Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Fhqwhgads' LiveJournal:

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Thursday, February 4th, 2010
11:45 pm	I should be in bed. But. Today I went to see Chip Kidd speak (wikipedia him, I did). I narrowly decided to do it because Art Spiegelman was speaking about 45 minutes away. But the Chip Kidd ticket was free, so I decided to go to that instead. We ended up going out to dinner with him and a few other people afterward. Everyone at the table was geeking out because it was Chip Kidd. It didn't so much affect me...until I realized that this man casually hangs out with people like David Sedaris, Art Spiegelman, and Dave Eggers. I am so jealous. And tomorrow night I'm going to see Bill Ayers speak two blocks from my house. And Saturday is the Art Association of Harrisburg annual Bal Masque...this year's them is "Funkytown" and I have ugly 70s style clothing to wear. My life is the best! (Comment on this)
Monday, January 11th, 2010
7:33 pm	People who have advised high school yearbook are not lying: it is very stressful. My childrens are angry that I (the horrible bitch who wants them all to get Fs (though the lowest grade anyone currently has is a B)) am penalizing their grades for missing deadlines. This is apparently the first time in their yearbook staff careers that someone has done this to them. They are crying foul because most of their delays have been technical difficulties. I understand this, but publishers do not. If you have technical difficulties, you put in extra time after school and you fix it. Just because we are blessed to have a great relationship with our publisher, who does not punish us financially for missing deadlines, does not mean that my students escape their own personal consequences for missing deadline. I am looking for some personal vindication here. Am I justified in this? (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 7th, 2010
7:52 pm	The vet thinks Roger has an abscess. It's somewhere in his eye, jaw, or sinus. Abscesses in rabbits' jaws are very common, very expensive to treat, and very deadly. I can't stand the thought of just watching my pet die. I am also afraid of trying to treat it, fighting abscesses for 2-3 years (this is very common as the bacteria are hard to get rid of), and Roger still dying,having been miserable the last few years of his life because of painful surgeries. I don't think I can afford it. It will likely cost $1000+ to treat. Three years ago, Roger had a $700 surgery to remove a tumor, and it took me over a year to recover from that. And so far, seven days in to 2010, I've had to spend $800 in extra expenses above my normal monthly budget for vet visits, pet boarding over the holidays, my own eye doctor appointment, homeowner's association fees, and an escrow shortage due to higher city taxes. It makes me feel like shit to have to decide. EDIT: Doing research scared the crap out of me. They all make it sound so dire...but several rabbit owners on the LJ communities I'm a part of had their rabbit's abscesses cured by injections or antibiotics. I know this may not necessarily be the case with Roger, but it means there is hope and this isn't a death sentence after all. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 31st, 2009
10:34 am	I did this last year, so I might as well again... 1) Where did you begin 2009? Brandon and Victoria's! 2) What was your status by Valentine's Day? happy 3) Were you in school (anytime this year)? teaching in one! 5) Did you have to go to the hospital? thankfully, no 6) Did you have any encounters with the police? NOpe! 7) Where did you go on holiday? Indiana, if you can call that a "holiday" 8) What did you purchase that was over $500? A house! 9) Did you know anybody who got married? I actually don't think I went to any weddings this year?! 10) Did you know anybody who passed away? no, I don't think so. 11) Have you run into anybody you left high school with? yeah, at the RC bar! 12) Did you move anywhere? Yes, into our new house! 13) What sporting events did you go to? high school football/basketball games! 14) What concerts/shows did you go to? mainly Hello Hawk shows 15) Are you registered to vote? Yes 17) Where do you live now? PA 18) Describe your birthday. We were at the Philly Brew Fest! 19) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2008? I don't know 20) What has been your favorite moment? The Brewer's Fest was pretty awesome, as was our anniversary vacation 21) What's something you learned about yourself? I apparently am very boring. 22) Any new additions to your family? Nope. 23) What was your best month? All summer when I wasn't working 24) What music will you remember 2008 by? Bomb the Music Industry 25) Who has been your best drinking buddy? Julie and Thi 26) Made new friends? Yeah, a ton 29) Any regrets? Probably. 30) How many girlfriends/boyfriends have you had? Just one. 33) Which season was the best? Summer 34) How many nights out of 365 days did you not remember? Probably just handful....I am pretty forgetful though. ** JANUARY ** 2) Did you have a New Year's resolution? Not really. 3) Does it snow where you live? Yes. 4) Do you like hot chocolate? Oh yes. 5) Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop? Nope.I would never want to do that. ** FEBRUARY ** 1) Who was your Valentine? Eric 2) When you were little, did you buy valentines for all of your classmates?? yes! 3) Do you care if the groundhog sees its shadow or not? Not really. ** MARCH ** 1) Are you Irish? Yes. Mostly. 2) Did you wear green on St. Patty's Day? yes. i didn't want to give my students an excuse to pinch me. 3) What did you do for St. Patty's Day in 2008? Nothing 4) Are you happy when winter is pretty much over? yes!!!! ** APRIL ** 1) Do you like the rain? sometimes 2) Did you plan an April fools' joke this year? No. 3) Do you get tons of candy on Easter? No. 4) Do you celebrate 4/20? Only in the context that it's my niece's birthday 5) Do you love the month of April? It was ok, i guess. ** MAY ** 1) What's your favorite kind of flower? Lilacs and hydrangeas 2) Do you like the spring? yes 3) Finish the phrase "April showers": bring may flowers, obviously. 4) What is the first colour you think of when you think of Spring? green ** JUNE ** 1) Did you graduate high school yet? yes 2) Did you realize nothing special happens in June? School gets out in June. That's pretty damn special. **JULY** 1) Did you go on any vacations during this month? YES! Like three. 2) Do you blast the A/C all day? As much as you can blast an ancient window unit. ** AUGUST ** 1) Did you do anything special at the end of your summer? Gettysburg Trip 2) What was your favourite summer memory of '08? everything except working at Netflix 3) Did you have a sunburn? yes 4) Do you go to the beach a lot? Yes, we finally went to the beach ** SEPTEMBER ** 1) Who is your favourite teacher? me! or Cindy or Janet (my favorite co-workers) 3) Do you like fall better than summer? YES!!! ** OCTOBER ** 1) What was your Halloween costume? the wicked witch of the east 2) What's your favourite candy? something minty and chocolate 3) What did you do for halloween? We had a party! ** NOVEMBER** 1) Whose house do you go to for Thanksgiving? this year we went to my dad's family for Thanksgiving, and it didn't suck as much as it used to. 2) Do you love stuffing? yes! 3) What are you thankful for? lots. ** DECEMBER ** 1) Do you celebrate Christmas? Yes I did. 2) If not, what do you celebrate? Time with family. 3) Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe? nope 4) Get anything special this year? sure (Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
10:42 pm	Feeling pretty good about life in general. Job's ok: kids are better this year, school politics and atmosphere are worse, but I'd rather deal with those than bad kids....at least I can hole up in my room and pretend the other stuff isn't happening if my kids are good. Decent amount of free time. I get to school at 7am and usually leave around 4:45. I only do work at home on week nights when I have a big project/lots of backlogged grading. I usually work for a couple hours on the weekend. This is, believe it or not, a HUGE improvement over last year!! Eric and I are geocaching a lot. It's really really fun. Also, a good way to get exercise. Still love my house. For the first time since I've moved to PA, heating my house in the winter is costing less than $150 per month. I'm not overdrawing on my bank account every week now. That feels REALLY good. Hopefully, when I get my stipend for advising yearbook, I can use that lump sum to pay off my credit card, and then my life would be complete. Then I could focus on one of the fifty OTHER places I owe money. Went home for Thanksgiving. Highlights include: *Logansport bar crawl, where I saw our old friend Tony Logan, who became our new best friend at a previous bar crawl three or so years ago. He remembered Kim and I! *Stop at Carol's Corner Pub, in which the bartender told us "We have cornhole in the back!" and some guy was carrying around rum balls in an egg carton, and offering them to random people. *Royal Center bar, where people I went to high school with talked nonstop about corn fields and asked Eric and I "yunz murried yit?" *A guy from high school told me all about how he used to drink motor oil and gasoline to get drunk when he was underage. I'm pretty sure that's why he's such a raging genius. Christmas break is only 16 SIXTEEN 16 days away!!! (Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
9:46 pm	I love today! Yay today! *I got to go to sleep at 10pm last night, and slept in until 6:30! *I had kids express opinions (!!!) about ACTUAL WORKS OF LITERATURE!!  (We were talking about Oedipus and 10th graders love to talk about incest, but hey...I'll take minor victories) *A class of seniors remained seated after the bell and continued to ask questions about The Canterbury Tales because they were so enthralled with the Wife of Bath *I left school at 3:30!!! *I came home and made lasagna from scratch, and it was delicious *Eric and I did minor housework stuff, and it was like being real grownups *I finished a book that I've been DYING to finish, and it was awesome (Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel, totally fun boy-targeted YA lit about zeppelins and steampunk-type technology) *Eric and I relaxed and hung out while I read my book and he watched the game and it was just really nice and stress-free and made me really happy *Payday is Friday! The only lame thing (relatively) is that I skipped Zumba class because I was really into my book, and I'm feeling especially unhealthy and bloated lately, but I guess it's not that big of a deal Current Mood: content (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
8:20 pm	Oh, for fuck's sake An open letter to my students (past and present): You are NOT old/responsible enough to have children.  I have only been teaching for three years, so the oldest you can possibly be is 20.  If you are posting baby pics on your myspace between albums of "PaRTyInG!!!111" and "PrOM!!" then you are too young.  Get a job, save some money, spend some time figuring out what your life is all about, then procreate (maybe). I mean, damn people. xoxo, Your former English teacher. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
6:05 pm	Priorities What do I do when I have a ton of errands to run, and papers to grade? Google image search "mustaches" and spend over an hour marveling at bitchin' 'staches. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
6:48 pm	Today Rules 1. Zumba!  Hooray for exercise (mostly hooray because I gained 10 pounds in the last three months and have to lose weight so I can fit into my work pants again....I'm wearing skirts every day until I can wear pants again!) 2. Went to the market and got all my meat and veg super cheap, and better quality. 3. Went on a walk with Julie through downtown, then decided to cross the river and have a drink on the deck of a bar there.  Then came back across the river, stopped at The HodgePodgery, then checked out the newly remodeled Midtown Scholar. 4. When I got home, the pepper steak I was making in the crock pot was ready, and it was tasty. 5. Lowlight of the day: moving the bunnies to the basement (They're making messes and tearing up the house, so they will live downstairs and come up to visit frequently) 6. Getting ready to go to The Laserdome for laser tag, live bands, arcade games, and a (probably lame) haunted house! I love my life!!! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 21st, 2009
6:31 pm	I think I fractured my tailbone!  I've heard of this happening before, but I never heard it was so painful!  Did you know that it even hurts to poop!?! Current Mood: OUCH (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 14th, 2009
12:34 am	BORING I understand why no one posts on LJ anymore.  I have been fighting the urge to update all freaking day, mostly because I only want to post the following: 1. whining about the same crap I always whine about (relationship drama that isn't drama but for some reason I'm trying to make it into some) 2. talking about the boring crap I did today (laundry!) 3. asshats catcalled me from their car, and I responded "Are you serious? Really." so they responded by yelling "Fuck you, bitch!" and speeding away 4. I have heartburn and ate all the rolaids (which suck) and all my generic tums are at school 5. I haven't been to the gym in forever because I'm one quick move away from a dizzy spell 6. Haven't seen anyone outside of work, Eric, and Hello Hawk in a while 7. Successfully  went to work happy hour and didn't get embarassingly drunk (small victories!) 8. I'm reading the newest David Sedaris book and it's awesome. So this is the lameness that is my life.  Ah well.  I posted it anyway and now you had to read it!  In your face! (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
7:42 pm	who cares? (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
5:43 pm	On the second day: School is...good so far?  Am I really saying this?  Am I also thinking that this year is going to be really great?  WHAT?!?!?! (Comment on this)
Thursday, August 20th, 2009
10:56 am	Last day of freedom before school starts. Really sad because it's been a good summer, and I still have lots of errands and minor chores to do.  And if they don't get done today, they're going to get half-assed or not done at all.  And yet here I sit on the computer. Happy in a way because I more or less like most of my teaching colleagues and it will be good to see them.  This year will be better than years past because I'm at the same school and teaching most of the same classes.  So maybe this year I can work 50 hour weeks instead of 60. (Comment on this)
Friday, August 14th, 2009
4:14 pm	WTF Everyone's pregnant!!  (Not me, of course!!!!) I'm freaked out.  Six people I know have informed me (or the internet in general) of their pregnancies in the last week. My friend Sharon is pregnant and I'm going to be perfectly selfish for a minute and say that while I'm happy for her, I am incredibly sad she can't be my drinking buddy again until March.  BOO! It seems that my general circles of friends have moved from the "getting married" phase to the "getting knocked up" phase.  Getting married I can deal with.  Having babies?  That's going to take a lot more getting used to. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
5:27 pm	Boo This fall, I'm supposed to be co-teaching two of my 10th grade classes with a co-teacher. So I went to a co-teaching inservice today....and it was terrible.  The special ed director spoke for 20 minutes, then gave us a stack of papers to read and disappeared for the rest of the day.  My co-teacher is loud and I can't get a word in edgewise (and I'm a fairly assertive person as far as my classroom goes), and her discipline style is VERY lax (as in, she regularly ignores school rules, like she allows kids to use phones in class and lets them turn in late homework with no penalty even if their IEP doesn't state they get extra time) while I am more of a disciplinarian on the exact issues she is lax about.  To top it off, my co-teacher also disappeared for most of the day, so I didn't get much collaboration or discussion done.  I was really excited about co-teaching, and now I'm dreading it.  Also, I'm advising yearbook this year, which I am excited about on one hand...but on the other, I'm going to have a lot of work to do.  The previous people had absolutely no structure and let the kids do whatever they wanted, so I'm going to have a rough time implementing rule and *gasp* real yearbook practices.  This might be a stressful year! (Comment on this)
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
3:09 pm	oh oh oh I want to post my schedule, just like back in the day when everyone used to post their college schedules!! This is what I'm teaching this year: 1st - General English II (co-teaching) 2nd - General English II (co-teaching) 3rd - prep 4th - General English IV 5th - General English IV 6th - General English II 7th - Yearbook 8th - General English IV Yay yay yay!  This is better than the previous incarnation of my schedule, which had all the sophomores jammed into two classes (epic fail at 30+ kids per class) and had me scheduled for lunch duty.  Huzzah for my technology plans, which the district encourages, and which necessarily limit my class sizes to 25 because of computer availability!!  Huzzah for escaping lunch duty! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
1:55 pm	yep Don't look now,  but there are less than four weeks of summer left.  Shit. I'm on my third week of work at Netflix.  I open the envelopes by hand and inspect the DVDs for damage.  It starts at 5:30 am, except on Tuesdays, when work starts at 4 am.  Awesome.  I can't wait until the end of next week, when I will suddenly "find" a teaching job, since I had to lie because they wouldn't consider hiring a temporary employee.  So as far as they know, I am currently unemployed but looking for a job.   I am also refinishing the cabinets in our kitchen.  I started it over a month ago.  I have successfully finished the bottom cabinets.  Except for the half of them which I need to restain because they are significantly lighter than the other half.  Oops.  This all needs to get finished before school starts, because there's no way I can even pretend I will be sanding, staining, and varnishing cabinets in September. I had all kinds of work I was going to do for school, like tweaking lesson plans and reformatting worksheets, projects, and rubrics.  Didn't do any.  I did develop some neat technology stuff that I'm excited about, though, so I guess it's not totally wasted.  I also redid my class expectations sheet.  Having these two small things doesn't keep me from having unprepared-on-the-first-day-of-school dreams though.  Those have been happening for the last couple of weeks. I am at the stage where I am looking forward to school starting!  This is my first year where I am not new to the school, so that's the most exciting part!!  I am pumped about yearbook, and making it a real actual yearbook instead of the thrown-together pile of posed pictures it has been in years past.  We have some awesome new staff this year, and my class schedule doesn't look as terrible as it did last year.  Plus, I'm co-teaching for my 10th grade classes, which are the ones that gave me so much trouble last year.  That could only make things better, right?  I hope so. We'll see how long it takes for the excited about school stuff to wear off!! Current Music: Lagwagon (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
1:13 pm	This might be the longest I've ever gone without posting. Since last time: Bought a house.  Pictures are on facebook. School ended.  And there was much rejoicing. Still no summer job yet. Because I have no job for the first time in about 12 years, I am attempting to go to the gym every single day. Brewer's Fest was last weekend.  And it was awesome, as usual.  Three hours of drinking fancy microbrews + five hours of drinking in dive bars  = best. weekend. ever. Using mint.com, discovered that all but $100 of my monthly income goes to bills, all of which must be paid.  Panic ensues. MUST find summer job. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
8:48 pm	I am hilarious I was cleaning out my facebook inbox and found this: ?   November 4 at 5:04pm Me: Do I know you? Are you on a quest to add people named Ashley who went to Purdue?   November 4 at 5:37pm Some dude: yhea i want to transfer and was wondering if you could tell me how the parties are?     November 4 at 5:50pm Me: Purdue parties are LAME. Go to Indiana Wesleyan instead, those parties are off the CHAIN!!! (Comment on this)