What in the World?

What in the world will 2015 bring? Each year on this blog I wrap up my year and look at the next year. Since I wrapped up my year on December 11, I'm not going to do that this time. I did that because that was a big one year anniversary for me. I have had 3 different jobs this year. I started as a computer aide for two weeks, then a first grade teacher, and I finished as a 4th grade teacher. This year was amazing! I've done so much more than I would have ever imagined I would do. I have no clue what's in store for 2015. I could land a job in a different state again. My books could strike it big. I could stay at the same school for another school year. I haven't the foggiest of ideas. I'm not making any resolutions this year either. Whatever happens happens. I will tell you that I am going to continue to take every opportunity I can. That means I'm going to keep going to college basketball games, concerts, and any other events that pop up if I can afford to go. I gotta live life to the fullest and enjoy every moment. I sure did that this year and I greatly look forward to the adventures that will take place in 2015!

Mockingjay Part 1

I just saw Mockingjay Part 1 today. That's the 3rd book of The Hunger Games series. I read those books awhile ago. I remember hating the book. But obviously I still had to see the movie. I'm glad it only cost $5 to see it. I saw it at a theater that shows movies that are almost out on DVD. That's why it was so cheap. The start time was 6:30 and it surprisingly had no previews. I fell asleep by 7. Pretty sad, I know. It was a 2 hour movie and it was slow. There was very little action. Obviously they are saving the action for part 2. Naturally they made it two parts to make more money. I had heard bad reviews about this movie but since I read the book I still wanted to see the movie. Hopefully the second movie will be better.

My Schedule

First of all, yesterday was the first day in a very long time that I unintentionally forgot to blog. My bad! No excuses. Anyway, as you know, the Cowboys made the playoffs! Woohoo! The NFL scheduled the Cowboys games perfectly around my schedule. They could have played this Saturday or Sunday. I wanted them to play on Sunday because my friends and I are going to Raleigh on Saturday. Dallas plays on Sunday. Perfect! If they win, I want them to play the following Sunday because I'm moving the following Saturday. If Dallas wins they will play the following Sunday at 1. I'm very glad the NFL was able to work around my schedule so that I can see my Cowboys play in the playoffs for the first time in 5 years. GO COWBOYS!

Flight Trampoline Park

I went to a place called Flight Trampoline Park today. It is exactly what it sounds like. It's an indoor place with tons of trampolines all over the place. You jump on them and some people do flips and stuff. They also had things where you could climb up a ladder and jump onto a big mat. It was a ton of fun. It's quite a workout. My entire body hurts right now. Naturally the place was packed with kids because it's more of a kids place and it's winter break. There were people my age there too. I would definitely do it again. You could go for an hour or two hours. One hour was more than enough time to bounce around. I didn't do any flips. I didn't feel like breaking my neck today. Maybe next time I'll try some flips.

Getting out of the House

It's weird. The day that I flew home to New York, I was all excited to come home. Now I do pretty much anything to get out of my house. It's not because I'm annoyed at my parents or anything. It's just that I'm so easily bored. I'm so used to being busy that I can't stand doing nothing. I went out to lunch with family today, came home, then immediately went to a friends house to hang out for a bit before my family came back. Now that they're gone, I want to leave again because I don't want to stay home and do nothing. I can't sit still!

Prime Rib

Our Chrismas dinner every year is prime rib, twice baked potatoes, and pasta with chirizo. There's nothing better. My aunt and uncle do an amazing job at cooking the food. I always bring dessert. This year, I brought magic cookie bars and brownies. I didn't need to. My aunt made I think 5 desserts herself. I don't understand why I even had to bother making dessert. Oh well, I'm thoroughly full now!

This Years' Movie

Like I said last Christmas Eve, my family watches an old movie each Christmas Eve. We used to watch it on VHS, but now we just watch whatever we have. This year we watched Mrs. Doubtfire. This was only my 4th time seeing it since Robin Williams died. My younger brother was getting annoyed at me for reciting every line in the movie. It's that good that I had to recite everything. I requested that we watch Ferris Bueller's Day Off next year. I haven't seen that movie in forever. We will see.

Easy

While working at my dad's liquor store today, I couldn't stop thinking about how easy the job was. I wasn't screaming, worrying every second, doing paperwork, calling parents, trying to teach while no one was paying attention, or any other job I normally do on a daily basis. I was scanning bottles of wine and bagging it. The hardest thing I had to do was a little bit of math when the customers handed me cash. Since most transactions nowadays are done with a credit card, I didn't even have to do much math. It was a nice change of pace from my daily grind. I'm only working 4 hours first thing in the morning tomorrow for my dad then I'm off until probably New Years' Eve.

Heading Home

I'm heading back to New York tonight for the first time since July. The only reason I waited this long into December break and have a flight at 7:40PM is because it was the cheapest option. Of course I looked for the least expensive trip. I could have driven home, but the weather might have been a factor so I decided to fly. This might be my last time home until July because my friends and I are looking at going to Nashville, Tennessee during the April break. I look forward to going home tonight and seeing my family and friends who I haven't seen in 5 months.

Pedicure

I got a pedicure for I think the 3rd time ever today. The lady told me I needed to buy some fungus ointment because my feet are that gross. Yes they are. The pedicure and ointment cost $35! Normally the pedicure costs $15. I really needed it though. I've tried foot creams and stuff like that before and they haven't worked. I'm sure this one won't work either. At least my feet look better now than they did yesterday. I'm sure that will last about a week if I'm lucky.

Packing

There is absolutely nothing fun about packing. I did a lot of packing today. It's amazing how much junk I have accumulated over the past year. I should have thought about it before I purchased some of the things I have. In my mind, I should have said, Don't buy this. It's going to be a pain to move it when you move again. Of course nobody says that when they are buying stuff. I have a pile of full boxes in my second bedroom. I have no idea how it's all going to fit in my one bedroom apartment on January 10. I have no choice but to make it work.

2 Weeks Off

I feel like I've never been more excited to have two weeks off in my life. But I'm so used to being busy, I'm going to enjoy being bored. We got out of school two hours early today. It was nice to just get home much earlier than usual. I also went to school half an hour later than I normally do. I was still there on time. I'm going to be bored the next few days because I will have nothing to do before I go home to New York. I didn't bring home anything to do school related. I'm going to go into work Monday, January 5th with no idea what I'm teaching, but it will be worth it!

Cool Gift

I got a really cool present today from one of the kids. It wasn't even from my one of my own kids. It was from a kid that I teach for 90 minutes a day. In my fourth grade room, we switch classes. I have my class for most of the day, but for 90 minutes, I have the other teachers class. I teach two math classes each day. A few weeks ago, I saw this neat idea for a teacher present. I wanted one. Today, I got that gift! It is basically a wreath with crayons. It's really cool! I love it because it's original and hand made. Of course I love candy, but original gifts are so much more unique. I immediately hung it up in my room and will keep it forever! We will see if I get any gifts tomorrow on the last day of school until next year! I hope so!

New Address

Of course I'm not going to tell you my new address. But I have to tell you the stress I have had with this new address already. So my new apartment complex emailed me with my new address. They told me it was South Beach Drive (not real address, but you'll get the idea once I explain). I called Time Warner Cable yesterday to change my address and they said they couldn't find that one. I had done a Google Maps search for my address too and it didn't show up. The lady from TWC said she found Southbeach Road, no spaces and road instead of drive. I searched that and it came up where it should. I went to my complex today to ask them and they were adamant that it was South Beach Drive with a space after South and Drive instead of road. But when I drove past the green road sign it said Southbeach Road. I don't understand why the complex is so confused about it. I went to the post office and they said it's Southbeach Road, no spaces, not drive. I'm trusting the post office over the apartment complex. I haven't even moved yet and there's already one strike against my new place. Not good!

Holiday Concert

I went to the holiday concert that some of my students performed in today. It's amazing to see so many parents show up to that when the majority of them don't show up to the science fair night or any parent teacher conferences we try to set up. Then when you do call and get a hold of them (after 4-5 times) it's always our fault. I often get, "Well what was said to make him act that way?" This is why my students are the way they are. If their parents are accusatory, that's the way their child will be too. It's scary. No matter how hard I try, I can't compete with the way their parents are raising them, whether it be the right way or the wrong way. I can only do so much to get them to understand right from wrong.

Playoffs?

I remember before the start of the football season, I predicted the Cowboys would get 3 wins. Luckily they destroyed my prediction and so far have 10 wins and 4 loses! With two games to go, they have a decent chance of making the playoffs for the first time since 2009! No one expected them to play this well. One of their key players just hurt himself but might be back this weekend. Hopefully he will be! I haven't been this excited about the Cowboys in a long time. Go Cowboys!

Christmas Clothes

I actually wore Christmas themed flannel pants and a Christmas t-shirt yesterday. The pants were really comfortable. My friends and I had a Christmas party of our own. There were only 5 of us so it wasn't much of a party, more of a gathering. One of the things we wanted to do was wear Christmas pajamas. We are weird. I know. I'll probably wear those pants once a year. Maybe I'll wear them on Christmas Eve this year. There's no other appropriate time to wear Santas on my pants. Oh well, we had a good time as usual and that's all that matters.

Tear off Calendars

I love tear off calendars. My mom bought me two of them last year. She bought me a trivia one and a teacher one. I just happened to look at my trivia one on my desk and see the date was October 21. That's the problem with the tear off calendars. I never remember to tear it off and read the facts. I just updated that calendar. My one at school is probably around the same date. I'll have to tear them off too. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some facts to read.

Coming up Quickly

I'm moving to another place on January 10th. I'm not moving very far away from where I am now. It's only about 2 miles. It's further away from my school though. Like I said, it's not that big of a deal. At least it's not 20 miles away from where I work like it was last year. I decided it's time to move because I'm done with this place. As you know, there are so many issues with the current place I live in. It was time for a change. Unfortunately, the new place I am living in is smaller and costs more but whatever. I gotta do what I gotta do. I better start packing!

1 Year Ago on This Date

My life changed drastically on December 11, 2013. That was the day that I flew down to North Carolina and had an "interview" for a 1st grade teaching position. I put interview in quotes because it was more like the principal asking me a few questions that he could have answered by reading my resume and then hiring me. I flew down to North Carolina and back to New York in that day. One year later, I switched jobs to another district and grade level in North Carolina. I have made an amazing group of new friends. I have had so many frustrations during my year of teaching. But I've also had so many more amazing moments that you have read on my blogs. I've seen Billy Joel, Tom Petty, and Paul McCartney while being down here. I've been to three hockey games, two UNC games, a Duke game, an NC State college football game, the NCAA tournament, and saw a practice round and three rounds of the U. S. Open for free! I went on a cruise in August, have gone to Myrtle Beach 4 times, and been to Carowinds amusement park. I published my 3rd "The Teacher That..." book and have consistently sold well over 100 books a month for 12 straight months! I've had more fun this year than I've ever had before. Ever since I took that risk to fly down to North Carolina for the interview one year ago and take the job, I've decided I'm going to continue to take risks, be spontaneous, and take every opportunity I can. I want to live life to the fullest. I believe that this year is proof that I have. It's been a wild year. If someone told me on December 5, 2013 that one week later I'd have a teaching job in North Carolina, I would have told them they were on something. December 6 was the day the opportunity came up and that next month was all a blur. I can't believe how much I have accomplished this year. I'm excited to see what the next year brings. I don't have a clue what's in store next!

Garbage Disposal

One day, shortly after I made the friends I have here, I randomly told them that people call me the garbage disposal because I eat a lot. They asked me who called me that. I told them that I guess I was the only one who called myself that. Today, as with every other day, I lived up to that self proclaimed title. I could not stop eating. It's amazing, I eat a small breakfast, small lunch, then go crazy when I get home. I can't stop shoveling in the food! I need to slow down though because I'm going to get fatter the older I get if I continue these unhealthy eating habits.

Reviews

I've gotten about 5 reviews in the past few weeks about my books. I had one from a kid that said it has inspired him to do better in school. The others have said my books are awesome and they want me to write more. These reviews are from people I do not know. That makes it so much better. The only "bad" review I've gotten on my children's books was a 2-star review because of formatting errors. Everything else has been a 4 or 5 star review. I wish I had time to write more books. I also have no ideas in mind. If I wrote about this school year, it would not be a kids book anymore. It would be an X rated book. Who knows when inspiration will strike again?

Hangry

It's never good to be around a hangry fat man. What's hangry? It's when you are so hungry that you are extremely angry for no reason other than the fact that you are hungry. That was me this afternoon after working out. I stayed at the gym a little bit longer than usual because they were giving away some prizes. However, they said that the drawing would be at 6 PM. It didn't start until 6:15 and then they took forever to call each name for the prizes. Naturally I didn't win any prizes. It was a complete waste of an hour which made me even hangrier. It wasn't good at all. Please note, do not come anywhere near me when I am hangry, it won't end well for either of us. Once you get food in me, I'll be completely fine. I have food in me now, so I'm good.

Resources

When I was in school, teachers would have to create their own worksheets for us to use. They would have to create transparencies to use on the overhead projector. They didn't have the abundance of resources available to teachers online. I just did a Google search for worksheets in the topic I'm covering in math and tons of stuff came up. I didn't have to have a username or password to get these worksheets. I clicked a few buttons telling them what I wanted and it created in seconds. I love it! There are so many great videos on YouTube of other teachers teaching certain topics too. It's overwhelming the amount of resources available to us. It makes creating lesson plans slightly easier. 9.5 more school days until winter break!

Getting Antsy

I've been looking up a cruise from Charleston, South Carolina during spring break for a long time now. The price keeps going up and up and up. It's like $800 for a 5 day cruise. I just looked at more cruises for fun. I found one during that week from Miami, Florida, 7 days for $559! That's a ton cheaper and 2 days longer! I'm getting really antsy to take another cruise. It's getting so bad that I'm starting to shake (not really). I don't think my friends will be willing to pay that much money though. I understand that but I'm going to talk to them tonight and see what they say.

Clap

The Nutcracker today was as boring as I expected it to be. I did have a few kids fall asleep. I was very thankful for that. That way they weren't interrupting any of the performers. Before the show started, the lady introducing the show told the audience that they should clap whenever they thought something was spectacular. The audience actually listen to her and took her words to heart. The audience was full of fourth-grade students all from the county I work at. They clapped at everything. It was actually a bit annoying. At least the ones who stayed awake seemed into it. The ballet was very long. I'm glad it's over with.

The Nutcracker

We are taking the 4th graders to see The Nutcracker tomorrow. From what I have heard from past years, we are in for a good time. I say that with as much sarcasm as I can muster through typed words. I hear that people sleep during the play. I can only be lucky enough that my kids will sleep during the play. I can see so many of them shouting out to me, "Mr. Pacelli, this is boring. I have to go to the bathroom. I can't hold it." On the bright side, I won't have to teach much!

Power Out

Today was just a very strange day. I live about 3 miles from the school. I take a right and then at the light about a mile down the road, I take a left and the school is 2 miles down the road on the left. I took my right this morning and noticed bumper to bumper traffic going the other way. That never happens at 6:30AM. It was also pitch black and foggy. As I get to the light to take a left, there was an accident ahead of me. Maybe that's what caused the traffic. The road leading to school was fine. I walk into school and we have some power. Some lights worked and others didn't. I learned that there was a bigger accident down the road where a car hit a power pole and flipped over. Shortly after the kids came in, many late due to insane traffic, all of the lights went out for about an hour. Teachers thought we would be lucky and they would close school. Nope. They fixed the power and the day went on as usual. I later learned that the insane traffic was due to the fact that Fort Bragg was doing extreme checks of every car. I heard there were delays of over 4 hours. That's insane! It was just an odd way to start the day and of course it made the kids even more off than they always are...

Hot Tub

Guess who doesn't want to go in a hot tub ever again? This guy! I noticed some red marks on my skin Sunday night. People suggested that maybe they were hives. I took Benadryl and they didn't go away. I went to urgent care and paid $87 today! Ugh. I knew there was a catch to free insurance. The doctor asked me if I have had any different foods, new detergent, new clothes, etc. to see if I was having an allergic reaction. I said no to all of that. Then she took a look at the marks and asked if I had been in a hot tub recently. I went in one Friday night while at Myrtle Beach. Apparently I picked up some sort of bacteria infection from that hot tub causing these marks. She put me on meds and hopefully they will go away! Ugh. That was a very expensive 30 minutes in a hot tub!

Run in December

I just went for a run outside in December in shorts and a t-shirt. I couldn't do that in New York! It was 70° today. I love it! It's supposed to be in the upper 50's up to mid 60's all week. Again, that almost never happens in New York. It's strange because I froze during my 5K run a couple of weeks ago. The weather here has been cold then warm then freezing then warm. Make up my mind! At least it hasn't snowed yet!