can get home at a reasonable time and attempt to do work at night. I planned on doing report cards tonight but that didn't happen because I did next week's lesson plans instead. If I thought I was tired each night when I came home before we started tutoring, I didn't know what tired was. I'm about to take tired to a whole new level!