Monthly Update

*95% on my first quiz of law school. You have to get a 95% to get an "A". What is wrong with these people? Shouldn't a 90% be sufficient?
*Took my first final exam of law school in Criminal Law. Won't know the results for probably another week. Hoping for a "B".
*We start right in on the next class, Constitutional Criminal Law. It just seems wrong to just keep going. No break. Just take a final and start the next class. Ugh.
*Had a great time in Atlanta with Justin and Shelli and enjoyed an Andrew Peterson concert together while we were there. We didn't take any pictures to document the weekend.
*Suddenly there is Christmas stuff everywhere. And I haven't even bought any Christmas presents yet. Studying all the time really puts me behind on my holiday shopping.
*Today I bought my first Christmas wrapping paper. I love wrapping paper. I especially like it if it's metallic or sparkly.
*Had a bunch of dead trees cut down in our yard. There is plenty of free firewood out by the curb, if you're interested.
*So far law school is harder than any other level of school I've been a part of. I know this is probably not shocking to most of you, but I kind of thought I would be able to slack off and get good grades like I used to. So far, I just have to study all the time and hope and pray to get good grades. It would be helpful if more of my classes had more than one or two tests to base the whole grade on. Anyway, it's all much more time-consuming than I had imagined, but I guess that's why not everyone is a lawyer.
*That's all I can think of for now.

Maybe after I write the post I'll come up with a title.

This week has been good. Not superdy-duper awesome good. But good. I haven't had a really bad day yet. Some tiredness. Apparently, coming off of 50 mgs gives me more energy, but also takes away my ability to sleep for long periods of time. But it is nice to have energy. Really nice. I'm almost caught up on my grading. (!) And I don't want to go to bed before I get home from work.

So, on Tuesday, in class one of my students said, "You're in a good mood today, aren't you, Mrs. Shofner?" And I said (a little surprised) "Yeah, I guess I am." I feel bad that my students had to suffer with me through most of this year. Hopefully things will be better for all of us from here on out.

Also, hurrah for Super Tuesday! McCain did well, and if I had to vote for a Republican, he would be one of a very short list that I would feel semi-okay about. And Obama proved that he is a viable candidate. And many more Democrats voted than Republicans, over all. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside with the hope that our country will be different soon. I hope not to be terribly disappointed.

"What is honored in a country will be cultivated there." - Plato (meat, beer, entertainment and war?)

While I'm dreaming of moving south, we're planning on staying here for at least one more year. We like the school. Even if Pennsylvania itself makes me die inside. And I like my job most of the time, which cannot be said of all jobs I've had. Notably one that I had in Kentucky. Yeah.

My mother-in-law is coming to visit in a week. I'm trying not to be stressed.

I need to take my animals to the vet.

I planted some daffodil bulbs yesterday. I didn't have energy to do so in the fall when I should have. So I hope that they'll bloom, despite my negligence.

I got up to level 51 on freerice the other day. This was surprising, because previously there were only 50 levels. Now, apparently there are 55. I haven't gotten past 51 yet.

I think I'm getting carpel tunnel from playing too many computer games. This started over homeleave. Maybe I should get a life.

On a different note

Today's walk to work was wild and windy. I don't know how fast the wind was moving, but it blew my laptop case off my shoulder twice (don't worry, it didn't hit the ground, and I'm typing on it right now), and sometimes it didn't feel like I was making very much progress. It was quite a workout. I was out of breath when I finally reached the doors of the ad building. Also, there were little snow/ice (snice) pellets hitting me in the face. I'm ready for spring. Also, I've decided that for today, I won't draw any analogies of my walk to my life. It's just too depressing to put into words.

So in other news, I gave Pounce her first and second baths. She did not like them. But she looks funny when she's all wet. She's much scrawnier than she appears when she's fluffed out. Also, I took a bath last night, and when I stood up, I fell over. Hit my elbows on the rim of the tub. That's kind of disturbing. I'm like an old person who falls in the tub. I should get some of those railings to steady myself or something. Also, my elbows are bruised now.

I have a knot in my back that constantly feels like someone is stabbing me there. It almost feels electric. I haven't been to the massage therapist in a month and a half and I'm falling apart. It could also have something to do with sleeping on floors, air mattresses, airport chairs and several different planes. And one long and interesting night in LaGuardia airport in which I tried to sleep on a luggage cart. Mostly unsuccessfully. So I'm ready to get a massage and sleep in my own bed for more than a week at a time.

The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. - Robert Bloch

"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

You get the idea

It's October. And I'm feeling ok about that, mostly because the high for the next few days is in the 80s. So theoretically I can still get out and walk happily for awhile. I've been walking to and from school as usual, but every day this week I also walked at least the one mile loop near our house. I don't feel better and most days I don't want to do it. But I walk anyway, because I believe that it might be helping, even though I don't feel it. And if it's not helping yet, maybe it will later. And even if it doesn't help my mood, it will help my body. Even if I can't tell that it's helping my body. And I can't tell yet. I believe.

I'm very tired because I have moved on to not sleeping well. I tried some whole vitamin things that were supposed to uplift my mood. Then I read the ingredients and they had bovine ovaries, brain and stomach and porcine heart. I didn't feel ok about that. Lifelong vegetarian. Couldn't handle it. So today I started SAM-e. We'll see.

The highlight of my life right now is the upcoming visit of Ben Yancer. Not to put any pressure on you, Ben. But old friends are the best friends and you're one of my oldest. I bought tickets to a show to see while he's here. I'm excited. I hear there's a lot of audience participation. I like that.

My lower right eyelid is swollen and red and painful. It's not very noticeable, but yet another thing that I should probably go to the doctor for, but probably won't. I didn't even tell you about the last thing, and I'm not going to now.

Michael is on supervision duty this weekend.

Classes continue to go somewhat better. It's a miracle. Cause I sure didn't do anything to change what was happening in there. No initiative. Their first book reports are due next week and I'm already behind in my grading and I'm concerned that I won't be able to get everything done before grades are due. Once again, no initiative.

"I keep wanting you to be fair, but that's not what you said. I want certain answers to these prayers, but that's not what you said." --Sara Groves

Title-less

Not a lot going on here...

There's testing this week, which gets in the way of my planning my classes, annoying, but, I suppose, necessary.

I seem to have either a cold or allergies. Can't tell which. Fun times.

Michael has Shingles. So apparently stress does effect him.

Homeleave starts a week from today, we're going to New York for half a day to see The Ritz, back on Broadway.

We have school again this Sunday, ugh.

And now a list of the some of the books I've read lately:

An Unquiet Mind - Kay Redfield Jamison
Personal History - Katharine Graham
How to Make an American Quilt - Whitney Otto
The Double Bind - Chris Bohjalian
All Over But the Shoutin' - Rick Bragg
A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Housseni
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris

The End

How did this happen?

So lately I've been finding pure white hairs attached to my head. These are not gray, nor blond. They are white. It started happening last December when I was enmeshed in grading plagiarized papers and dealing with them, etc. So first I just thought they were stress-induced. But they continue to come. Maybe they were originally stress-induced but now my head has realized that it's easier to put out white hairs than to go to all the trouble of making them brown. In any case, I pull them out. My only concern is that I can't see the back of my head and there could be lots back there that I don't know about at all.

When did I get to be an adult? Someone should have consulted me about this before letting it happen.

That which is up

There's snow today. When I looked out the window this morning, the top half of the mountain was white. The bottom half was brown. I was drawn to stare at it like you do when there's an accident on the road. It was terrible to see, but I couldn't look away. Now there's this wet snow blowing in my ears whenever I go outside. I can't see the mountain anymore because of the clouds.

Other than that, things are pretty good. Friday night we went to a Jars of Clay concert, for which Burlap to Cashmere opened. That was my favorite part. And the encore for Jars of Clay was good. They sang quite a few old songs, which are the ones I know anyway. Another band played inbetween. Need To Breathe. Never heard of them. And I still don't know what they sing because they were so loud that I couldn't understand any of the words.

Sunday I ventured out to the outlet malls in Lancaster. Banana Republic, Gap, Skechers, Nine West, J. Crew, Pottery Barn and many, many more. And all I bought were some Harry & David truffles and a gift for my mother-in-law.

I'm looking forward to time off soon and catching up on sleep and maybe cleaning my house. Probably playing games with friends. So good times, basically.

And there's always tomorrow...

Today is better. I don't know why. But it is and I'm grateful. Yesterday when I woke up and realized that I had to teach I almost cried. But then, miraculously, they were quieter than normal, and listened better and did the things I asked (for the most part, they're not angels, after all). I think it was God's prodding, saying, don't give up yet. You still have more than a month to go.

It started snowing last Thursday and snowed on and off through Sunday. Fortunately, for my mental health, it didn't stick. If it had, we would have had quite a bit of snow on the ground because it really snowed a lot. At least it seemed to.

I remember last Easter Sunday laying on our water bed because the heating mechanism wasn't working and it was the only semi-cool place in our house. (It was more than 80 degrees and the air conditioning wasn't working. Also, we lived in a trailer, so the insulation was non-existent.) This year snow. Makes you think they're onto something with all that climate change talk.

Sadly, we're not going to make it out to Union next week as we had hoped. Plane tickets went up into the $350 range. And since we just paid about a thousand dollars in taxes, that's a bit out of our reach right now. So instead I found discounted tickets to see Avenue Q on Broadway next Thursday. Just to cheer us up. It won't make up for missing out on seeing all our friends, for sure.

And the allergies are here. I've had two migraines in the last four days. And I just have a little headache on the verge right now. It's not bad yet, and I have the Advil in my purse, just in case. Also, the phlegm has been constantly in the back of my throat for more than a week. All this and no flowers because it's too damn cold. Pennsylvania (or global warming) is toying with my emotions.

We hope to have news soon about an interview somewhere south of here. So keep that in prayer, if you don't mind. We don't know whether we want to go or not, but it's definitely something that's on our minds.

Anyway, that's all the news that's fit to be published.

Random

It's about 75 degrees today. A miracle. I thought the warmth would never come. But daffodils and tulips and maybe crocus are peeking through the ground. Nature has proved my emotions wrong once again. I'm glad.

(Don't tell anyone I said this, but it actually feels a little too warm. Maybe just because I'm wearing pants and longish sleeves. We'll go with that.)

There's a Union recruiter here today and it makes me think I should go for that guaranteed degree. It's free after all, and I love a bargain.

Some things that happened

Spring break was crazy. I went to New York four times and Philadelphia three times. One of the trips to Philadelphia we had to give up on because of a snow storm. We got there and turned around and went right back home. We saw about ten accidents on the way there and back. It's usually a three hour roundtrip, but it took more like six. So that was a barrel of fun. Michael also went to Gettysburg and Washington D.C. but I skipped those trips. One night my mom and Dino and I were in the Philadelphia airport until 2:00 am waiting for Christa to get in. So we didn't get home till 4:00 am. I saw the Daily Show with John Stewart and the Lion King on Broadway and Ellis Island (twice) (and found my great-grandfather's name on the wall) and the Statue of Liberty (twice). I went to Chinatown and Central Park (twice). Found a great little place to buy cheesecakes in New York (twice) and visited the largest mall east of the Mississippi in Philadelphia. Saw Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Christa and I led a last minute song service at church when the guy who was supposed to lead song service couldn't make it because of the foot of snow we got the day before. Most of the snow has melted now, but for a couple of days it was quite treacherous. Lots of cars getting stuck in snow banks and people towing us out.

Somehow I managed to grade all the papers that needed to be graded. And I'm getting really good at getting around on the subway in New York. My family was impressed. I've decided that maybe I should be a tour guide. An international tour guide. I'm good with maps and directions. Maybe that's my true calling. My spiritual gift.

Anyway, it's good to be back to my regular crazy schedule, as opposed to the irregular craziness of spring break. I need a vacation.

Update. Whatever.

It's cloudy today, but less cloudy than some days. Which means I can see the top of the mountains and there is some light, so it does not seem like perpetual twilight. That's a relatively good thing. I swear it's like Seattle here. Maybe not as rainy, but cloudy all the time. Plus Nebraska-esque wind. The moral of this story is that I'm ready for spring.

I made chili the other night. It was pretty good. Not spicy enough for me. But since I was kind of improvising and I couldn't find any cayenne pepper in my cupboard, (I swear I used to have some) it sufficed. It snowed that day and it's always good to have nice hot soup on snowy, windy, cold days. We also had hummus and flat bread with the meal. Really, it was a perfect meal.

We keep our thermostat set at 62 degrees, and our heating bill was still $259. This is pretty frustrating. The bill was actually for December, when we were gone for two weeks and turned the thermostat down to 56 degrees. What's the deal? I hate winter. This is the only time when I feel semi-OK about global warming.

We finally got our Pennsylvania driver's licenses yesterday. My picture was pretty cute. Now we have to get our car registration done by the end of the month. Which is going to be difficult since we have Sunday school. Ugh.

Homeleave starts a week from today. We're going to see the Daily Show. I'm excited.

I feel uninspired and unmotivated. Blah.

The End.

Ugh

Bad things are happening.

Worthington or Loma Linda or Kellogg's or whoever is in charge of these things has discontinued Tuno. Which will make it difficult for me to make my favorite casserole, Tuno Pinwheels. I'm very upset. And thinking about writing protest letters, and having my English students write protest letters. I have 49 students this semester. That might make an impact.

And it's snowing. The first snow of the season. It makes me want to vomit. Lots of students are excited. I'm disgusted. I had some hope that this would not happen this year. You know, God's little gift to me. Sadly, no. (Yes, I realize that my stance on snow contradicts my feelings about the need to preserve the environment. If our government and the car/gas industry decide to stop being greedy and do something to protect our grandchildren, I will resign myself to moving to Florida. I don't think it will be necessary.)

A new year

I know, it's been a really long time since I posted. My parents don't have internet, and I've been avoiding work like the plague. Until today. They made me come back today.

You'd think with another birthday (how did I get so old?) maybe I'd get more responsible. Sadly, not so.

Anyway, I had a good break. It was good to be with family, as always. I watched too much tv. I pretty much fried my brain on it. Which made me grateful that we don't have cable here. I can't watch tv all day. I have to rent or buy anything I want to watch.

We went to a bookstore yesterday and got 16 books for $18. It was fabulous. They're going out of business. And it made a great birthday gift to me. About half of them were hardbacks. I figure, if we paid full price it would have cost more than $150. So I'm stocked up for a couple of months.

Also, we got a digital camera for Christmas, so the possibilities of seeing pictures of us on my blog have increased greatly. Still, I need to be smarter than it to work it, and right now that seems doubtful.

It was good to come home. And this time I mean Pennsylvania. It's something about having our own space or something. I'm not sure, but it's good to be back, even though I miss my family.

Still, I'm not ready to teach again. I really don't even want to think about it yet. It's only a day away.

There is no subject.

I want to go home. My mom's ginormous Christmas tree is up. Actually, it's only 11 feet this year. Dino thinks it's too small.

Plus it's been really foggy here for the last three days. This does not lend itself to me feeling good about life.

And today I just want to cry a little. Mostly frustration. What is it about plagiarism that is so appealing to English students? Anyone have ideas on what to do about this issue? I have at least six plagiarised papers. That's not good, folks.

I made cookies this week. They're good, but I'd rather be home.

Funny that I still think of my mom's home as home. Really, I should grow up soon.

A week from now, after a week of testing (but not for me, I'm not giving a final.) and packing and Ben being here for a visit, I'll be home. That sounds nice.

I wish you could all see how crooked our little Christmas tree is. It makes for good times.

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...

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.)

Building

I'm getting very excited about having visitors. Sure, I'm not really cleaning my house, but anyone who knows me knows that this is not one of my higher attributes. But I did have dreams last night that my guests were here and we were having fun together. So that's good. And I'm thinking about what to feed everyone. And I've decided not to worry about the bathroom situation or the lack of beds. (Thanks, Katie)

Too bad Ben is sick. And that I can't comment on his blog. Apparently my computer is revolting against comments. I don't think it even lets me comment on my own blog anymore. It's messed up and slow. Who knows. Anyway. Ben, I hope you feel better soon, because I want to have fun.

The maple tree in my front yard is glorious. I talk to it and exclaim at it daily. Also, I've been walking to and from work more. Sure, it's only half a mile, but it feels good. Anyway, I enjoy the walk, and winter is sure to come soon and make me not want to walk anywhere at all or even to go on living, so I'm going to enjoy the walks while they last.

Good times

I like buying books. Even when they're not for me. It's fun to try to find the best deal on the internet and get good books. Or at least books that I think are good. I think I'll buy some more today. Basically whenever I get a new shipment in I go to amazon or barnes online and buy more. So far they haven't told me to stop.

I taught my first English class yesterday. Tomorrow I'm giving my first vocab test. Apparently, I'm hardcore. Or something. You know what's great about the month of October? I only teach eight times in the entire month. I love this A/B schedule thing they've got going here. I had a few frustrations my first day, but overall, not too bad. I think the Juniors listen a little better than the seniors.

So Michael's gone for a leadership seminar in Atlanta. I really did well my first night alone. (He's gone till Saturday.) I think maybe it's partially living in a duplex that makes me feel safer. In any case, my heart wasn't beating frantically all night and I slept well. So whatever it is that's making me feel alright, I'm glad.

Surprise!

So, yesterday I found out that the seniors and their sponsors (that's me!) are going to CUC this weekend for college days. I think I am the last person to find out this kind of information. I'm pretty low on the totem pole right now. At least I'm adding another Adventist college to my list of places visited. Besides the 16 states I've visited in the last year.

Today is a Project Impact like day here. Community service and all that goodness. I'm going to a nursing home this afternoon with some students. We're going to play games and tell stories and that kind of stuff. I think. Once again, I only found out about this on Monday. Low on the totem pole.

Now that I'm in Beta, they give me options to label my posts. But all of my posts are just about random stuff. So it seems kind of pointless.