Correction

I made a mistake as for what GEAR UP is an acronym: Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. There...thought I'd clear that up for you. :)

I'm getting excited (probably way too prematurely) but I can't help it. This position would be awesome. The posting actually has a closing date--this Friday. At least I know to expect some kind of response either before or shortly after that. I think I'm qualified enough to at least be considered. :)

Another random job sighting.

The other day, I saw a job posting in my email for this listserv to which I belong. Usually when I see these postings, I give them a quick look-over and then promptly delete them. Well, this time, I spotted a silver lining. The position: Program Specialist for GEAR UP. What is that, you ask? Well, GEAR UP stands for Gaining Education and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or something of that nature. It's aimed at helping underprivileged students get ready to further their education past high school into any kind of undergraduate program at a college or university. This position requires the person to (I'm guessing here) follow the status of students, starting in seventh grade and on up into high school, making sure they're following their education plan and making sure they're up to par in their academic skills in order to pursue college. Pretty much. Well, after reading the qualifications and stuff, I figured that I had what it takes to pursue this position. I've turned in all my application materials and now we'll just have to wait and see. One positive note: I did see some activity from my submissions--got an email from the Human Resources office saying that I needed to submit one more thing--the actual application. Oops! Simple mistake. ;) Just a minor misunderstanding of where the application was to be found. I didn't quite see it in all the writing in the actual posting. Anyway, just finished that and sent it on its way through the electronic world. I figure it's a good sign to get that email because it means they were looking at my other materials. :)

The dumb and ridiculous thing I found out today? I need to order some transcripts from BSU and from UGA. Well, when I went on BSU's website to order, I found out they were charging $10... PER TRANSCRIPT!!!!!!!!!! What the heck?????? That's crazy. Absolutely crazy! UGA only costs $2 per transcript! I hate Boise State. I hope Virginia Tech gives them a good hiney whuppin' next weekend. It would serve them right. Ugh.

ps. Don't tell anyone but it seems as though my, um, prayers have been halfway answered, as in, more opportunities coming available...now the other half just have to be answered--such as a job interview and offer...yeah. I said it. Prayers. I know I said in an earlier post about throwing the word "pray" around but I felt my current situation has deserved a prayer or two. I've been feeling extremely restless and depressed and rejected (even though I know it's not personal--it's hard to not feel that way, though). It's been affecting me in bad ways--anger and some crying and lashing out at Kyle. I needed some quiet time and rest-assurance. So I did it. It made me feel better at that moment. And now, I guess I'm seeing those fruits. Now, those fruits need to fall off the tree so I can pick them up and eat them. Mmmmm....i'm hungry now. ;)

The worst part is...

The waiting. It feels like I've been waiting all summer long for any kind of notification, whether it be for a new (nonexistent) teaching job, or now I'm waiting for the stupid BSD to process me for subbing. All I can say is my patience is wearing thin. I want to know when I'm gonna have a sub job. I want to know if I've even got a chance at this recruitment specialist job. I want to know when all this damn waiting is going to come to an end. Kyle told me last night, as I was beginning to get upset about all this stuff, that a coworker of his and his wife struggled for 2.5 years while she was waiting for work. It put a strain on their relationship. We're trying to not let this job stuff interfere with us on a personal, relationship level. It's hard though because everybody that's outside of the situation "knows" exactly what I should do. So, they list things off to me about things I should do to make myself even more marketable. Screw marketable. Have you seen this economy? Nobody's looking for marketable. They're looking for how little they can pay someone. The even more frustrating thing is I've tried applying for the classified jobs (ELL aides, Title I tutors, etc because I'm not above applying for those positions if it means I might get my foot in the door) and they all have turned me down in the past because they just look at me like, "why are you applying for this?" and they knew that I'd eventually find something that my degree matches. They knew that I would leave eventually as soon as that opportunity came along. So, their answer is: don't hire her. Ugh. Guess I better make a call to the BSD office and tell them to get their butts in gear and get me processed because I've got to make my part of the living somehow and if that means I have to prostitute myself out (as a teacher for low, daily pay), then that's what I have to do...you like that? That's my pet name for subbing: cheap teacher prostitution. HAHA!! Anyway, I'll write more later if I hear anything.

Change of pace...

I applied for a recruiter position for Idaho State University today. We'll see what happens. I figured, what have I got to lose? The worst they could say is no, or they just won't call me like everyone else in this state. It sounded like fun--the chance to travel to surrounding states and share how important post-secondary education is, especially in an economy like this one. PLUS, it pays higher than what I would be getting as a teacher! So...we'll just wait and see. :) It was exciting to apply for it though. Took my mind off things for a few minutes anyway.

Anger

I'm feeling extremely betrayed right now as my former colleagues are sitting in the library at CHS enjoying each other's company and celebrating the fact that the students in the school made Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) for the first time ever and I was there to help. However, not anymore. I saw some pictures of happy faces at the school in the meeting room. I cried. Sobbed. I'm angry and frustrated that the district said to my school officials, replace someone who's passionate for doing ELL work with some old, crotchety dude who will probably end up retiring anyway next year.

I'm going to miss the kids that I've already forged relationships with in the classroom. I'm going to miss the camaraderie that I had with my department head (discussing issues in the classroom, going out to Lalo's after school on occasional Fridays, going out to lunch on teacher workdays). I'm going to miss one of my best buddies, Amanda. I knew I could always go over to her room at the end of the day to laugh after a hard day's work. We'd pick up and go to her place or meet at our favorite Mexican joint, Jalapeno's. Of course, maybe being away this year could prove to be better for my waistline. ;) Anyway, it's going to be hard this year not being around people I genuinely enjoy and have created friendships with, as well as professional relationships with the kids. I'll miss being in my own room and standing outside the door during passing periods and chatting the time away with the math teacher next door, Melanie. CHS was probably the only school that I've actually spent quite a bit of time at here in Idaho and yet, felt the most welcomed out of any other schools I've been at so far.

My options for this year, aside from the FOUR (apparently) fake options I thought I had with the Boise school district? Subbing. Of course. :p I hate that lifestyle (yes, it brings in money but only if I'm able to have steady work). Phone calls at 4:45am on cold, wintry mornings. Phone calls on Sunday evenings (which are actually better to get in advance compared to the first way I described). Most of the time, I'm not even acknowledged in the faculty rooms during lunch break unless I'm at a school that I've been at several times. However, they're just superficial acknowledgments but alas, at least they know I'm there. I'm also going to sub for CHS because it will keep me in their sights, should a certain someone decide that (surprise!) they don't want to teach ELL anymore and want to retire. Those are my options so far.

I'm extremely apologetic that you had to read that posting of negativity but this has just been hitting me so hard and so personally that instead of sitting/lying on the couch being depressed for eternity, I decided I'd get it out of my brain and write it down. Thanks. :)

I babysat Lily today and took her on the swings. Listen to that little laugh!

Kyle had his fun too! It's Rocket Lily!!

One more option

Keep your fingers/toes crossed because yesterday I applied for another ELL position (that gives mea total of about 3 extra options for possible employment). I hope I get a call pretty soon now that principals should be getting back into their buildings either tomorrow or Monday. :) I'm staying positive.


We got back home tonight from our wonderful trip to the Oregon coast. It was beautiful and the temperature was every Southerner's dream in the deep summer time. A high of about 65 tops and evening temps in the 50s and constant cool breezes (the only downside possibly is the fact that it does mist quite a bit and is cloudy more often than not but I don't really care--it's better than the harshness of the desert sun and the dampness of the heavy humidity in the south, but most days we were there, it gave us ample opportunities to be outside and not die). Absolutely wonderful. I've already picked out my beach house. I've told Kyle that if he doesn't buy it for me, I'm divorcing him. Just kidding. ;) It was a beautiful house, though.

The Oregon coast, so far...

We got here to Lincoln City, Oregon Monday evening about 5:30 or so after spending a wonderful afternoon lunchtime with my friends, Lydia and Matt in Portland. We got to their house around 12:30pm or so and then went straight to lunch at this EXCELLENT latin american food place called Por Que No. It was absolutely delicious! After lunch, Lyd and Matt took us to a frozen yogurt place called Swirl. This is a special place because here's what you do: put any frozen yogurt into a cup, add toppings, then pay by the ounce. You can have as little or as much as you want. It was such a unique experience and so tasty! After dessert, we went back to their cute, little 3 bedroom, 1 bath house. They're expecting in September, so the baby nursery is immediately to your left when you walk in the door and connected to the nursery is little hidden room that they've turned into a guest room. I loved that hidden nook of a room! We sat and visited with them for a bit before heading out toward Lincoln City at 3:30.

We got to our hotel and it was such a nice, cozy room. It has a small living area with a hideaway bed/couch, a "fireplace" heater and the window looks right out on the beach. There's no A/C but none is really needed since the high temp each day was a cool 60-65 degrees at the very highest. We just open our windows and let the cool ocean breezes blow through--of course, it gets kinda chilly in the evening, so we light the fire heater with the window open and it's a great combination. The bedroom is right next to the door when you walk into the room so it's kinda far away from the open window in the living room. I got kinda warm during the night but all I had to do was stick out one leg out of the covers and I cooled right down.

Today we started the day out with the continental breakfast and then headed on our way to Yaquina Head Lighthouse, about 25 miles out away from Lincoln City, in Newport. It was a beautifully scenic drive, meaning, we stopped a few times along the side of the road to take coastal pictures. The lighthouse seemed kinda small even from far away as we were approaching it. It didn't look nearly as monstrous as the lighthouses there in the Southeast. This is because the lighthouses have to be a certain level above sea level and since the lighthouses on the southeastern coast are at sea level, they have to be that much taller. The ones here in Oregon are already built above sea level so they only have to be about 193 feet (or about 114 steps). We climbed to the top and I was like, "That wasn't so bad...We're already done?" Who'da thunk I'd ever say that after climbing the stairs in a lighthouse??? HA! Anyway, I bought a tshirt and hat combo thing before we had even seen the lighthouse and climbed it and I immediately felt remorseful. The shirt and had said, "I survived the climb at Yaquina Head Lighthouse." Yeah, I more than survived it. I could probably do a couple more times before I got exhausted from it. Oh well, I guess the shirt and hat could be a joke. ;)

Before the lighthouse, we walked down into the tide pools to look at the various wildlife that exists in the shallow waters when the tide goes out. We saw mussels galore, hermit crab things, a small crab and one starfish!! However, we couldn't stay down there much longer because the smell was a little strong of yesterdays fish. Ick. We had a great time though.

We left Yaquina (pronounced Yuh-quinn-uh, just in case you had been wondering since I first typed it) and went into the town of Newport for lunch at a place called Local Ocean Seafood. MMMMMMMMM...We both had a crab po'boy and a cup of sweet and sour crab soup. Yum-O! The best sandwich I have ever tasted. I wanted to keep tasting it over and over again. You'll be proud of us though, the sandwiches came with a side of fries...We each ate only 3 fries and then pushed the rest away and didn't eat anymore. We were done. We left and walked down the drag of nic-nac stores full of mugs, tshirts and kites. We bought a big Oregon mug and called it a day from Newport. We came back to the hotel and decided our next move. Ate dinner at a place called Mo's, which EVERYONE and their brother had been recommending to us. "You gotta go to Mo's...We love that place...yadda yadda yadda"....Well, we went. Not that great. The food was bland and the restaurant was crowded and loud. We had to sit right next to another family, right up close to them to point of we could've had a conversation with them. We probably should've but it was awkward. Anyway, we didn't really enjoy it all that much. :/

That's about it for today's and yesterday's adventures. It's a beautiful place here but here's the good part...you wanna know what the temperature is right now? In August? 55 flippin' degrees!!!!! Whoa..

Alrighty, good night ya'll.

Random thought for the day

People abuse the word "pray". Such as:
Please pray for my son/daughter--he/she has (state mundane oddity such as hangnails, headaches, selling items at garage sales, etc...).

There are more but I don't want to write all the weird stuff I hear. Why don't we pray for something that is really important such as disease and getting well soon from these diseases; for protection while going into battle? For having the strength and patience to deal with unemployment? For tough divorces/separations or death? For things that actually have some emotional or physical weight on people's minds???

I mean, you can pray for whatever you want on your own time but if you keep asking for people to pray for superficial stuff, pretty soon it's like crying wolf--people will stop listening to you and not pray for you at all, except for maybe praying that you'll shut your mouth-ha!! This is just some observations I have made over a short time period--stuff I've seen on facebook or heard stories about... Thanks for listening to my little venting session.

*The phrase I like to use is "please send happy thoughts or vibes/cross your fingers for such and such (that fits better with the more "lighter" issues that we face on a daily basis--and that could even go for things like interviews)...


Which reminds me: Please cross your fingers all this next week and the following for me. I would like to get a call for an interview sometime soon, as school is starting at the end of this month for Boise schools. :)