there's something about words typed in a small font that just appeals to me. 


so i finally did it.  i hopped on the myspace bandwagon and attempted to customize my page, but i got overwhelmed and tired, so check me out but don't expect much .  unlike *SOME* people who have abandoned xanga, i won't be dissing my xangabuds .

my front chest wall hurts.  it's been hurting since last night and hasn't abated at all throughout the day.  it didn't make being at work any easier.  thanks louie for driving me to work these last couple of days.  tomorrow, it's back to chasing buses in the gray of between-day-and-night.       

happy holidays, everyone!

so i've been out of the xanga loop for a while--sorry about that.  christmas was good. i spent the early part of christmas eve at the ejanda's and then spent the rest at my parents' house.  good food, good gifts, fun games and a lot of thankfulness.

new year's was a little hectic because we were snowed in reno until the 31st.  had the usually dress-up with my sisters, followed by a mini-performance/entrance.  my dad decided to join in and was wearing cowboy boots, dress pants, a funky hawaiian-meets-camouflage shirt, a vest, and a jamiroquai style ying-yang floppy top hat.  it was the baby's first new year and it was cool seeing her scream along with everyone else =).

went back to SF yesterday to catsit the fat cats.  they like to sleep on me, which i guess is okay because instead of being cold, i ended being hot.  one cat weighs like 16 lbs. and i think the other one is like 14 or 15.  imagine two fat paws pressing on your tummy trying to find a comfy position.  i'm at louie's right now (took the ferry @ 10am) and will be going back in a couple hours to feed the cats & spend another night in that nifty house.  i should really take some pics.  hopefully i remember to drop off the box of annie's mac and cheese (SOOO GOOD!) at my parents' house.

tomorrow i go back to work.  i'm excited.  this blog is weak because i'm trying to compact a couple weeks worth of stuff in here.  i promise to do better, with pictures and everything maybe next weekend or something =P.  i finally got reprints of my graduation pics (like 6 months late) and still have announcements to send out.  that's how bad i am.  =(

This is Divinity in May--so of course she is much bigger now and is starting to look more like infant/toddler than newborn/infant--at my graduation party.  She was baptized yesterday at St. Catherine's in Vallejo.  She is in the 99th percentile for her length/height and weight, and although she isn't turning one until next month, she looks more like 1 1/2 years old; she's also taking steps and climbing and stuff already--she's been for the past few months actually.  When Michelle (that's her mommy) stood her up in the baptismal font, she started grabbing onto the sides and tried to climb out.  Afterwards, when they were doing the annointing and candles, she cried because she wanted to grab the flame, but then stopped when she noticed the other baby, who was staring at her.  She started baby-talking to him and reached on and gently touched his face.  Too cute.

Pictures from St. Charles School's Christmas Gathering
Sunday, December 12, 2004


One of the mom's singing Winter Wonderland (the clutz's version)

alex & christopher, 3rd grade

karla & buffy, 4th grade

kendra, 4th grade, miss crystal, & claudia, 4th grade

Sister Celestine, OP (Principal) drawing for raffle prizes


ben, 3rd grade & angelica, 5th grade


brandon, 1st grade

leanne, 6th grade & thomas, kindergarten

christopher & troy, 3rd grade

miss crystal & alex, 3rd grade


jose, rodolfo, oscar, & bill, 6th grade

Thanksgiving with the High School Friends,
November 28, 2004

pics from sunday are coming soon... just can't seem to find the transfer cable.  sorry guys/gals.

this has been an eventful week.  will update probably tomorrow or satuday because it is way past my bedtime and i haven't even showered, yet!

let me just leave this taste in your nose: acrid, heavy, pungent urine pummelling your nose on a bus ride home that takes 45 minutes... and yes, i got off as soon as i was almost sure i could get home from wherever i got off (which was about 25 minutes later...) 

happy day after thanksgiving!

i've been wanting to blog for a while now, but there's just so MUCH that i've been too overwhelmed to update... so let me just give you some reese's pieces (that was a nickname i had in junior high--the "reese" comes from the theresa in crystal theresa).


1) work. 

i think the 9+ hour day is starting to burn me out again.  thank goodness there are no classes tomorrow!  i am sick again.  i've been getting sick once a month, so far, but this time it isn't so bad--i guess my immune system is starting to adjust to the myriad of germs pummeling my body.  sometimes i wish this school was year round. 

this week i started planning out activities for the extended care kids, mostly because some of them would be there from 12:45-5pm.  they worked on "all about me" books and Thanksgiving Cards (i drew a turkey in parts--tail feathers, head & neck, beak, 2 weeks, 2 legs & feet, that thing that hangs from the beak, and the body in 4 parts--they colored, cut, & pasted) in which they wrote to someone thanking them.  today i but up a bulletin board (consisting of blue butcher-ish paper and those wavy borders, in yellow) for the extended care kids, which said "Happy Thanksgiving" on the top and "from Extended Care" on the bottom.  I stapled their cards up and hopefully there will be more up next week as more kids make them. 

For the older kids I drew a still life thing of fruit in some bowl-platter-thing in a 4x4 grid.  I'm going to have each of them draw one square and the plan is to collage them together, kinda like a mosaic or quilt. 

the sixth graders also had a service project today.  we cleaned up the neighborhood around St. Charles.  some high-and-low-lights include students fighting over who gets to sweep up the garbage, a couple syringes, broken glass, condoms, diarrhea, and one girl saying, "Why do people litter?  It's so rude!"


2) home. 

so a pipe from our kitchen sink is leaking down our downstairs neighbor's closet door, which means that we haven't used our kitchen sink all week. 

the intercom is malfunctioning, as in when you push the button to "listen" you hear a really loud and high pitched "eeeeep!" 

there is something wrong with my bedroom doorknob.  you know that thing that sticks out of the edge and moves in and out when you turn the knob?  it doesn't move out anymore, so our door doesn't click shut--as in you can just push it with your pinky and it will open. 

but!  our gas heater, aside from the slightly creepy sound of creaking metal, works wonderfully, and I do enjoy having a BEDROOM, digital cable (it's more manageable when divided by three), and the quiet of the neighborhood.


3) me.

i'm writing just about everyday, again, which feels really good.  i was in a slump for a while--i think mainly because i was still adjusting to my work schedule and taking a break from the college burnout.  i started by reading on my bus rides to and from work--The Poisonwood Bible--which is a good book, except for the last chapter.  and then when i was going to read another book, i realized that i didn't feel like reading any of the books i head, so i started writing on my bus rides. 

i've been eating healthier since i'm on foodstamps now--you can't use your ebt card at fast food places =P.  actually fast food makes me feel sick when i eat it now, so i try to keep my intake to a minimum.  it's fun packing myself snacks and lunches, though sometimes i don't get up early enough (like when i'm not feeling too well).  the good thing is that i can buy a snack for $1 (a mini croissant ham & cheese sandwich, a bowl of hot chicken noodle soup, a bowl of cereal and milk, and a grilled cheese sandwich are some of the things they offer) and later lunch for $1 (spaghetti, lumpia, fried rice, chicken adobo with rice, and a corn dog are some things they have for lunch).

when i was at USF a couple of my professors told me that i would make a good teacher.  today the third grade teacher asked me if i was going to be a teacher, and i said that i might, and she said, "i think that's your calling."  and maybe it is because teaching was never something i wanted to do, but for over a year, that's what i've been ending up doing: the poetry and art workshops with high school students,  tutoring the basketball players, and now working with elementary school students.  and in all of these situations, i've been working with at-risk students, or "at-hope," as the facilitator at one of my workshops said.  my first semester with the poetry/art workshops was with students transitioning out of juvie and the second semester was with teenage mothers; the basketball players are the first in their families to attend college, some even to finish school--they have siblings and friends in gangs and in jail, and one has a cousin on death row.  now i am working at a title I, inner city school with a lot of students who are below grade level in a lot of their subjects, who have problems with their families, and who have social problems.  but sometimes i just get so frustrated and feel so helplessly ineffective that i just want to walk out and sit sulking in some dark corner.  but goodness, seeing them finally understand a concept, watching their behavior improve, and earning their trust creates such a tremendous feeling it's like i'm gonna burst.  and then, i can't imagine doing anything else.

all cried out.

i just watched "Dangerous Minds."  for those of you that don't remember, it's the movie with Michelle Pfeiffer starring as a teacher, Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," and Bob Dylan and Dylan Thomas poems.  i started crying before the sad part even came because i knew what was gonna happen.  my sinuses and nose are mildly congested now, from a pretty decent cry, and it seems to match the cold, wet weather that smells of coming rain.

exhausted--emotionally & physically.

yesterday was a 16 1/2 hour day for me.  had my team meeting in Belmont, which consisted of a training workshop on Child Abuse and Mandated Reporting.  it was draining, especially because some of the stuff we discussed hit so close, things that people i care about have done through, things that i've gone through, and things that some of my students may be going through.  After that we headed straight for Canada College (there shoud be a ~ above the "n") for Project Read's 15th Annual Trivia Bee.  had to help set up, decorate, be a score keeper, help clean.  it was pretty fun and we did get to munch on food like california rolls, chicken quesadillas, falafels, spinacchis, strawberries, cookies, empanadas, and other goodies, which was a highlight that brought most of us up from the low of knowing we our "day's work" would run well into the night.  it was funny seeing people get all worked up over trivia questions--one team was about to rip my head because i felt that the fact that they got a first name wrong would make it wrong and i wanted to consult the judge.  they got their's though and were eliminated in the 2nd round.

in need of distraction.

i'm starting to feel the need to get out and have some Real Young Adult Fun.  i think all the stress and frustration and worries about work and everything else has worn me down to the point of busting out.  anyone want to do some busting with me? 

 

SO NOT READY.
went back to work yesterday and i think it was a day too early.  i was feeling kinda wobbly and was so exhausted i was almost close to passing out or vomiting while i was on the bus on the way home.  during extended care, i almost took a nap on one of the picnic tables. 

MISS CRYSTAL.
the kids were so cute, though.  "It's Miss Crystal!"  "Good morning, Miss Crystal."  "Where were you, Miss Crystal?"  "How come I didn't see you the other day?"  "Why were you gone for so long?  I haven't seen you for a week!"  "Are you feeling better?"  "Were you sick?"  when Mrs. Walsh was reading the kids a story, one of the girls kept scooting closer and closer to me until she was right next to me and she smiled at me and sat up like she was really paying attention. 

TEACHER?  ME?!
oh man!  i was actually in front of the 3rd grade class because the teacher had a meeting.  there was someone else in there with me, course.  we were correcting their math homework.  we spent hella time rounding numbers in the thousands to the hundreds place.  i think they may have finally gotten it, but it was tiring, especially with my throat and squealy voice. auntie tessie made them stand up while i was teaching them because some of them weren't paying attention.  and this morning louie woke me up to tell me he was leaving for class.  i couldn't go back to sleep because i kept thinking about what book i could have connie read instead of Blue Willow so she could enjoy reading more.

PS
i'm at home--not at work.  there's no school today (professional development day), so i get some extra--though much needed--time to get more rest.