Home

It’s good to be home again. Everything was in tact when we walked into our apartment about an hour ago. We’ve set up the television and the computer, but now we have to empty out the fridge. The power went out for a while and they say it is best to throw it all out than get sick. Considering that a doctor’s bill would be more that $40 of groceries, I think I’m going to follow that snippet of advice.

The drive home took two hours longer than usual, but I’m not complaining. I got to listen to some good music. Dan the man slept most of the way since we don’t always agree on music. Since I’m the driver, I think I should be allowed to listen to whatever I want.

This little trip got us many goods for the apartment. The in-law’s bought us a microwave and a bad ass blender. The blender according to Dan the Man Sr. was for watching the kiddos on Friday. See, the in-laws had planned to take Dan the Man’s aunt to Medieval Times along with Bev, Dan the Man’s sister while Mush, the oldest sis, watched little Bev. Well, the aunt ended up with an extra ticket and Dan the Man & I didn’t think it was fair for just one of us to go and plus we had plans to go see Dan the Man’s friend. Then I suggested taking Mush along and I could watch the kiddos and everyone liked the idea. Dan the Man did cancel the plans with his friend and helped watch the kids. Anyway, Sunday, Dan Sr. caught me before I got out of the car at Kohl’s and said, “You’re gonna get something for babysitting.” When I started to say it was okay, he said, “Listen to me, you’re going to get something, and none of this clearance stuff. Get something for you or the house, but get something.”

Oh yeah, we also got some wine glasses and some “As seen on TV” plastic containers from his friend. The “Stuff for the Apartment” list is quickly dwindling.

Well, I’m going to go park my ass in front of the television and find out about slow downs on I-10 from San Antonio to give my sis an update whenever she gets home. Hope everyone is doing well.

Safe for now

Howdy ya'll. We made it to the in-law's at about 1 PM today. As I watched the 5 o'clock news with Lynda and Dan the Man, boy was I glad we left when we did. The traffic out of Houston is unreal. I talked to my sis about half an hour ago and she was barely leaving.

Watching the news, I can finally identify with the people who were affected by Katrina. As I sat in front of the television grading the work of my students, I said a prayer for each one. I hope Edgar gets back to Stinkydena and finds his home still standing. I hope Justin and his family made a last minute decision to actually leave and I hope Britanie didn't freak out too bad. I turned my bag inside out looking for the yellow sheet of paper that had the phone numbers for my collegues. I'm wondering if Linda is going to Brownsville and if Lalis might be headed to Valle Hermoso.

It all seems surreal. Dan the Man is worried about his car and the television and I'm thinking I should have taken down that picture of my dad in the hallway. I keep hoping Rita goes west just a little more. But I guess only time will tell. Until then, I'm on the edge of my seat hoping to get a call from my sister letting me know she's finally made it to El Chuco and seeing on the news that Ragging Rita has calmed down and will hit King Ranch. A girl can only hope.

I'm leaving

I had tried to post this yesterday and reply to some of the comments, but this thing wouldn't let me. Anyway, I'm securing the homefront and getting ready right now. We're headed up to Dallas until Rita unleashes it's vengance. Everyone is pretty much freaked out still because of Katrina so school let out and the city of Stinkydena told us to get the heck out. I'm not really in a danger area, but still, we're close enough.

I'll try to write some more when I get up to the in-law's.

Keep your chin up Cindylu! Don't forget to congratulate Cracked Chancla on her new business venture.

La Rita

Ya’ll in the event that Rita comes our way, as has been projected, the school district has canceled school for the rest of the week. Our little town has ordered an evacuation. So tomorrow morning Dan the Man and I are heading to Dallas to stay with his parents until Rita unleashes her vengeance.

I hope all my fellow coast Tejanos are okay. Ya’ll take care. I’ll try to update while I’m with the in-law’s.

Tired

When I left the school today, I was just . . . tired. My feet were killing me and all I wanted was for a Japanese woman to walk on my back. I was also starving; the Michelina’s lean lasagna lunches aren’t doing the trick for the hunger. I guess I should consider breakfast.

The day went well. The kiddos were okay. After lunch they started to get out of hand, I later found out that tomorrow is silent lunch. Silent lunch is exactly as it sounds. No one is allowed to talk. All the teachers are required to eat at the table on the stage in the cafeteria. Plus, we have to make sure the kids are sitting in their assigned seats. If you ask me, assigning seats and requiring them to sit at a table is way too much. I know why they do it, but still. I think that’s why they get so out of hand during and after lunch.

Did I tell you all I’m taking a graduate course? It’s part of this Alternative Certification thing. My class is on Tuesday nights. I hate the teacher. Part of it has to do with the fact that she uses tons of overheads and we have to copy everything down. She also allows way too many testimonials. And to top it off, “the Homie” is in the class. This guy loves to tell all these stories about himself and he’s pretty full of himself too. Plus, he asks some really lame questions. But well, from what I hear, that kind of student is in a lot of grad classes.

Anyway, I’m so looking forward to Friday. It’s not a half day and we’re not having a three day weekend, in fact, I have some training on Saturday, but still. I can’t wait. The thought of waking up at any hour I damn well please on Sunday really excites me.

Mr. Vayne

I had an entry that addressed all the issues I have been talking about lately, but then, I remembered and I googled this.

Mr. Vayne was one of my patients when I was a home health aide. He was just as his daughter describes him. Fortunately, I had to opportunity to see this house inside and out on several occasions.

He passed away about a week after I left El Paso. My mom was hesitant to tell me because she didn’t want me to worry. My mom was investigated because like most old people, he’d come about some bed sores and try as she may; she was not able to get rid of them. His daughter didn’t pursue the investigation. Like me, she knew his death was coming.

I didn’t cry when I found out that he had died. He wasn’t the same man I’d met years earlier. Age had eaten away at his brain. He no longer pestered me to read out loud in attempts to help me project my voice better. He quit giving me lessons about Shakespeare and pestering me about going out on the roof to clean the gutters.

Instead, he’d sleep in the room next to mine and claw at the walls and scream at the hallucinations he often saw. I rarely like to recall these events. Instead, I like to remember the lessons about what El Paso was like before he helped build the freeway and people’s comments about how excited he was for Tuesday and Thursday to come along because he’d get to spend time with me.

Sorry if this doesn’t make much sense. I’m just overwhelmed with emotion right now.

P.S. Things at la escuelita have been good. I’ll tell you all about it at another time. Thanks for all your comments.

P.S.S. I’d love for you to read my blog Belinda.

Oh yeah, I can’t wait for Cracked Chancla to reveal her big news! I’m still squeling!

And so time just goes by . . .

I still don't have internet at my casa. Actually, at this point, I don't even have electricity at my apartment. There was this huge screw up and we had our electricity cut off on Wednesday and we won't get it back until this coming Wednesday. That's one week I won't be able to spend in my dang apartment.

School is going. I had a very informal evaluation on Tuesday and my classroom management sucks ass. However, the evaluator did tell my AP that I'm a "very good teacher." She liked how I made up examples using the kids instead of taking the books. That's pretty much my teaching style thus far, make it up as I go along.

After a week of lecturing kids on learning to be respectful to each other and me, I had one class still acting up. I ended up telling them that I was so disappointed in them. I told them that I thought things would be different and that I could do fun things with them, but they can't handle that. I also told them that I was going to change things, I didn't know how, but things were going to change. Then I said, "We have two minutes left in class, I can't even begin to cover what I was going to teach you. So you know what? Please put your heads down for the rest of the period. When the bell rings, don't get up, I'll dismiss you when your minute is up."

After the day was over, I set up my desks in rows. Things will be changing on Monday but I don't know how yet. I have some hope that they're going to change. Even though I get upset with them, I continue to stress that I'm really there for them. I think they'll get it eventually.

I miss the blog world. I can't wait until Saturday. Hopefully, by then, I can read you all's journals on a regular basis and update more often. Anyway, I guess I better get moving. I gotta go check into a hotel and pick up some junk at my apartment. I'm sure I could stay at my sis's house, but I want the damn apartment people to pay for some of this time I can't be there, it's their damn fault in the first place.

More babbling

I may not be able to write an entry for a while seeing as how we start moving this weekend, and I haven’t even called about setting up some kind of internet at the new place. Also, I can’t get online at school. I mean, I can but everything has to be educational and stuff. Sometimes I can’t even get into the educational stuff.

Anyway, I have some stories for you all about the kiddos. I’ll start with the crappy one: I had to send a kid to the office today. He told a little girl in the class that she “needs to be on Slimfast.” I thought to myself, “That’s real nice asshole.”

I’ve get to see what the heck is going to happen to him. I’m wondering if he even went to the office. I tried to call my AP, but she didn’t seem to be in the office.

Now the good story, my first and second period class rocks man. We went to the library today and they were SO good. I told them to sit and read after they had checked out there book and I’d say all but like one or two sat there and read. When we got back up to class, they begged me to give them extra time to read and once again, they sat there and read. They were so happy to know that tomorrow they’re getting 45 minutes to read.

I finished my cohort training today. It’s sort of a good feeling, but I think I’m going to miss seeing them. I’ll at least get to see one person everyday because she’s a teacher at the school I teach at.

Not much else has really been going on. I started typing up an entry the other day about food, but I haven’t been able to finish it. It’s just so much easier to log in what I do day by day at the escuelita. I hardly ever type these days and I think I miss it because I’m typing so much faster than ever.

Anyway, even though I have some little shits in some classes, overall, I’m really glad I’m doing this. I’m glad that there are kids that like being in my class so much that they beg to stay another period. Of course, I can’t oblige, but it’s still cool. The best thing is that a lot of them have shared stuff with me about what’s going on in their lives outside of school. One kid told me about his dad being in the hospital and another told me how her mom almost had her arrested. So I feel like I’m there for some of these kids.

Babbling

Howdy ya’ll.

I love that Molotov song that starts off like that. What is it called? Perro Negro Granjero. Speaking of music, on Thursday, I went to Hell Mart to buy some stuff for one of my kiddos who can’t afford supplies and I bought myself the lastest Intocable cd. It sure makes the ride to school a lot better.

School isn’t so bad anymore. I no longer get sick to my stomach on my way to school and I actually have somewhat of an appetite during lunch. Thanks to all of you for your advice and animo. At one of my trainings last week, this lady said that one of the teachers at her school said she almost quit seven times her first year; one day, she even took boxes to pack up all her stuff. That definitely makes me feel a million times better.

After what happened last Monday, I’m so glad I had a crappy first day of school. One of the little turds started acting up so bad that I had to call my assistant principal. A while later, a cop showed up at my classroom and the kid ended up getting a citation for disrupting class. I felt bad about it, but well, something had to be done. Besides, I had to do something for all the other kids in the class. The little turd was howling and kicking desks and some of the kiddos got really scared.

I’m doing well though. I turned in my first batch of lesson plans, I’ve got the kiddos working, not at the level I want them, but they’re working nonetheless. I come home very tired but not angry. Like Gustavo said, I can’t take this stuff personal. In fact, it makes me laugh sometimes that they act the way they do. I know they’re testing me. They tell me they hate reading and writing and think I’m going to take it personal. They attempt to ask all sorts of personal questions and to top it off, they think I’m going to stand there and argue with them about the consequences to their choices.

Although I spend a lot of time doing work, I’m not bitter. In fact, it sort of makes the time I do get to spend away from working that much more enjoyable. I especially like to see people who aren’t saying, “You think you have it bad…”

In other news, I’m moving this coming weekend. It’ll be nice to not live so damn far from work, especially with gas prices being what they are. Dori is pretty good about gas, but still. Well, I suppose I should get back to packing. I’m looking forward to the day when I can come around and blog every day. Hopefully, it’ll be soon!

Horrid

The first day was not what I was expecting at all. The computer system was being switched this summer and like most software companies, they promised a lot of things and only gave them half of it. This caused tons of problems with schedules and stuff like that so the whole morning was spent in homeroom.

I have a homeroom class of about 20 kids. At first, they were okay. Then, because I let them sit where ever they liked, they started getting a little talkative. It would have all been okay if it hadn’t been for the terrible duo.

I have a pair of repeaters who are extremely proud of being in the sixth grade again. They love having the attention on them, so they started getting up and talking really loud and just disrupting everyone. It was only a matter of time before they had the class up in arms. Since they wouldn’t stop misbehaving, I separated them because it was a deal I’d made with them. This of course, made both of them really upset so they continued to misbehave, so at lunch, they weren’t able to sit together, and this was part of the deal too. My other classes showed up later and they were pretty good. To my dismay, homeroom came back for another 25 minutes at the end of the day. I ended up giving one kid detention which he didn’t show up to this morning.

By the end of the day, I was so fed up. I did what I wasn’t supposed to do; I let them get to me. It’s not that I didn’t know how to handle them, but I just can’t picture the rest of the year with them. I almost wanted to go downstairs and resign.

This morning, I didn’t want to go back. I had knots in my stomach all the way to school. I didn’t even enjoy my morning tunes. First period went well, I kept them busy and I am pretty content with the work they were doing. Then there was homeroom. It was utter chaos because there are so many things we have to pick up from them, so I had them fixing their paperwork before turning it in to me. Then they called for lunch. When they came back to class, one of the terrible duo kids was gone. Apparently, he did something to upset the principals so he got sent to ISC, which is that class where they keep them isolated and working all day long. I think that’s what he was looking for all along.

The other kid kept bugging the class, but now I had more time to go make him work. I kept going over to him and pushing him to work and giving him little pep talks about wanting him to get to 7th grade.

My 7th and 8th periods were okay. I have a couple of kids who could potentially be problematic but I’m separating them on Monday. They’ve been warned. In the meantime, I’m going to get some sleep. The thing about being a new teacher is that you sort of have to make up your own questions to the books, especially if you don’t want to bore them with the questions at the end of the story. I hope next week goes much better.

Jitters

Tomorrow is the first day! I’m getting more nervous by the minute. I know it’ll be okay, but still. This is my first day as a teacher; I’m allowed to be nervous aren’t I?

Dante's Inferno

Well then, it’s been long enough, hasn’t it? I hope you’re all doing well.

It’s been an interesting week. I’ve met almost the entire faculty and staff at the school. I think I know about every single thing a kid can do before he/she has to go to the office and I heard all about the sixth grade headache. Apparently, this kid failed and will be in sixth grade again. If he’s in one of my classes, I’ll “have full administrative support.” I wonder if one of his consequences will be a couple of swats.

Last week on Saturday, I experienced some part of Dante’s Inferno. Why? Well, sit down, let me tell you. After cohort, I skedaddled on down to the school because the incoming sixth graders would be there for orientation. I was a couple hours late, but I figured it’d be cool to see some of the kiddos that would eventually end up in my classes. Afterwards, I thought I’d head down to the teacher’s store so that perhaps I could buy a couple of things for my room. I was thinking a cool border for the bulletin boards, maybe some educational type posters or something.

During cohort, I’d been told that there was a 20% off sale and since I’ve been pretty much low on funds, I thought “huh, perfect!” About 30 other teachers thought the same thing. However, one out of every four decided it’d be a great idea to take their kids or spouse.

This store is designed to look like one of those old time schoolhouses. There isn’t much space in there so that 30 people, plus employees and kids makes it a little difficult to walk around. Add to this equation the walls covered with poster sets, stamps, games and anything teacher-related you can think of and you’ve got yourself a pretty chaotic place. The cherry on this little baby is the kid songs being performed by peppy little kids most likely clad in overalls in all the colors of the rainbow while pulling off some creepy choreography that includes a convict in a pink rabbit suit. It only took three steps in before I became dizzy. I walked around the entire store four or five times, blinking about a million times hoping to gain some of my eyesight, but I found nothing that I could use. I vowed to never, ever go into that store again.

However, this morning, I found myself in there again. This time was much better. I found the “Six Traits of Writing” posters, black border, and a nippy new pencil. I was out of there in twenty minutes. Still, I don’t think I’ll be doing much shopping there. I’ve used many unconventional things to decorate my classroom. My sis and roomie took some young adult covers from the press and made this neat border along the front wall of my class. I took my hideous fake cat and rat and set them up on the filing cabinets and desk, respectively. I also inherited an awesome César Chávez Apple promo poster that’s up on one of the whiteboards. The only thing left to do is write lesson plans and set up my accelerated reader space. It’s exciting and nerve wrecking all at once.

Oh yeah, I’ve also been given partial 6th grade bulletin board duty. The other girl and I are pushing for a superhero theme that many people really like. I still haven’t decided what superhero I want to be. Wonder Woman and Flash from The Incredibles are already taken. Dan the Man says I should be the Hulk because I’m mean according to him.

I haven’t done much else. I come home and pass out almost everyday. It gets pretty taxing to sit and listen for seven hours and then move around books, desks, etc. for two or three hours and then drive for about 30 minutes. I can’t wait to move to that side of town. I won’t have to get up so early anymore.

I’ll let you all know how Thursday, the first day of school, goes.

Dos noticias un post

Dear All:

I have two things to share with you . . .

The first is that I am officially employed. I got the keys to my room today. I’m going to have the clothesline in my room. I can’t wait to go in there and move desks around and create my reading corner and library. I also can’t wait to move my big ass desk to a less obtrusive place and put up all the things I’ve scored as door prizes.

The other news is that there’s someone new in my life. Her name is Dori. You can view her here if you click on “Polar White.” Never in my life have I ever had a new one. I owe it all to a certain older sibling out there who always saves my ass. I really hope I can do something great for her soon.

Well, that’s all for now. I miss writing in here! But alas, I have to get to bed. Early mornings aren’t my favorite thing in the world.

Love,

La Browngirl

Busy

Jeez Louise, long time huh? To say I’ve been busy is an understatement. The other day, I was at work and my eyes felt like raisins with all the fluorescent lights I’ve been exposed to lately.

I’ve been having cohort training at least twice a week, program training Friday and Saturday for the last week and this week, H.R. stuff like insurance benefit meeting and there’s an upcoming appointment to get my “paperwork” done, and I’m still working at the Press.

Don’t get me wrong, I like being busy. I just wanted to let you all know that I haven’t been slacking on this here blog “just cuz.”

I have been having fun. Last Wednesday at my friend MTV’s house eating and talking. She let me borrow her Believer magazine. I need to make some time to read it.

We’ve been getting tons of books at our training sessions. I also need to make time to read that. Plus, I need to write the letter to the kiddos’ parents, figure out which “getting to know you” activity I want to do, do my “getting to know you” activity so I can run it by someone before the first day, figure out how I want to decorate my classroom (any ideas?), and . . . I don’t remember the rest of the list.

I’m also looking for an apartment on that side of town. Most of them are not too nice, but I think I’ve found some that are affordable and meet my “no roach or mold” requirement. I might go look for a new car tomorrow. For the last year or so, I’ve been driving this beat up 92 Bonneville. The ac went out at the beginning of the summer and I’ve had to buy two tires for it. I’m riding on my spare, so I really have to buy a third tire for it. The alignment is way off, but well, food and rent take precedence over that. I don’t know how it’ll be able to handle the long drive for the next month or so and my sis is pretty worried about it. So she talked my brother-in-law into helping me out tomorrow. I have crap credit due to stupid choices when I was younger, but we’ll see what happens. Credit stuff makes me nervous.

Well, I better get my ass back to doing my homework for tomorrow. I really like the lady who’s in charge of me. (She’ll be visiting my class a couple times a year trying to figure out if I’m coming along as an educator.) Anyway, I’m almost certain she had a lot to do with me getting the position I was offered so I want to live up to her standards. People set high standards for me so easily, I hope I can do the same to my huercos.

How are you all doing?

Interviews by Gwen

If ya'll don't read Gwen, she recently had an entry in which she answered five questions and then you could request an interview. So here are my answers. I'm not great at interviews, but I guess I could come up with some questions if anyone is interested.

1. (This is something I've been wanting to ask you for a while, since I know you're a Latina who could easily be mistaken for a white person.) What's your most annoying experience with being mistaken for a white person? If you have one. If not, please excuse my bitterness and just tell me your fave color.

I've spent all day thinking of this. I knew there had to be one and I've finally got it! There was this one time I was at Helios throwing back a couple of 7 & 7's and I got to talking to the bartender. First, she asked me if the girl I was with was my partner. I said no, because well, she wasn't and isn't. I'm on the straight side, although for the gal in question 3, I would change that. Anyway, the conversation went on and I must have said something in Spanish or about my origins because the bartender said, “Oh my God! You're Lah-tin!” She spent the rest of the night asking if I knew how to make tamales among other Lah-tin dishes. There weren't many people in the bar, so I couldn't really run away from her. And on top of everything, she was the only bartender that night.

My favorite color is pink. ¡Tan grandota y tan niñita!

2. What's the worst thing about living in Houston, besides the heat?

It has to be the drivers. I've quit counting how many times I've been thisclose to having my brains turn into asphalt art.

3. Who, in your opinion, is the most beautiful woman on Earth?

Geez, this is hard because there are so many. But right now, I'd have to say Liza Snyder from Yes, Dear. I've told Dan the Man, if I can hook up with her, I'm dumping his ass.

4. Describe the crappiest restaurant you've ever been in.

The crappiest restaurant I've ever been in has to have been in Juárez. We went there during my grandmother's funeral service. At that time, I was going through my anorexia phase so I generally thought food was bad. However, this food was bad. I ordered a carne desebrada burrito. It had watery beans that made the meat look gooey and stringy. I had nightmares about the burrito coming to life and chasing after me.

5. For your birthday, you can have anything you want from the Galleria. (Ritzy mall here in Houston.) What will you probably pick? A diamond necklace? Designer bag? Piece of furniture?

Hah, the Galleria. I only go there to please out of towners. But if I could have my pick of the litter, I'd probably want a pair of Dickies from Torrid given that they fit and don't give me a jelly belly overhang. (Side note: Are they ever going to start making fashionable pants that aren't low rise? I'm sick of the belly issue and having to look at other chick's thongs.) If not, I'd totally go for a fancy diamond. If I wasn't too captivated by it, I'd sell it once I got out of there and buy myself a car with ac.

Madrugada Visitor

I couldn’t sleep on Friday morning. Aside from having to wake up earlier than usual to be on the other side of town for training, the rain kept pouring down. All I could think about was, “how bad is the flooding going to be?”

I got up ten minutes before the alarm went off and the first thing I did was reach for my glasses to come online to check the weather. Turns out, the television is much better for this. However, as I was reaching for my glasses, I noticed that I wasn’t tired or cranky even though I’d only slept a couple of hours. In fact, I was kind of happy.

My dad came to visit me during what seemed like my last leg of sleep. He came to ask me if I wanted to go on a trip with him, his brother, my uncle Sam, and uncle Sam’s family. In the dream, I wasn’t home and when I got home, I was a little sad that I had missed him. So I called him.

He proceeded with his invite and I had to turn him down because I had to attend training. I was feeling down that I couldn’t go with, but in a very understanding voice, he said, “its okay m’ija, I understand.”

“Thanks Dad. . . Dad?”

“Yeah, m’ija.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too m’ija.”

And that’s when I woke up. I swear all the “m’ijas” didn’t sound this cheesy.

I think what made me the happiest was that I was able to tell him “I love you.” I’m not a terribly affectionate person. In fact, I turn tomato-red when I have to be affectionate. The tone of his voice when he said it back was so genuine and heartfelt that it helped mend some of those lifelong wounds.

When I woke up, I thought, “I’m not gonna tell anyone about this dream because he came to see me.” But when I got in the shower, I started thinking that maybe I should tell people about my dream. I wanted to shout with glee. I wanted to tell the world. I thought I could tell my sister about seeing Dad and yet I haven’t. I haven’t told anyone.

Sometimes, people don’t like when you dream about the dead. Sometimes people will just say “huh. That’s weird.” Other times they will say, “Ave María Purisima, resale unos Padres Nuestros.” And sometimes, people will not say anything.

Now that I’ve written about it again (first time was in my personal journal), I’ll probably tell my mom since we always tell each other about our dreams. In the meantime, I still have a big smile on my face and curiosity about what kind of trip they were taking in an Amish-style carriage.

The End of an Era

Friday marks the end of an era at Arte Público Press. When I return to work on Monday, the office will be Linda-less.

Throughout my years at the Press, I learned so many things from Linda. She taught me how to do my job, be resourceful and that there’s always a shortcut. She taught me about Chicanismo and that I could have my own voice. She encouraged me to follow my dreams and pushed me along when I didn’t want to budge. If it hadn’t been for her, I probably wouldn’t have the teaching job.

After tomorrow, there will be no more “Ma’am” followed by a question or instructions and then a “Who were you talking to?” from Gabi.

Her stack of Chicano/Latino/Hispanic art books will be snuggling up next to their brothers and sisters on the bookshelves in the different UH libraries. The necessary ones will be on the top bookshelf of what used to be her desk.

The array of current titles, upcoming reprints and art sample files on the floor of her “office” will be in the large four drawer metal filing cabinet that provides a makeshift wall. Her desk will not be muddled with ongoing projects.

Her Santa Fe style sweater will be gone. There will be no, “Don’t go buy anything for lunch, my sister made (insert fancy dish here) and we had lots of leftovers.” Nor will there be a “You do know that’s my seat” when someone is sitting at the head of the table in the kitchen. Afternoons will be quiet, and there won’t be anyone to say, “Ma’am, do you want to go get some root beer so we can make some root beer floats?”

I will no longer wait around until 5 P.M. so that neither of us has to walk out alone.

But most importantly, there will be no one to ask, in the whiniest voice I can summon, “Linda, how do I . . .?”

I really don’t know what it will be like on Monday except maybe quiet.

What I do know, is that when I left the office today, there was a lot of sadness. Although I am extremely happy for her and wish her the best at her new job, I’m still sad, for the press and myself. And while these changes hurt, they’re also exciting. I can’t wait to hear about all those great things that I know are going to come her way.

Thanks for everything LMG.

Teaching and the Minute Men

Gee, how long has it been? A week?

I’ve been incredibly busy and training hasn’t even started yet. I now have a cohort. I always heard Cindylu use this word, but I never imagined I would be using it. My cohort starts training tomorrow. It’s only six days out of the month, so it’s not too bad. I don’t know how it will be next month since school will have started by then.

Work actually starts on the 1st of August. Although I only work seven hours a day, I have to be there by 8:00 A.M., I haven’t had to get that early since . . . my Wal-Mart days. Gah. And the commute for the first month or so will be very, very long, so I’ll have to get up earlier. But it’s worth it. This is the job I wanted.

Last week was pretty busy. On Thursday, I met with some of the other Language Arts teachers. It was fun. I’m not missing any opportunities to meet with my co-workers because I really want to get to know them and sort of get ideas for my curriculum and all that stuff. Tomorrow, I get to see my classroom and I’m going to see about taking the textbooks. I’ve got some idea of what to do, but I’ve still got a ton of questions. I guess it helps that I’m going to have two mentors.

Anyway, enough of the work stuff. The other day I was watching the evening news, and guess what? The minute men are coming to Houston. WTF? They’re going to be recording the day laborers that stand down the street from my apartment. On Saturday, as Dan the Man and I were driving down Westpark toward the bank, I said told him about the Minute Men.

“What? We should do something! We need to stand out there with signs!”

“Protest?”

“Yes. And make flyers, in Spanish, so they know what’s going on.”

“Yeah. We could stand in front of them so that they’re filming us and not them.”

“Yeah. And we can call those Minute Men murders…Look at what you’ve done to me! I didn’t even care about these things.”

He’s come a long way. I need to do some research and see if any of the immigrant rights activists in the area are planning any protest of any kind. I’ve round up a handful of people. If you hear anything or want to join us, please let me know.

I got it!

Gracias a todos for your good wishes. As the title says, I got the job. I'm so excited, I can't wait!

Dear Diary/Blog

Hi everybody! I hope everyone is having/had a great holiday weekend. Mine was pretty good.

Friday was Dan the Man’s birthday, but he had to work so we didn’t really celebrate until Saturday. We went to the Galleria and watched people ice skate, walked the entire mall, and I stared and laughed at all the Quinceñeras with their crew walking around strutting their stuff.

After the Galleria, we went to Ross, Marshals, Borders and Lane Bryant because I needed an outfit, at least a nice jacket, for my interview this morning. I originally had my heart set on the fashions of Torrid. I imagined myself strutting around in some cute paint suit, turning heads and feeling as sexy as the girls on the Torrid website. But no such luck. In the end I did find a nice jacket at Lane Bryant. Anyway, enough of the trials and tribulations of a fat girl’s shopping adventure.

So yeah, I had an interview this morning for a sixth grade language arts and reading position. I was accepted into the alternative teacher’s certification program. They told me on Thursday but I’m trying not to talk about it too much because I don’t want to get my hopes up too much. But the interview this morning went well. About forty-five minutes after I left the school, the assistant principal called me and asked me if I was available for a second interview. It’s tomorrow and there will be four people there at one of the ladies’ homes. I hope I’m not as nervous as when I first arrived today. My hands were shaking a bit and the principal noticed. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow. In the meantime, I’m doing more research on pedagogy and the thematic approach and such. I’ll keep you all posted.

In other news, my sister arrived from El Chuco today. My mom moved out on her own this month and my sis went to help her with the transition. To say that she’s an angel is not only trite, but not enough to express how great it is that she was there for the move. I went over to see her because I had to drop off her keys and because she had some stuff for me like the flag that was drapped over my dad’s casket, a doll that my dad’s oldest sister made, a tape of me being hypnotized, and my journals from when I was a little kid. After some delicious bbqed hot dogs, I sat at the dinning room table and read them. Man, I was one crazy kid. Dan the Man is reading them as I type this and laughing.

Gee, this is starting to sound a lot like those journals. Hehehehe.