Over the years it's become more and more evident to me that I work in really what is a sitcom. It's the high school version of The Office, but no one interviews me. (How I wish someone would!!) Often I look around for the cameras that might be filming me so I can make a face a la Jim or Pam.
On today's episode my class was happily at work doing a lab on lenses, when one of the secretaries came over the PA and said "would whoever removed the Scantron machine from the staff room please return it?"
I started laughing out loud. "Oh no! That's the worst news ever! How am I supposed to mark multiple choice? By hand? Oh man, guys, the teachers are all going to be panicking!"
But seriously, the big mystery to me is who in their right might moved the Scantron machine. It's big, heavy and bulky. Who the heck has that much Scantronning to do?? If you have a test, it takes maybe two minutes to zip thirty cards through... The only big Scantronning job that I know of are student council elections, but it's me who uses it to count the ballots. And I don't take the bloody machine with me! And that's not even til next week!
The sad part about being a character on a sitcom is that you don't get to see what's happening outside your own scenes. I'm sure the whole Scantron machine moving incident and its return (it was back by the end of the day) was hilarious, but I didn't get to see it. But my people are looking into getting the whole story.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Oh young lions.
Just got back from an amazing Constantines show at Massey Hall. It was probably the loudest rock show I'd been to in quite some time.
I got into the Cons back in my early twenties because they were often playing shows with my beloved Weakerthans. I slowly warmed up to them, and I was a superfan by the time their last album came out in maybe around 2008.
They took a hiatus after that, but much to my happiness, they have started playing live shows again. This was my first time seeing them in the past year.
There is something very special about seeing bands play songs you love that remind you of happy times. That was what tonight was for me.
I got into the Cons back in my early twenties because they were often playing shows with my beloved Weakerthans. I slowly warmed up to them, and I was a superfan by the time their last album came out in maybe around 2008.
They took a hiatus after that, but much to my happiness, they have started playing live shows again. This was my first time seeing them in the past year.
There is something very special about seeing bands play songs you love that remind you of happy times. That was what tonight was for me.
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Confession
I skipped going to the Jays' game today to catch up on marking but I read a novel instead.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Long Weekend
Its the Monday morning of a long weekend, and I'm not sure where the weekend, or the week that preceded it, went.
The highlight of my past week was a field trip to the Ontario Science Centre with my grade 12 biology class. I took them there to do a pretty intense 6-hour DNA fingerprinting lab. It was a great experience because they got to do some protocol that's beyond the scope of a high school lab (PCR, gel electrophoresis) and they learned a lot. And, they each got to see their genotype at a random locus on chromosome 1. It was a nice day.
And a great bonus was that since they are mature grade 12s, I could simply dismiss them from the OSC, and take a 20-min bus ride home as opposed to having to go back to school then home.
I spend the weekend with my parents watching crappy baseball games and relaxing.
It's crazy to think that in a month from now, exams will almost be over and it'll be almost summer.
The highlight of my past week was a field trip to the Ontario Science Centre with my grade 12 biology class. I took them there to do a pretty intense 6-hour DNA fingerprinting lab. It was a great experience because they got to do some protocol that's beyond the scope of a high school lab (PCR, gel electrophoresis) and they learned a lot. And, they each got to see their genotype at a random locus on chromosome 1. It was a nice day.
And a great bonus was that since they are mature grade 12s, I could simply dismiss them from the OSC, and take a 20-min bus ride home as opposed to having to go back to school then home.
I spend the weekend with my parents watching crappy baseball games and relaxing.
It's crazy to think that in a month from now, exams will almost be over and it'll be almost summer.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Don't be crushed.
It was a busy weekend.
On Friday, I left school a little bit early thanks to a good friend who recognized my exhaustion and offered to supervise my regular Friday extracurricular activity. It was much appreciated as I left the hot, sweaty, gross school building and went home to finish writing a reference letter and take a nap.
My good friend Vern (from high school days, Go9) has moved to Toronto so we had our first hang out now that she's got an apartment of her own and not living on my futon. We braved the insanity of High Park to see the lovely cherry blossoms (although I saw lots in Vancouver in March, ha!). Then I brought her to a cute little backyard patio for dinner and drinks. It was a nice evening.
I could have been productive on Saturday, but instead of doing much, I sat on the couch and watched the baseball game. I didn't even mark while I watched. I struggle with these moments of complete unproductivity. I am feeling stressed these days because I have a lot of marking, prep work, housework, errands, etc. piling up and then when I have a good chunk of time to work on them, I procrastinate and do nothing. URGH. I am my own worst enemy too often.
On Saturday evening, I took my friend Mathew as my +1 to the CBC for a neat little TV studio concert. Hawksley Workman was previewing his upcoming album, Old Cheetah, on CBC's First Play Live. I saw an invite to this on Twitter and replied on Tuesday and made it on the guest list. The audience surrounded the band in a circle, and it was really intimate and wonderful. He played some old stuff (even opened with Don't Be Crushed) and the new songs were wonderful. I've been listening to Hawksley's music for fifteen years and so much of it brings me to instant nostalgia (incidentally the name of his new song). It was wonderful.
Today was super busy too. Way back in January when I was making resolutions that I've broken, I signed up for the Sporting Life 10K to motivate myself to get back into running. Well, it didn't work. However, I decided that since plenty of people walk it, I might as well too, and that's what I did. Today was a hot and humid day that felt more like June, so even though I just walked, it was sweaty and tiring. However, I felt better that I didn't give up, and even though I have blisters on the bottom of my feet, it was fun. I went to the Jays game right after the walk in my close, and I hope I wasn't too smelly... The game kind of sucked because they lost again, argh, and I didn't even get to see my boyfriend Russell Martin play since Dickey was pitching so Thole was catching.
After the game I came home and had a nap, and then did some more reference letter writing and lesson planning. I didn't even touch the marking pile. Oh well. There's always next week, right?
On Friday, I left school a little bit early thanks to a good friend who recognized my exhaustion and offered to supervise my regular Friday extracurricular activity. It was much appreciated as I left the hot, sweaty, gross school building and went home to finish writing a reference letter and take a nap.
My good friend Vern (from high school days, Go9) has moved to Toronto so we had our first hang out now that she's got an apartment of her own and not living on my futon. We braved the insanity of High Park to see the lovely cherry blossoms (although I saw lots in Vancouver in March, ha!). Then I brought her to a cute little backyard patio for dinner and drinks. It was a nice evening.
I could have been productive on Saturday, but instead of doing much, I sat on the couch and watched the baseball game. I didn't even mark while I watched. I struggle with these moments of complete unproductivity. I am feeling stressed these days because I have a lot of marking, prep work, housework, errands, etc. piling up and then when I have a good chunk of time to work on them, I procrastinate and do nothing. URGH. I am my own worst enemy too often.
On Saturday evening, I took my friend Mathew as my +1 to the CBC for a neat little TV studio concert. Hawksley Workman was previewing his upcoming album, Old Cheetah, on CBC's First Play Live. I saw an invite to this on Twitter and replied on Tuesday and made it on the guest list. The audience surrounded the band in a circle, and it was really intimate and wonderful. He played some old stuff (even opened with Don't Be Crushed) and the new songs were wonderful. I've been listening to Hawksley's music for fifteen years and so much of it brings me to instant nostalgia (incidentally the name of his new song). It was wonderful.
Today was super busy too. Way back in January when I was making resolutions that I've broken, I signed up for the Sporting Life 10K to motivate myself to get back into running. Well, it didn't work. However, I decided that since plenty of people walk it, I might as well too, and that's what I did. Today was a hot and humid day that felt more like June, so even though I just walked, it was sweaty and tiring. However, I felt better that I didn't give up, and even though I have blisters on the bottom of my feet, it was fun. I went to the Jays game right after the walk in my close, and I hope I wasn't too smelly... The game kind of sucked because they lost again, argh, and I didn't even get to see my boyfriend Russell Martin play since Dickey was pitching so Thole was catching.
After the game I came home and had a nap, and then did some more reference letter writing and lesson planning. I didn't even touch the marking pile. Oh well. There's always next week, right?
Monday, May 04, 2015
April is over...
... thank goodness It was a demanding month, and I'm still struggling to keep my head above water.
Politics are bringing my morale down. It sucks.
I find solace in watching baseball games on TV and drinking beer. Man, I gotta cut back on beer.
Lots of fun stuff coming up in May though. A musical, a couple of concerts, and a couple of live ball games will help.
And sleep and self care. That will help too.
Politics are bringing my morale down. It sucks.
I find solace in watching baseball games on TV and drinking beer. Man, I gotta cut back on beer.
Lots of fun stuff coming up in May though. A musical, a couple of concerts, and a couple of live ball games will help.
And sleep and self care. That will help too.
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