Lesson Learned: Always wear sunscreen in the sun. I haven't burned my stomach in years.

Tim and I got back from a weekend on Catalina Island with some friends. This time, we didn't do any scuba diving; we were happy just to skin dive. The mornings were spent in the sun and water, the afternoons in relaxing. It was nice being in the water again. I do miss it, but don't want to do it everyday anymore. I would love to go diving in warm, clear water. My hope is to go to Mexico someday and dive there. So, now I have a sunburn on my tummy and shoulders. It makes sleeping on my stomach a bit uncomfortable. And the burn on my shoudlers makes me wary around the girls. They missed being out of their cage.

Today was spent trying to get back into my routine. I had a lot of inertia to overcome, but I succeded in exercising and watching my food points. All I have left to do are my 100 abdominal exercises. (Yes, you should be doing them, too.)

So, what do I do all day? The "secret" summer life of a teacher.

Once Tim's alarm goes off, I'm half awake. Usually I go back to sleep and get up at about 7 am. Being the nerd that I am, I head for the WeightWatchers message boards and check in on the groups I belong to (my fav: Struggling Lifetimers). I eat breakfast (sharing some with the girls) while fooling around on the computer for a bit, then get ready for my morning exercise which is usually a walk or some other activity that earns me 2-3 Activity Points (a WW way of measuring how much energy you expend based on your weight, activity intensity, and duration; then you can add those points to your daily points target). I don't eat those, because they represent the amount of running around I do all day at school, and I don't count that as exercise. Then I relax and get ready for lunch. Sometimes I catch the "feel good" shows on Discovery Health Channel: one on folks who've lost a lot of weight (gets me inspired to continue w/WW) and one on adoption. That show is just a guaranteed happy ending, and gives me warm fuzzies. Then, I turn the TV off and go back on the computer or read a book. After it cools down, it's time for my afternoon exercise. This could be working out to one of three video routines, biking 2-12 miles, or (as of Monday) a short jog. Then I take a shower, make dinner, wash some dishes, and hang out with Tim and the girls until bedtime, which usually means more computer time.

Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that I squeeze in a couple of housecleaning chores during the day. Not as many as I should, of course. Now that July is ending, I have to start planning for the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. :-( Well, all good things must come to an end. And I am looking forward to next year and working with my team.

What the heck??!! Stress dream numbers 2 and 3

Last night, I dreamt it was the end of August, and I was back at school preparing for the new year with the other teachers. The principal gave out our schedules, and I ....well, bascially I had the worst schedule I've ever seen. I had two preps (meaning I taught two different courses, 7th grad life science and 8th grade physical science). That part wasn't so bad. What made it yucky was that I had 0 period life sci, 1st period phys sci, then 2-6th period life sci! I did not have a prep period! My first class was at 7am! It was for kids who failed it before and had to take it again! No one else except band had a 0 period! Just 8 hrs straight teaching! AND I had to share my room during first period with an art teacher for some reason! When I pointed it out to the dept. chair, she said it was because the University had made the schedules based on some research, and according to them I was the one best suited for 2 extra classes and no preps. "Why is that?" I asked. She shrugged and said it didn't make any sense to her, but the principal liked it. I tried to talk to him, but he was a real prat and kept avoiding me. I got the feeling the reason I was the one best suited was because I wasn't tenured yet and none of the older teachers would do it.

Then I woke up, realized it was just a stress-dream, and went back to sleep. I ended up dreaming it was the first day of school and no one entered my room when the bell rang. I went outside, and there was a retired teacher visiting and he was the favorite of all the students. The only way to get them in was to invite this teacher in. I was trying to get on with the lesson but his presence was so distracting to the students. They kept going up to him, trying to talk him into teaching MY class. He would smile and chuckle and say he would but it was out of his hands and did nothing to ease the situation like leaving me alone. bleh.

I suppose it is the other side of summer vacation. Time to read Wong and Wong's First Days of School and figure out what I'm doing, because it's gonna take me some time to refine it (i.e. change my mind 150x).

Same routine, different day. Pretty much sums up my summer....Then again, maybe not!

Due
to the clamoring requests of my blog fans (both of them), I'm writing
again. This week I've been house-sitting for a friend of mine in her
beautiful Santa Barbara home. She needed someone to take care of her 2
cats, 2 bearded dragons, and 10 birds. In return, I had full use
of
her home and pool. :) It was great! I invited some of my teacher
friends over for lunch, and they all loved it. So much so, that they
requested I house-sit for her next summer.

I had brought the
girls with me, but they were miserable; they moped about the small cage
I put them in, hardly ate, and hardly interacted with me. :( I took
pity on them and brought them home a couple of days early. When I put
them back in their cage, they came back to life: eating, drinking,
running around. Poor things! Tim's dad said the girls missed us, as
they ran to the walls of their cage when they heard Tim's parents come
in, thinking it was us. Now I'm back home and have opened their cage.
They are happily scurrying about their things and climbing inside my
shirt. <:3 )~ <:3 )~


Tim's parents are in town. They
arrived last week, spent the weekend here, and took off to discover the
deserts of the Southwest (or, at least, Las Vegas and Death Valley).
They returned last night, and will spend this weekend with us before
flying back to New Jersey.

Next weekend, Tim and I are going to Catalina Island with some friends to take in some snorkeling. That'll be fun!