I'm back from my trip to Phoenix for a meeting with my OES committee. I don't mind going to the meetings, but it seems to be a lot of travel for a 1-hour meeting. (In my case, at least. It's 10 hours round trip for me. I think the next farthest away has a 5 hour round trip.) The WGM insists that we have at least 2 face-to-face meetings a year, which really isn't all that many, so it's doable. But in this age of internet, really, do we absolutely have to have face-to-faces? Other than to prove we're really people?

That said, the drive was actually very nice. The weather was lovely, the traffic overall rather light (Phoenix on a Saturday noon is never light, but that's the big city for you) and I only had one time I had to stop for some reason on the interstate in the Phoenix area. The biggest problem with having a 7 hour drive in one day (I had made it partway there the night before) is that I would get sleepy behind the wheel, which is a Very Bad Thing. I pulled over four times (that's double what I'd normally do) just to get out and move around so that I could get rid of the sleepies.

Also as usual when traveling, I messed up my eating pattern, which messed up my blood sugars, and this morning, after several days of low blood sugars, they were way too high. So breakfast this morning consisted of two boiled eggs, no bread, but a small amount of apple juice (so I could take my meds). I'll be checking my Post-breakfast sugars in about 40 minutes, to see if I corrected enough.

I'm kinda sorta planning a short trip this summer so I can attend a gathering, though I won't be incredibly disappointed if it doesn't work out. If I do go, it'll probably end up costing about $1500, what with travel, food, and lodging costs plus possible buying and emergencies. Not to mention either boarding my cat or finding someone to keep an eye on him. I'll see what my finances look like after I pay my taxes.

If I can't afford it, oh well. I can have just as much, if not more, fun just visiting relatives and friends in the (relatively) nearby areas. It sure would be nice, though, to be able to travel as much as I liked, without having to worry about such mundane issues as where I'll get the money to do so.

Anyone have a rich uncle who could give me, oh, say, 100 grand, tax-free?

Heh, didn't think so.

...and not because the leaves have changed color. Noooooo. The tree outside my bedroom window is just as green as ever, though I suspect that won't last much longer.

No, what tells me fall has fallen is that my lower back pain is back. ( Cut for those who don't want to read about health issues )

Another sign of fall falling is that the temperatures, especially at night, have dropped considerably. We had a major storm system move through over the weekend. It brought rain (badly needed) and much cooler temps. Friday our high was about 80, then Saturday I doubt it got over 65 F, and Sunday was much the same. Monday warmed up into the mid-70 Fs, and the rest of this week is supposed to be back in the low 80s F. But the nights are cool (between 35-40 F).

So welcome, Autumn! The round of seasons goes 'round once again.

Thanks to my brother, I now have a Facebook thing. If I knew how to direct anyone there, I'd send out a 'join my friendlist' notice, but I'm not sure how that works yet. About the only people I've added have been relatives so far.

So if you want to be added to my friends on Facebook, let me know how I go about doing that.

Yeah, yeah, I'm technologically challenged...

On another front, we're winding down our first quarter at school. Next Tuesday/Wednesday we have a special bell schedule for testing purposes. We're to give 2-hour tests to the kiddos, so it means we meet with half the classes on Tuesday and the other half on Wednesday. My problem with that is: what sort of test can I give in a class that emphasizes speaking and listening that would take 2 hours? Multiple-guess can only get you so far, and while yes, I could have them give an oral presentation--in one class that would mean (assuming at most a 5 minute presentation) they'd all be finished in 45 minutes, while in my largest, it would take an hour and 50 minutes--hardly equitable. So I'm trying to figure out what to do. Maybe a mix of listening activities and conversation activities, with the grading being on a rubric for an observed behavior type of thing. Hmmm...

As for my writing, I think I am finally happy with my original SF novel. Now to find me a place to submit it and/or an agent to help me find a happy home for it. I've been editing it to update the technology (I originally wrote it in the early 80s, so some of our now current technology didn't exist and I hadn't planned for it). I also machoed up my male protagonist so he's not so much of a pushover, and smoothed out some awkward sections by either rewriting or cutting. The final result has about 80K words, which is short by today's 200K+ wordcount tomes. I suppose that could either work for or against it. Also going against trend, it has no sex scenes, though I did put in some sexual tension. It's not about the sex, after all--it's about the adventure and the emotional growth of the characters.

And with that finished, I can direct my energies to some of my other stories in progress.

Today I'll be going to town to pick up one of my prescriptions, and while I'm there I'll check on the status of my new shoes I ordered. I have to wear arch supports for my plantar faciitis, and these shoes should have room for them. I think they looked nice in the catalog--we'll see how they look on my feet.

Best stop now, or I'll have my whole life's story here...

School is going well. I haven't had any major difficulties this year so far, and God willing the rest of the school year will go as well.

Yorkie-cat is as fat and sassy as ever. He has, however, developed the bad habit of leaning against me when he wants my attention, instead of just meowing.

Health-wise I'm okay, I guess. My diabetes is under control (yay) and now that I know why my foot has been hurting (plantar faciitis), and know what I need to do to make it better, it is getting better.

And as for the meme...

What Your Socks Say About You

You Are: - Quite mysterious - Known as beautiful - Always polite - Simply magnificent

Our school district had three weeks of extra long days to make up our snow and mud days. Basically, the Board decided rather than take days from our spring break, they'd just add an hour a day to each school day for a while and make up the missing days that way. So instead of the students getting through at 3:30 (our normal dismissal time), they were released at 4:30, and teachers were to stay till 5:00 (after arriving by 8:00). That wasn't too bad, but when you add on the after school programs, well, the busses left school at 7:00 pm.

Howsomever, we finally had our last extra long day, and next Monday we get to go back to the normal schedule--just in time for the state math exams. Then two weeks after that we have the AZELLA test for our English Language Learners. Sometimes I get the impression I'm not teaching, I'm testing, we have so many of these assessments to administer. I'm hopeful that at least a decent percentage of my current ELL students will test out proficient, and not have to have the 4 (!) hours of English instruction the state is requiring. Seems that if somewhere in their schooling, when they were collecting demographics, a parent indicated (proudly, I'm sure) that they spoke Navajo at home, when in essence the main language is actually English, and the Navajo is used primarily to speak with the grandparents. Whatever the case, even though the student may not really know Navajo, he's been labled English Language Learner, and thus must pass this particular assessment. For a native speaker, the test is simple enough, and I think many of them would just blow it off in the past. Now, however, they realize that if they want to graduate with their classmates, they're going to have to pass that assessment. I hope so, at least.

On the writing front, I've been lax. What with the extra long days, and the fun of exploring the internet, I've done a ton of researching, but not much composing. Now that I'll be back on normal schedule, I'll see if I can start the composing part again.

Healthwise, I'm doing better. Thanks to the Lantus, my morning blood sugar readings are now under 100 (mostly 90s, though this morning I had a 74--a bit *too* low, so I had oatmeal for breakfast) instead of the low and mid 200s a couple weeks back. Also, and I think this is just me finally getting serious about my caloric intake again, I've lost 8 pounds in the last 2 weeks. So go me! My short term goal is another 10-15 pounds by the end of school, and then just try and keep that off over the summer (which seems to be when I tend to gain weight the most easily). Eventually, I would like to drop another 70 or even 80 pounds, but that is a ways off. I figure it took me 15 years to put it all on, so taking a few to get it off is acceptable.

On Monday I have an appointment to see the dietician my endo wants me to see. She's the one who showed me how to administer my Lantus, and she wanted to see me again to check up on me and my sugars and progress. So I'll have good things to report, it seems.

Yorkie, my cat, is enjoying the warmer weather we've been having. He'll happily lay in the spot of sunshine all day, and when I peek in on him, he'll roll around in pleasure, then go back to his snooze. He's an all-indoor cat, though I let him out on the balcony for some fresh air every day, and seems to be pretty happy and healthy. I need to take him for an annual checkup, but that will have to wait till school's out for the summer, I think. If he starts being weird, of course, I would take the time immediately, but as I said, he seems happy and healthy. Just fat, like his caregiver. :D

So that's my weekly update. I hope all who read this have a lovely weekend.

Spring break is now over, and we start back on Monday. But I had a lovely break--didn't go anywhere or do anything particularly special, just enjoyed the sensation of being a layabout.

I did go to my endo yesterday, and yes indeed I got put on Lantus (insulin). I surely hope this helps me with my glucose control!

Otherwise, nothing much to say. I hope everyone has a lovely first weekend of spring and a happy Easter (for my Christian friends).

Point Number One: I had a nice birthday, unstressful and quiet. Well, except that one of my collegues, when she heard it was my birthday, burst into LOUD song, embarrassing me totally. It was funny, though.

Point Number Two: My annual observation to see if I'm a good teacher went very well. The students were engaged, they were well behaved, and the assistant principal seems to have been very pleased with the whole thing. So many times in the past the rater would only stay 15 to 30 minutes, and not the whole class period, but this time she was there for the whole thing. I received "Proficient" marks straight across the areas she was concentrating on.

Point Number Three: My sugars are slowly returning to being under control, and I've managed to lose about 5 of the 15 pounds I gained over the last few months. I am aiming for another 10 before my next doctor's appointment, but I'll take 5 if that is what I get.

I hope everyone has a lovely day today.

Yes, I've not journaled for a few weeks. I've just not been in the mood. So an update of sorts.

The first week of school this semester was to have started on the 7th of January, but we were hit with a major snowstorm (had over a foot on the ground) matched with a follow-up of extremely cold air. So we started on the Thursday instead. The snow remained on the ground until last weekend, when we had a rain that melted it, followed by more snow and we got two more snow days out of it. That makes 5 snow days so far this winter, and the district only has 2 "built-in" replacement days. So that means we work on Presidents' Day to make up one of them, and although I haven't heard officially how we'll make up the other two, chances are they'll come out of our spring break.

I went to my endocrinologist for my quarterly checkup, and now he's saying that I will most likely go on shots to help control my diabetes, as what we've done so far isn't effective enough. He wants to see me in March, at which point, he says, he'll likely give me the prescription for the shots and arrange for someone to show me how to administer them to myself. I am definitely not looking forward to that. :(

School has been interesting this semester so far. I have mostly a new slate of students. Just one class has remained the same; the rest are now strictly for the ELL kiddos and I get to teach them grammar and writing skills. I love the work, and the kiddos for the most part are at least trying to do the work. I have a few that insist they don't need the extra help, but I've seen their work, and sadly most of them do need it.

Arizona has a new law that will go into effect next school year. It requires that any students who are ELL (English Language Learners) and have not passed the AZELLA (Arizona ELL Assessment) with a "proficient" score will have to take four hours(!) of English each day. Our school of 1100 students has 500 or so ELL students, and of them, about 400 haven't passed as proficient. I think it's mostly because they haven't taken the test seriously, though I know we do have some who are struggling.

Well, I have to prepare for work. I'll try not to be so long between posts next time.

I'm not feeling very well, so I'm taking a day off work. I ache deep in my bones, and I had a rough day yesterday so today I'm gonna stay at home and sleep and blog and maybe even do some light housekeeping.

I got this meme from gurdymonkey and finally finished my version so here it is...

( behind the cut )

Now back to bed for a while...

I do believe I've hit menopause.

Hot flashes suck.

That is all.

( LJ Obsession test )

In other news, I have a sore throat and sniffles (again!) which means the second cold of the season has hit. Drat those kids anyway!My little darlings must have sent it my way--it's been making the rounds. I've also been generally run down, and I'm not sure if it's because of bloodsugar issues or female issues (being diabetic sucks is a challenge).

I hope everyone has a lovely day.

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2007/02/26/an-ice-age-versus-global-warming/

Something to stir into the mix. Yah, it's a conservative take, but you have to remember I lean toward the conservative, though a majority of conservatives would probably call me liberal. I actually find that amusing.

Health update: I'm feeling slightly better, but still dragging. At least I feel like eating now, instead of having the thought of food revolt me.

I didn't sleep well last night. I tried, mind you, but I couldn't seem to stay asleep for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a shot. Then I got chilled, so I pulled up my blankets, but then I got hot and kicked them off, then on, then off, then on...sigh. Yorkie-cat must have thought I was nuts.

All together, if I got more than 3 hours of sleep I'd be incredibly surprised. So as you may imagine, today I am realllllllly dragging. One of my students said, "Miss B., you look sad." I couldn't eat this morning, though I forced down a few bites of food so that I could take my medicines, and I had a cup of coffee about halfway through the morning. I'm still dragging.

My collegue with whom I have lunch every day said I looked like I was just sleep-walking. That's sort of how I feel...so long as no crisis arises, I'm just gonna sit at my desk and watch the students do their work. Then as soon as my contract allows, I'm off to home and I'll just fall into bed and see if I can get the sleep I didn't get before.

I would have taken the day off, but I have no sick leave left, and only a few personal days. And I'm saving at least 2 of those personal days for later in the year.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Friday night three collegues and I left for a training workshop on bargaining which was sponsored by our union. The workshop was all day Saturday, and then we came back up to town on Saturday night. I am not good at budgeting, so I actually found a lot of it interesting, especially the part about the state's budget for education and how each school district calculates budgets. I was saddened and surprised to learn that Arizona ranks 50th of 50 states in per-student spending. To even reach "average" we would have to spend $2000 more per student. I later looked at the national results and see we are actually 49th of 50 (Utah is the only state lower.)

Anyway I got to attend two breakout sessions. The first was on creating polls that are professional and pertinent to what we want to learn from our staff. The second was on creating an agreement between the school board and the staff on how the budget is to be spent. (Our school district did away with meet-and-confer, so we at present have no way of airing our wishes/needs to the board.) Although I was very sleepy, I did enjoy both sessions and I learned quite a bit. I will have to practice the poll making, as I am secretary of our local and I can see that particular task devolving to me.

I will also likely be going to a "meet the legislators" day early next month (if the school approves my leave) and will have an opportunity to ask questions of our state representatives. I don't usually consider myself all that politically active, so this is a step out of my comfort zone. Just don't expect to see me running for political office any time soon.

Today I have been having trouble with my school gradebook program. The techie is supposed to come in and fix the program, but until he does, I can't input grades or print out reports. So annoying.

I haven't had time to do much writing lately. I think I might have gotten in 100 words or so last week. I hope to get more time after we get grades out next week.

My weight is the same as before the weekend, but on the good side, my sugars were in normal ranges. So yay for small improvements.

And the quiz for the day:

Your Attitude is Better than 75% of the Population

You have a good attitude. While a realist, you do see the positive side of most things. People love to be around you.

Back at work today. I'm rather stiff and sore but I'm here. My shoulder muscles are sore, too--probably because I was so tense trying to move without being in pain.

One the writing front, I've managed to add about 250 words (a whole page!) to my prequel. My beta readers should be happy. I've been looking and looking at this chapter, though, and today I was thinking, "Why is this chapter here? I could start it 3/4 of the way in and it wouldn't mess up continuity, and it would be so much tighter!" So I maybe will go back and do some slashing of text before I finish. That will mean the beta readers will have to wait a little longer, but if it improves the story...

The good thing about first drafts is, you aren't obligated to keep anything, it's all still fluid.

We're having parent/teacher conferences tonight. With the way the roads have been, though, I sort of wonder if anyone will actually make it from the outlying areas. The in town folks, sure, but we have many who live at the end of long dirt (and now mud) roads.

Well, students are coming back in, so I'd best direct my energies to them. First, though, a quiz (of course)...

Your Extroversion Profile:

Cheerfulness: High

Friendliness: High

Assertiveness: Medium

Activity Level: Low

Sociability: Low

Excitement Seeking: Very Low

I ended up taking the time to go to the hospital. Turns out I have nothing broken, but I have huge bruises and a bit of swelling. The doctor recommended ice packs and OTC pain meds.

Thanks for the advice and such. I guess it really is a "better safe than sorry" sort of thing.

Oh, and the time it took? Four hours from leaving school to returning to school. I made it in time for the PID stuff, though I missed all the classes after second hour.

I got that nasty stomach flu that's hitting the nation. I was sick all weekend (good thing it was a 3-day one) and still took Tuesday off because I wasn't quite recovered.

I'm better now. Not perfect, but definitely better--well enough to get back to work. My sub left me wonderful notes for a change, telling me how the day went. Usually I'm lucky to get even a "Things went ok, thanks for letting me sub for you," but this time she left me 4 pages of handwritten comments. So I know exactly what happened yesterday in my classes. If I'm ever sick again, I hope she subs for me again!

My first hour class is scary-quiet this morning--all three of them. The class is down to a total roster of 8 students, and 5 were absent. One is a no show--she hasn't been here yet this semester. Yet I have two classes with 23 and 24 students in them. Why can't they spread them out a bit?? *grump*

My writing was on hold this weekend while I spent a good deal of my days asleep or in the bathroom. But now that I'm up and moving again, perhaps I can get back to my writing bits. I have a beta reader impatiently waiting to read chapter 14 of my prequel.

Today's quiz:

You Are 25% Vain

Okay, so you're slightly vain from time to time, but you're not superficial at all. You are realistic. You know that looks matter. You just try to make them matter less.

I seem to be slow getting back into the swing of things. Maybe age is catching up with me. At any rate this posting will be a bit lengthy, though most will be behind various cuts.

( Resolutions )

( School stuff )

( Writing stuff )

( Health stuff )

Hmmm...maybe not as much as I thought I'd have when I started. I intend, of course, to keep current with my LJ, but you never really know...

And for my first Quiz of the year...

You Have Low Self Esteem 32% of the Time

Generally, you feel pretty darn great about who you are, even when you mess up or fail. Occasionally, a huge setback will make you question yourself, but you pick yourself up quickly.

I feel notgood today. I'm not sure why--probably a combination of things.

( In which I go into female squickiness...you have been warned )

In order to force myself into a better humor I offer the following daily quiz...

You Are Somewhat Machiavellian

You're not going to mow over everyone to get ahead... But you're also powerful enough to make things happen for yourself. You understand how the world works, even when it's an ugly place. You just don't get ugly yourself - unless you have to!

I've not been feeling well since Sunday. I woke up with this most awful backache. It was so bad it made me nauseous, and I could hardly move. Standing hurt, sitting hurt, lying down hurt--in short, I hurt more than any time since I had trouble with getting my wisdom teeth out. I tried heat, I tried ice, I tried massage, I tried pain medications. I would finally fall asleep, only to wake an hour or so later because I had to move, which hurt. I couldn't sit at my computer long enough to turn it on, much less check in. No TV, because sitting or lying on the couch both hurt and took my attention off the shows. Monday I managed to crawl painfully into my car to go to work long enough to leave lesson plans for a substitute, then back home and to bed to try and feel better. Developed a low-grade fever. Tuesday, same thing. Only Tuesday afternoon, about 2:15 or so, I woke from a sleep and it was like "Oh, man! My back doesn't hurt now!" I still took it easy, and now I seem okay, although the nausea hasn't entirely left me.

Anyway, it sort of sidetracked my plans to start critting more of the OWW offerings. I still am limiting my time sitting or being in any position for more than 15 minutes at a time, at least until I can no longer feel twinges. But if I can print out a selection or three, maybe I can get them done by tomorrow, and post them.

My students seem pleased to have me back, for the most part. They're working pretty quietly, and I appreciate that.