Happenings

I walked to school this morning. I couldn't see the top of the mountain because of all the cloudiness. It made me sad. So I'm praying it will get sunny again soon cause the grayness is not good.

I've been wanting to get a Christmas tree. There's a Christmas tree farm about 30 minutes from here so I'm planning on getting one there on Sunday. They don't open until the first of December. What's that all about? Christmas tree sellers should be open the day after Thanksgiving. That's what I say, anyway. And I'm excited because for my birthday last year my mom got me a lot of little angel ornaments. (My name is Angela, I like angels... you get the idea.) A lot of them came from 10,000 Villages, a store I visited for the first time over Thanksgiving break and I love. I wanted to buy everything. I didn't. So my heart is yearning to decorate for Christmas, but I have to wait for the tree.

We're having some kids over for supper tonight. I don't know why this stresses me out but it does. We're making yummy black bean burritos and my old stand-by: spinach and artichoke dip. Yum.

I found a book store that is closing. All hardbacks $4, all paperbacks $2. Hurray! And I bought bright red Keds. They're cheerful and make life a better place to live.

Now I have to go make a test for class tomorrow. And try to figure out a way to make my students stop talking in class.

Things that make you go...

Amazing that being home for four days makes me want to always be home.

Amazing that I haven't actually lived at "home" for more than five years.

Thanksgiving break was great. Normal. I helped my mom pick out a new winter coat. The last one she bought was more than 10 years ago. Before that - about 35 years ago. That's one thrifty woman.

We celebrated Christa's birthday. I won't tell you how many it was. But whoa, I still think of all of the Schafer kids as kids, but we're not.

I watched a couple of movies in the theater, something I haven't done since we moved to Pennsylvania.

Enjoyed time with old friends.

Really enjoyed time with family.

Played games with the new family - in-laws.

It was all the way it should be.

Happy Thanksgiving to me.

(Also, I haven't heard any news about the bloodwork that I had done. I figure no news is good news, right? And the dizziness has been a little less.)

I don't feel like writing a whole other post about this so it's just going to get tacked on to the end of this one.

Parent teacher conferences went really well. I was able to make most of them positive. I had one student who had a D first quarter and an A+ second quarter, so it was fun to see that improvement. The parents were mostly really supportive. So my huge fears I guess were unfounded. Of course, we'll have to wait and see how it goes next time...

Not sure about this...

Riddle me this... do you think it's a bad thing that I've started talking to my students about how I don't think I'm a very good teacher? I've discussed this with at least three of my students in as many days.

And riddle me this... why won't they stop talking in class? Do I have so little authority that they don't care at all what I say?

Also a riddle... I don't mind vamping for time at the beginning of class. Sure, go get your book from your locker. We can't start without you and you won't be back for three minutes. That's three minutes I don't have to fill. Why can't I be a teacher that has so many important things to say that I need the whole class period to fill them? Who am I kidding? That will never be me.

Some of my students tell me I'm a good teacher. I assume they're kissing up. Or just trying not to hurt my feelings. Then they tell me about other teachers they've had and I think, okay, maybe I'm not that bad.

In other news: I haven't been dizzy today. First day in more than a week. Do I still need to get the expensive bloodwork done? Probably. Dang it.

Also in other news: I was playing volleyball last night at Rec and jammed my left ring finger pretty bad. I can't wear my wedding ring. And it hurts like the dickens. I think maybe my body has prioritized this pain over the dizziness. So when the pain goes, the dizziness comes back. We'll wait and see.

Also: Thanksgiving break starts on Sunday at 12:30. Sunday mornings I have parent/teacher conferences. How do I have a parent/teacher conference? I don't know what to say. What do these people want to hear? I've never been to one of these. Do they teach you how to do this in the education program? Also, I think all the parents will see that it's all just a facade. This me as a teacher thing. So that's my self doubts for today.

I'm glad we have a break very soon. I want to cry. It's a mixture of the pain and frustration. I'll be okay.

You spin me right round, baby, right round

Well.... the dizziness continues. It's generally not quite as bad as last Thursday. Teaching this morning was more difficult again. I think it's because I have to bend over a lot to help the students with their grammar, and then the standing up straight again really throws me for a loop. So yeah. I'm going to call a doctor for real this time and hope that I can get in to to see him soon. It wears me out. All the dizziness.

Other than that, we're now watching season one of 24. Mostly I miss Grey's Anatomy. Every time someone gets shot or beat up I wonder about internal injuries and what Dr. Burke would do. Maybe Dr. Bailey could assist. In any case, this show shouldn't be located in Los Angeles. All the best surgeons are in Seattle, for goodness sake. Yeah, I'm a loser, I know.

Really, I've mostly been worried about the dizziness and exhaustion. That's what's going on in my life. It's taking over. But Thanksgiving break starts on Sunday. That's only five days away, and I'm going home. So that's good news.

How 'bout that?

So yesterday I had a very weird and disconcerting experience. I was dizzy all day. I woke up and got out of bed and almost fell to the floor. Also while I was trying to get dressed. And everytime I turned around semi-quickly. And looking up after looking down for a few seconds. This was really annoying in class when I was trying to hand back papers, read a test, grade the same test, read journals, and anything else having to do with teaching. But it didn't stop there. Oh no. All day the dizziness continued. I thought I was going to die. Or that maybe, after all, I was pregnant. So I broke my rule. I called a doctor's office. I generally try not to go to the doctor unless I think I am near death. And this didn't quite qualify because I just called the doctor's office. And I talked to a nurse for a few minutes. She thought it was really strange too, since I don't have a headcold, am not congested and have had an earache only once in my life when I was five. That was a while ago, so it didn't seem to have anything to do with this.

She suggested I get my blood pressure checked in case I was having a stroke. I tried but couldn't find a nurse. She also suggested maybe taking a decongestant, in case it was a cold induced thing.

So instead of those things I went home and laid on the couch for a while and read and went to bed early. And today I'm not dizzy. It's a wonderful feeling. I woke up this morning and was fully expecting to fall when I tried to get up, but I didn't, and I haven't and I hope to never experience something like that again. So yeah. Halelujah.

I've had so many weird and random health problems, maybe this will become one of the weird recurring ones. Since I haven't had the cysts since March maybe my body came up with something to replace them. I might prefer the dizziness to the cysts. At least it's not mind numbing pain.

I just wanted to say...

That I feel like the world could be a good place. Maybe people aren't as crazy as I've thought they were for the last six years. My faith in humanity and democracy is restored.

(At least until the next election.)

Like whoa.

I realized last night that probably, you all think my news is that I'm pregnant. Amusingly, that didn't even cross my mind when I wrote that. So no, I'm not. Pregnant, that is. At least, if I am, I certainly don't know about it, and it would be very surprising considering the type of birth control I'm on. Almost fool-proof. Probably TMI there, huh?

Anyway, my youth pastor from back home, Pastor Mike, is here this week for a week of prayer type thing called FOCUS week. So I chatted with him last night and we just caught each other up on life. I remember many Friday nights at his house. Good times.

Also, we gave Shelby the tomato juice bath last night. She still stinks. And I think the hoodie I'm wearing today smells like skunk. But I'm cold. So it's either stink and be comfortable or stink less and be cold. Right now I'm opting for warmth.

It was good to see Shelby a nice orange-ish red color. I sang songs to her like "Shelby is the color of a red balloon and she likes to play and she likes to run and she likes to chase skunks every day." (That was a modification of the color song that we used to sing in Oral and Written, in case anyone was wondering about the tune.) She didn't care for the song. She mostly stood and shivered because we let her sit in the tomato juice for ten minutes. Then we bathed her with her regular doggy shampoo. Still with the stinking.

Anyway, that's what's going on. So if you wanted to know I was pregnant, too bad.

Eww.

So on Saturday night Shelby got sprayed by a skunk. It was not pretty. And she hasn't been back into the house since. So not only is she stinky, she's also covered in burs. She doesn't look very happy. But we did try to call her away from the skunk and she wouldn't obey, so you know, I feel a little bad for her, but not too bad.

She did get about two feet into the house. And so the entire house got stunk up. I febreezed everything ten times. And lit about 15 candles. And made some popcorn. And sprayed perfume. Yep. Still stinks at the front and back doors. I don't understand that because she wasn't anywhere near the front door.

Other than that, life is busy. We had senior recognition this weekend and I had to get up and give a welcome. I don't like speaking in front of large groups of people, so that was a little nerve wracking, but not too bad. Someone pulled a fire alarm during the sermon on Sabbath. I helped decorate for the senior dinner with parents extravaganza. Sunday was the staff recognition dinner.

I'm thinking about getting a master's in school counseling. Because my favorite part of my job is when kids come into my office and just talk to me about what's going on in their lives.

There's other news, but I don't really want to post it publicly, so if you want to know, you'll have to call or email.