Remember to breathe.

I had a wonderful couple days with my pal AlieMalie.  We went to Swiss Chalet for Festive Specials, shopped around Yorkdale, and I took her to one of my fave Toronto restaurants: The Ace.  It was really special getting a ride to work from a far-away friend on Friday (bonus alliteration points right there), and I'm glad that she could squeeze in a visit in between work insanity.

Friday was a rather average day at school, other than the fact I got pranked.  During second period, when my student teacher was teaching, four kids & my pal Nigel came to the door, although I didn't notice Nigel at first.  Two of the kids are on student council, and they said "Miss, we have come here to thank you for all of the extra work you do for the school.  You put in a lot of time doing things extra things like student council and we really appreciate it."

"Oh, wow.  That's really nice," I said while beaming.  "You guys have really made my day."

"As a thank you, we'd like to give you an honourary high five," they continued and proceeded to give me enthusiastic high fives.  When I got a high five from Nigel, I noticed that my hand became covered in a white foamy substance.  Oh no!  I had become the victim of a shaving cream high five!

My class started to laugh at me uncontrollably, and pointed out that I had shaving cream in my hair.  It was pretty funny, and I appreciated the prank. It made my Friday morning a little more interesting.  It was also funny because I was wearing my favourite blue button down shirt with swans on it (Target fashion for the win), and about ten minutes after I thought I'd cleaned up all of the shaving cream, I noticed a big glob on my shirt.  The swans had camouflaged it.

After school was pretty fun because a few of us went out for drinks in celebration of a friend's birthday.  Then, I came home and had a nap before Friday night outing #2: Twin Forks at Lee's Palace with my friend Elaine.  The band's set started at 11:30 pm.  I tell you, going to something that starts at 11:30 pm makes me feel young!  Elaine and I met up for coffee at about 10, and then got to Lee's just in time to find a good standing spot.  This is my third time seeing Twin Forks this year.  They are the new project of Chris Carrabba, the founder of my favourite emo band Dashboard Confessional.  They put on a fun show.  My favourite moment was the encore when Chris did a solo of Dashboard's "Remember to Breathe".

The rest of the weekend has been chill.  I made a lot of progress on my favourite project these days: I'm now well into season 3 of Gilmore Girls.

I was supposed to do a trail run somewhere outside of Peterborough with my friend Rasa today, but she was hurt and she had to bail on me.  I tried to find another friend to take her place, but no one was able, and it wasn't really worth it to rent a car.

I did however sign up for a couple of Christmas-themed runs to do with another friend.  We're going to do the Jolly run that precedes the Santa Claus parade next Sunday, and the Santa Shuffle at the beginning of December.

I also booked my trip to Montreal in December to attend the wedding of one of my friends from university.  I'm looking forward to getting out of the city, enjoying a long train ride, and staying in a hotel.  It will be fun.

Do you ever rewind to the summer you knew me?

Things I like these days:

1) Walking down the residential street that leads to my work and smelling that nice autumnal smell (which is decaying leaves, I think).

2) Scented candles.  Seriously, what have I become?  Two weekends ago I bought one of those giant three-wick candles from Bath & Body Works, in Pumpkin Apple scent, and it's almost gone.

3) Being at work a little bit less.  In October, I felt that I was pulling anyway from 9-hr to 13-hr days at school almost every day (and that doesn't count weekend hours spent marking).  This week I don't have the need to stay as late, and somehow I am almost caught up on my marking.   Nice.

4) New albums.  There's a lot of stuff coming out these days, and I'm easing through it.  These days I'm listening to Andrew McMahon In the Wilderness, which is perfectly pleasant.  Then I'm going to get the new Hey Rosetta! album.  I'll follow that up with the new Damien Rice album.  (Notice how I'm doing these one-by-one... I'm not good at multitasking when it comes to new music.)

5) My purple puffy vest.  It's not that purple though.  Super dark so I can get away with it.  Vest weather is short, and must be taken advantage of.

6) Vistors. My pal AlieMalie is in Detroit for work stuff, and is going to trek to Toronto for a couple of days starting tomorrow.  And then in a couple of weeks, my pals Matt from Wpg and Wes from Vancouver are going to both be around for a mutual friend's wedding.  Yay!

Halloween and Hibernation

Halloween is always a crazy day at school.  Kids and staff in costumes, candy everywhere, and not much work getting done.  It's surprisingly draining.

This year a bunch of us dressed up a my school's computer science teacher.  This guy is a dear friend, and quite a character.  He wins the teacher costume competition every year without even trying because he is hilarious.  Anyway, we all decided to go as him.  All that was needed was a short black wig, glasses, a polo shirt, jeans, clunky shoes, and a lanyard of keys around the neck. 

It was a success.  When the kids walked into my room they would say things like "oh no! another one?  How many of you are there??" It was pretty funny.

On Halloween Eve, I was going to borrow my friend Mathew's house to hand out candy.  He's a grumpy old man (who is younger than me) who turns off his lights and does not give out candy.  I like handing out candy, but don't get to since I live in a building.  Anyway, operation candy will have to happen next year, as Mathew ended up having a party to go to that night, so I stayed in with another friend, ordered Chinese food, had some drinks, and watched Halloween episodes of the Simpsons.

The rest of the weekend was so chill.  I essentially hibernated.  I did manage to go out to get groceries but that was it.  I got a good amount of housework done, and an even larger number of episodes of the Gilmore Girls watched.

In fact, I really wish I could have another hibernation day tomorrow, but it's Monday, and it's back to the old grind.  And no more pagan holiday to justify slacking off.

Happy Halloween!

Wow, I can't believe that October is coming to a close. 

I don't have anything else of substance to say, so I'll encourage you to click here and look at these awesome Simpsons Halloween costumes.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/declancashin/cant-sleep-clown-will-eat-me

So much to blog about...

...so little time.

But my period 3s are working hard on a test, so I can point form update.

1) Dream Serenade at Massey Hall on Saturday was *AMAZING*.  Lineup was:

• Lou Canon
• Greylands
• Jason Collett
• Sarah Harmer
• Barenaked Ladies
• Hayden
• Billy Talent
• Aaron & Matt from The National
• Feist

There were all kinds of special treats like when Aaron & Matt from The National joined Hayden for the song "Dynamite Walls", when Sarah Harmer joined Billy Talent for "Surrender", and when Hayden joined The National for "I Need My Girl".  And of course, there was a group sing along at the end.

Even though I enjoyed sets by some of my very favourites (Sarah, Hayden, The National, and Feist), the highlight might have just been The Barenaked Ladies, whom I've never seen live before.  That's shocking considering they are a mainstay of Cdn music, and I'm a mainstay of Cdn music concerts.  Anyway, at the end they did a mashup of current pop songs (Roar, Wrecking Ball, etc. etc.) that had me roaring for laughter.

And this was all for a great cause.  Hayden's daughter has a developmental disability, and the funds went to the Beverley School, which is for students with developmental/physical disabilities.  As an educator who does work with some students with these disabilities, it was very close to my heart.

Good news: it was the First Annual Dream Serenade, so I look forward to going again!

2) LIGHTS at the Danforth Music Hall on Sunday night was pretty great too.  She's an excellent live performer, and it was a super fun show.  And, I was super happy to have a comfy seat up in the balcony, and it was done by 10:30 pm.  A perfect activity for both the young and old in me.

3) It's Election Time! FINALLY.  I hope our new mayor has a last name other than Ford.  I am proudly voting for Olivia Chow if you are interested.  I am not voting "strategically" because I don't want another conservative running my city.  I'm voting with both my head and my heart for the best and most progressive candidate.

4) Ugh, the Jian Ghomeshi scandal has got me down and I'm sickened.  Obviously we don't know for sure what happened, but I feel (just like I felt with Rob Ford) that where there's so much smoke, there's gotta be fire.  I always enjoyed his radio program, Q, and liked him so it really sucks that he's turned out to be an awful and abusive person.  Boo.

Cancel life.

Sometime ago, I read that every season of Gilmore Girls was going to be on Netflix, but only American Netflix. Boo for me as I haven't gotten around to figuring out the trick that allows a Canadian to access American Netflix.  This is actually OK because I spend more time on Netflix figuring out what to watch as opposed to actually watching stuff.  Therefore, I prefer having the smaller selection that Canadian Netflix offers.

Back to Gilmore Girls.  I used to watch that show sporadically back in my university days.  I believe it was on on Friday nights, and usually I'd be partying, studying, or on a train to Stratford on Friday nights. I was always in and out of that show, but I really did like it.  I was sad when I heard that it would only be on US Netflix.

But then, all sneaky-like, it appeared on Netflix this weekend!  Well, actually it might have been before that, but I didn't notice until the weekend.  My friend Wes had tweeted "The entire series of Gilmore Girls is on Netflix. Cancel life," but I'd missed that since I was like doing stuff or something as opposed to being on Twitter.

However, upon my discovery, I spent a chilly afternoon/evening indoors watching yesterday.  I got six episodes in and the show is bringing me so much joy!  Did you know Kirk had a bunch of different names at the beginning?  And it's so sweet to watch Rory connect with her grandfather at the golf club.  And the wake for Cinnamon, the cat?  I wish I lived in Stars Hollow.   I sometimes think I belong more in a quirky close-knit small town as opposed to the big city.  Surely there must be one of those out there that needs a science teacher, right?  And there's gotta be a version of Luke's Diner in that town too.

So, in summary, if you need me, I'm probably watching Gilmore Girls. 

Another life, another weekend.

This is my favourite song by a long shot these days.



Topic #1 - Signs of Aging

I'm getting older (and so are you, sorry).  I'm noticing that my willingness to put up with a lot of shit decreases as I get older.  For example: I am much more willing to fork out money for a cab these days because sometimes I can't deal when it comes to public transit.  For example, this morning I took a cab downtown to board a shuttle bus to get me to the starting line of the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon 5K.  Last year, I got up at the crack of dawn, and took a bus and then another bus to get me to the shuttle buses.  It was cold, and I had to wait a long time for each TTC bus.  This year, all I could think was eff that, I'm forking out for a cab.  And I did, it was glorious not waiting out in the cold.

As I get older, I hate lines more and more.  And waiting, gawd do I hate waiting.

But I do enjoy being able to take a break every now and then and relax.  So I'm not all about the hate and the "I can't even".

Topic #2 - Cross Border Shopping Trip

Yesterday, I went on a cross border shopping to trip to "The Buffalo" with my friend Mathew.  We call Buffalo NY "The Buffalo" because Mathew is the worst when it comes to talking to border agents.  He was once asked where in the US we'd been, and he said "The Buffalo" and it's been called that ever since.

His performance coming back this time was slightly better, although he kept looking over at me when the agent asked if either of us had accepted gifts while we'd been over.  Afterwards, I ribbed him for that because I was like "Why were you looking at me?  Did you think I accepted a gift when we split up?  Or should I have declared that I got a sample of beer at the grocery store?"

We ended up having our car searched, which has never happened to me, but once they saw that it was full of cookies and yummy food from Trader Joe's they let us go quickly.

I know you might roll eyes at this, but I'm so glad that you exist.

Probably the VERY BEST song for a Canadian Thanksgiving is the one below.  Press play, please.



I love that the only thing that even approaches a love song by my favourite band is this one.  It's not cheesy, and speaks of the kind of affection and appreciation that I really hope that everyone has in their lives.  The kind that's not fleeting and fickle as romantic love can often be (and everyone write about that kind).  Although if you have romantic love that is not fleeting nor fickle, I'm so happy for you! :D

My favourite phrases from this song are:

1) "How you make me laugh so hard." --> I think one of things that I value most in life is a deep, long laugh, the type that takes your breath away a little, might make your stomach hurt a lot (or a bit), and is really hard to stop.  Little laughs are great, don't get me wrong.  But those really hard laughs make life worth living.  I'm lucky to have so many people in my life that bring me these laughs.  Like when I'm in London hanging with my dear friend Claire, and we are killing ourselves over "Fish Christy thinks vertically", Giggy, a dog on the RHOBH who is very committed to the cause of children with alopecia in Missouri, and a tonne more.  Or my pals Alex and Wes, who buckle up growlers of the world's best Pumpkin Ale* in the backseat.  Or, closer to home there's my friend Mathew who just sends me into hysterics with indecipherable texts about playoff baseball and Dateline NBC.  Or my co-workers, with whom I'm writing a sitcom script that describes everyday absurdity. 

Bascially, I'm thankful for anyone who makes me laugh so hard, is what I'm trying to say with the above rambling paragraph.

2) "And you tell me to fuck off when I need somebody to." --> This one isn't as fun as #1, but seriously friends who will tell you to fuck off when you are being stupid about something are great too.  I have the very bad habit of beating myself up over so many things; I'm my worst critic, and I think I most often need to be told to fuck off when I'm tearing myself down.  And my friends are there for me to tell me that I'm being idiotic with all of the self-deprecation.  Or, to tell me to fuck off when I'm just being annoying or whiny.  That happens sometimes too.

And I guess, on this Canadian Thanksgiving, I'm most thankful for people who make me laugh so hard and tell me to fuck off.

*If I were in St. Louis right now, I would be drinking so much of Schlafly's Pumpkin Ale.  It's probably best for my liver that I'm not.  That stuff tastes like the beer version of pumpkin pie.  Sooooo good.

It's been a hard year, and I only know.

These days I'm listening to LIGHTS' new ablum, Little Machines, on heavy rotation.  I like it.  So much so that I decided to grab a ticket to her October show at the Danforth Music Hall.  Yes, after the totally awesome me-date I had going to see the Cons at the Danforth, I've decided the Danforth's balcony is my favourite new place to hang.

I love this song.



I'm also super in love with the NPR stream of Stars' new album No One Is Lost.

You know where to find me any time you want me.

This is my favourite October song.



I can't believe that it took me until the early hours of October 8th to listen to it.

I should be sleeping but I'm not because I passed out on my couch after drinking two strong beers (Delerium Tremens!) at a work pub Pictionary event.  It was fun, and boy I can't draw.

Before the pub, I spent sometime wandering on College St running errands.  It was a nice afternoon for this, and I just missed the rain that's been falling steadily all evening.

I think I had more to write about, but I've completely forgotten.  I'm always writing brilliant (I'm sure of it) blog posts in my head while on the subway or walking around, but they disappear as soon as I sit to write.  I should take notes.

So maybe next post you'll get something a little more interesting than my favourite October song.

End of camp, new week already.

I'm still rather exhausted from three days of keeping up with 40 teenagers at camp, but it was a fun time.  Lots of laughs, beautiful autumn scenery, hikes, and late night nights.  On Friday, I returned to the city, dragged my stuff home on the TTC, changed out of my muddy jeans and sneakers, and headed off to see the Constantines at the Danforth Music Hall.  It was an excellent show, and thank goodness for balcony seats.

I've been pretty lazy for the rest of the weekend.  I finished re-reading "Gone Girl" and went with my pal Mathew to see the movie.  I thought the movie was an excellent adaptation of the novel, and I'm glad that I read the novel again, so I could really see what was changed from print to screen.  (I first read the book two years ago, so wouldn't have remembered all of the details.)

And with that, another week begins, but at least it's followed by a long weekend.

Camp and burnout.

Tomorrow I am off to supervise a leadership camp for three days for the third year in a row.  This means that I had a late night at school assembling lesson plans for when I'm away, and I still haven't packed because I am watching postseason baseball.

Teaching is a profession where it's way more work to be away than to be there.  I carefully plan all medical appointments and yeesh, I even try to plan my illnesses.  My chin rash thing has cleared up, and I really hope that it does not come back for a third time, because I really don't have time/energy to take time off to go to the doctor.

Because I do a lot of extracurricular activities at my school, I totally understand the concept of professional burnout.  It's been ten years of working at this pace.  I sort of want to give up some of the extra things that I do, but I don't have the heart to, because I know that no one else would take it over from me, or if they did, let's face it, there would be a risk that quality would decrease.  (For some strange reason, my environmental club has attracted over 50 members this year, and I know it's because they've become a family that attracts new members, but having a fun moderator who looks for opportunities for them helps.)  However, instead of cutting back, I've decided that I have no more yeses to give this year.  If someone asks me to do anything else, all I have is nos.

I always have lots of fun at this camp because the kids are great, the facilities are nice, and my fellow supervisors are fun people to hang out with.  Sadly, the guidance councilor who organizes this program is retiring this year.  The joke is she's grooming me to take over, but I don't think I could handle the organizational aspect of this program on top of a full teaching load AND all of the rest of the stuff I do.  It'd be cool to find someone to team up with, but all of my friends are like-minded educators with a lot on their plates and no more yeses to give.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.  Some days I envy lazy teachers who do nothing, but I know I wouldn't be able to handle being one of those people. I just can't believe I'm this tired into September.  Although a lot of it is because I need to exercise more, which is a topic for another post.

Weekend/Question

The past weekend was pretty good.  Beautiful weather, drinks on a patio, baking pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, dinner with a friend, Jays season closer, and a few nice naps.

I excitedly booked Constantines reunion tickets waaaaaay back in June, not thinking that it would conflict with the annual school leadership camp that I chaperone annually.  (The date always changes, and I think I thought it was in September this year.)  Anyhow, I gave away my tickets to my friend the music teacher at work, and now I'm debating picking up a ticket for the Friday show for myself.  I could get a seated balcony ticket, and just chill up there with a beer.  I'll probably be tired from staying up late to ensure teenagers don't leave their rooms and get up to no good, but I should be OK to sit at a rock show, right?

What do you guys think?  Should I spend more money and take myself on a date to the Cons?

Update: Texted my pal Matt in Winnipeg re: this issue.  His response: "Yes! You love them! You'll have earned that sit [in the balcony]."  Thanks to this enabling, I've purchased a ticket.

Chin Up.

The inspiration for this post, is a comment by my pal Kevin on my previous post, which was to keep my chin (with its ugly mysterious rash) up during yucky times.

Bahahaha.  I literally laughed out loud at that.

BUT, today we got good news that the worst of the things that was troubling me is over, and the awful thing that was happening to the best person ever is over.  Phew.  I feel so much happier now.  The rest of the stuff seems less bad now.

Today after school I finally went for a run with my friend Sara.  We'd made plans to go for a run in High Park two weeks ago, but I had to cancel to go to a funeral visitation, and then she had to cancel because of work, but we finally got out today.  And it was a lovely warm day, and it was so much fun to run through the park.  I was reminded of the awesome stress relief/mood stabilization/energy that exercise gives me, and man, I need to get back to my A+ exercise habits.

The chin rash is still there, but has gone down.  I hope it doesn't reappear, because if it does I really will need to go to the doctor, and who has time for that?

But yah, I guess I'm feeling a bit better now.  I've got my Paris-inspired candle burning, a glass of red wine, and the baseball game now.  The Jays are now mathematically out of the playoffs, but I'm happy just to enjoy the rest of the season.  They have won their last two games, so yay!

Oh good, and now Rilo is throwing up on the floor, so I guess I'll go deal with that.

Update: She didn't, but it certainly sounded it like it.  Yay!

Shake it off.

Sometimes, even when one can be an insufferable music snob, shit gets so rough that only this Taylor Swift song will do.



I've had a weird maelstrom of negatively surrounding me lately.  Most of it doesn't even have anything to do with me.  It's just people around me are struggling, and it's brought me down.  I obviously can't write about these things here, but some of them are so unbelievable that they seem more like they are out of a movie than real life.  And, some of these events are happening far away, and the updates are few and far between, so all there is to do it worry.  Blargh.  Hopefully by the time I write again things will be better.

On top of that, I'm feeling hurt and confused because there was someone who seemed super into me, and then that someone asked to make plans with me over the weekend and then *poof* disappeared, and won't even respond to my text messages.  What the what?  I don't get things. 

Oh, and I think my skin is paying the price for all of this.  Three weeks ago, I got this weird rash on my chin (it seriously makes me look like I've fallen and hit my chin).  It cleared up in time for school picture day last week, and then boom! It came back again this morning.  I haven't been using any new skin products, soaps, detergents, etc, etc so I have no idea what could be causing it other than S-T-R-E-S-S.

But, but, but, there's always a bright side right?

Instead of moping around on Saturday night, I went over to my pal Mathew's house and watched him cook one of his 52 new dishes of 2014.  I insisted on opening a bottle of wine he'd been planning on returning to the LCBO (he's weird), and then we watched Dateline NBC and I had some good laughs thanks to creepy Keith Morrison.  I swear belly laughs are the best.

And, I had some good laughs/warmed heart on Friday afternoon during my prep period when I was returning to my office after photocopying some stuff, and a few kids came running out of the chemistry room shouting "Miss, there's a gas leak!" while they were holding molecular molecules of methane.  I pretended to drop my stuff and I replied that I would alert the authorities.

They had a supply teacher, and had clearly been snooping through cupboards instead of doing chemistry.  "Did you guys make those and wait for me all this time?" I asked, and they replied yes.  I grabbed my camera and made them re-enact the scene because really, that's a good memory to look back on when I'm feeling down and have a weird rash on my chin.

On Sunday, I met up with a friend for a spontaneous brunch, dropped by Starbucks where my pal Fea was marking for some laughs, then came home for my transatlantic bad movie date with my pal Claire.  We drank red wine and watched the same awful movie while texting back and forth.  It was fun.

And lastly, it looks probable that I'm going to get a former student as a student teacher in October.  She was an exceptional former student, so I'm quite excited.

I'll leave you with one of my latest musical finds that I don't feel guilty about.  I saw Lowell play at Field Trip back in June, and she was great.  Her album "We Loved Her Dearly" came out this month on Arts & Crafts, and I adore it.

You've got a lot on your mind.

This post is going to be all about music.

1) Sloan - Commonwealth

Sloan released their new album last Tuesday, and even though they were doing a performance/signing at the HMV by the Eaton Centre, I decided to skip it and go out for dinner with friends.  (Am I getting older, more mature, and less music-obsessed?  Maybe.  But it doesn't feel right to do Sloan-stalking without my dear Becca T.)

Yesterday, I went to Sonic Boom to buy the record, but they didn't have it.  Then I headed down to HMV and Sunrise by the Eaton Centre but no luck.  I begrudgingly bought it online, because I know that I wanted it on vinyl (it retrospect, I should have just preordered the thing).  Luckily, a download came with purchase of the record, and I've been listening to it since yesterday.

And I love it.

As you may/may not know, Sloan has four distinct singer-songwriters, and this album is a double album, where each writer gets a side.  I think I like the Jay side best, but I also really adore Patrick's side and Chris' side too.  I never really like Andrew's stuff, and his side is one seventeen-minute long song, which is so Andrew. 

This song by Jay is probably the album standout for me (so far).  It really really speaks to something happening in my life right now.  Sloan, how do you know me so well?  Also who can't love a song with "p.s. I like you" as a lyric?



23 years together and this band still releases interesting and creative music.  I can't wait until they announce a Toronto show for this album.

2) Brill Bruisers - The New Pornographers

This was the one album that I did manage to pick up yesterday during my record shopping trip.  I love it.  It's jangly pop music, with a lot of Neko Case vocals.  I'm just sad that they didn't include a download code with the vinyl.  (This rarely happens!)





3) Dream Serenade

I got tickets today to this October show at Massey Hall.  It's organized by Hayden (who's pretty much my #1 crush) and will feature performances by himself, Feist, Matt & Bryce of The National, and more.  It's a fundraiser for a charity that helps kids with developmental disabilities, so that's a pretty awesome thing.

4) OH NO!

It looks like I double booked myself.  For the past two years, I have chaperoned a leadership camp for my school.  The weekend always moves around.  I thought it fell this year in September, so I didn't worry when I bought Constantines tickets for October 2nd.  I was wrong.  BOO. 

(However they are playing on the Friday and I'm tempted to buy myself a ticket for that date...)

5) New Damien Rice!

After something like nine years, he's releasing a new album.  Sadly, I didn't realized he's playing here on October 14th and it's sold out.

Anyway, that sums up music news in my world.  What are you listening to these days?

Through cracks come the weeds.

Sigh. Autumn's here, and even though it's my favourite season and I should be excited, I feel that the autumn of 2014 might be the autumn of stuff falling through the cracks.

I would write more, since I haven't been able to put together a blog post in forever, but whenever I do it sounds whiny and pointless, so I won't.

I guess it's best to find humour in things. Last night I posted an emo tweet about something that seemed good just disappearing, and a friend of mine replied asking me if I was talking about the Blue Jays. I guess I've come across as super baseball obsessed this year, huh? And for the record, they haven't been disappointing in September,. The wild card is still a possibility!

Well I should use this cool autumn weather to continue my path of getting myself back to being 5K ready in a month. I has a lazy summer and I'm paying for it fitness-wise. However, I'm not going to become a better runner by writing mopey blog posts in bed, so I should lace up my shoes.

I'm in Stratford, I should mention! I saw Hawksley's play yesterday and it was awesome yet again!

I'm a survivor.

I made it through the first week of school, and holy hell did I feel exhausted.

At my school, they usually play music for the five minutes before class time to get everyone going in the right direction.  The kids choose the music and organize it, and since it's a new school year, we have some new tunes in the rotation.  (Thank goodness... Demi Lovato's "Heart Attack" was wearing on me.)  The new Friday morning song is "Survivor" by Destiny's Child, which was a fun choice.  I hadn't heard that song in FOREVER. 

This song caused my work spouse and I, who have the same prep period this semester, to play Beyonce during our prep.  I wasn't overly focused, so I decided to tweet the student council kids from my lame school-moderator account that we had appreciated Friday's music choice, and that a Beyonce party was happening in the science office.  They retweeted it to everyone who follows the student council account, so, oh good, the whole school knows.  Oh well, I think it's hilarious and it's good for kids to know that teachers are fun too.  (Maybe lame fun, but whatevs.)

Sidenote: my work spouse's class was telling her that Rhianna sang "Survivor" and she believed them, so I told her she needs to educate this kids on Beyonce history.  What are they teaching these kids?  Rhianna.  Yeesh.

I had a chill weekend.  I purposely did nothing on Friday because I knew I'd be shattered.  My Saturday night plans got postponed, but I had a nice Saturday afternoon.  My friend Fea told me that she was taking her kids to a neighbourhood park to have a picnic, so I planned that my 5K afternoon run would end at the park and then I hung out with them.  In the evening, I may have gone to Indigo and bought the Lego special-edition 30th anniversary Ghostbusters car (including all four Ghostbusters) and built that over the course evening while drinking a nice Beaujoulais, but maybe I didn't?  Maybe I am cooler than that.

Riot Fest was this weekend at Downsview Park with about a million bands that I love and you would have thought I'd been there but I just cannot handle Downsview.  Most of the bands I end up seeing on their own at proper shows, so I decided to opt out, even though it looks like everyone who went had an amazing time.

This week looks busy other than school.  On Monday I have a Jays game, Tuesday is dinner with friends, Thursday is running with a friend, and then on Friday I am heading to Stratford for the weekend. Yay!

September falls right into place.

This line comes from a great new Stars song.  The band released it yesterday in celebration (?) of back-to-school.



Yesterday was super easy.  I enjoyed seeing the kids.  I always say that my school has, for the most part, the nicest kids anywhere, and it's good seeing them again in September.  I have quite a few "repeat customers" in my classes, so it's nice to not really have the need to pretend that I'm tough (they know the truth... which is do your work and have fun in science). 

It was great seeing my colleagues again, especially those who are my close friends.  I'm so lucky to have lots of good friends at work, and usually we make an effort to get together once or twice over the summer, but it's nice to go back to seeing each other and joking around every day.

Today was exhausting though.  The second day is the day where I spend a lot of time talking to all of my classes.  I was so exhausted when I got home.  I managed to run a couple of errands, and get an evening coffee which is rare for me.  But despite the coffee, I still had to have a nap.

I keep coming up with good ideas for blog posts during my commutes, but then I forget them by the evening.  I need to keep a record of them.

Easy come, easy go.

Summer holidays, that is.

I can't believe that it flew by.  At the beginning of July, 2 whole months seems like a luxury that will never get spent, but it does.

I had a great summer, as you know.  July was relaxing, and August was mainly spent in Europe.  The past week I did go into school for three days: one day to plan an event, one day to plan my first week of lessons, and one day to execute the aforementioned event.  This weekend was spent with friends.  I went out to Ajax to visit my friend Flora, and then saw the Jays game on Sunday.  Today, I slept in, watched a movie on Netflix, went to the Eaton Centre to buy new black flats for school, went for a run, then made food for lunches for the week.  Now I am dying my hair (just making it a little darker) because that was the last thing I wanted to do before I go back.  (I'm sitting here with the stuff on my head right now.)

After that's done I will go sleep.  As much as I can.  The back-to-school jitters are always the worst.  I think I've decided on what to wear: a black skirt and a short-sleeved sweater.  The sweater may be a little warm, but I should live.  It's an easy day after all.   I always like to wear cute new stuff during the first week back.

I'll blog more interestingly later.