Posts in category Everyday Life

Sigh

Aug13
2008

Written by Kristi

August is always a hard month for me.Â I hate going back to work, starting all over with new kids.Â It’s physically the most draining time of the year and mentally, I’m wrung out.Â This year, I have 4 classes of seniors, the largest has 49.Â We are slammed with kids in every class and right now, admin won’t balance numbers because we have to hire or transfer a few teachers.Â So I’m dealing with 40+ kids in 3 classes, a lunch period I hate (eating at 1pm after starting work at 7:15??), and my wing is basically empty except for a new teacher in the department who is getting on my nerves.Â I’m lonely.Â I don’t know any of my students, except a few I had last year in my CA.HSEE class.Â I miss my neighbours from school who have all moved to other parts of campus.

I’m a bit of a moody mess today, mostly from being tired.Â I get overwhelmed at school when I’m dragging this much.Â I’m just glad Rob is here, day in, day out.Â He’s taken care of everything the last week from meals to laundry to the animals.Â He’s taken care of me.Â For better or for worse.Â In good times and in bad.

Posted in Work

National Night Out

Aug06
2008

Written by Rob

Here’s something else I’d never heard of – or, at least, never heard of anyone actually doing – when I lived in Orlando: National Night Out.

I come from Orlando, Florida, a city dramatically different from Modesto or anywhere else so far I’ve visited in California. Orlando’s always been a city of crime, transients and temporary living, and over the last ten years has gotten so much worse. Guns. Drugs. Gangs. A ridiculous number of rapes, murders and other violent crimes. People disappear with disturbing regularity. There are home invasions. Random violence. At least the serial killers tend to stick to the Daytona area.

You may have seen the ongoing media circus about Casey and Caylee Anthony. Orlando. What you’re not hearing is that this kind of stuff happens there every day. CQPress ranked Orlando as the 11th most dangerous city in the United States in 2007. Happiest place on Earth!

A huge part of the problem there is that very few people have any vested interest in where they live. It’s a fast food, Big Gulp, apartment rental, day labor town. People move there, stay for a few years, leave again. It’s an anonymous, faceless place of strangers. And so, when crime rolls into your neighborhood in Orlando, you mainly keep to yourself and just hope it stays out of your yard – which, with a little luck, it will long enough to let you move to one of the gated and walled enclaves of Lake Mary or Maitland.

I love living now where people actually know their neighbors. Where neighborhoods actually band together and fight back. Where people actually give a royal damn about where they live and whether it’ll be a decent place to live ten years from now – rather than just whether or not the local rat-themed amusement park is happy and profitable.

We went out for National Night Out last night, had a wonderful time hanging out with our neighbors. Ate food, joked. Compared notes and gossiped. The cops and fire department both came out to say hello and to let the kids play with the sirens.

National Night Out is a great idea. If more communities did it, we’d have less places like today’s Orlando.

Posted in Current Events

Gatorade and Chicken Broth

Jul31
2008

Written by Rob

Just wanted to let everyone know that I’m alive and getting better.

This thing came on me Tuesday morning, with what felt like a bad head cold. That afternoon, the stomach cramps started – intense stabbing spasms just below my ribcage, a new one every few minutes, getting worse as the day went on. We both spent the evening wondering if I’d end up in the hospital before the week was out. I didn’t have a fever or any other secondary symptoms of a serious problem, just the cramps, or else we would have been in the ER.

Yesterday wasn’t as bad. I still couldn’t eat anything without getting pounded with more cramps, but the cramps I had were shorter, less intense and farther in between. By early yesterday afternoon we were hoping I’d be good enough to still make it to my own birthday party over at the Jepsons’ that night, but when 4pm rolled around and I still couldn’t sit up for 15 minutes without doubling over again, we decided I needed to stay in bed.

Last night I started taking in Gatorade and chicken broth, more or less my first meal in 48 hours. No cramping. Then I had a good nights sleep and I’m on Gatorade this morning. My stomach still feels off, like it wants to cramp but hasn’t gotten around to it yet; I’m hoping to start graduating back to solid foods later today. But at least I’m up and more or less working again.. right now the general consensus is that I got some sort of stomach bug.

Thanks to everyone who passed along their concerns, worries, and most of all, good advice. And especially thanks to the wonderful woman I married, who hovered over me for the last few days to make sure I got back on the mend and didn’t do anything stupid. I love you, babe.

Blergh

Jul29
2008

Written by Kristi

Rob has some sort of bug and has been fighting stomach cramping all day.Â He’s curled up on the couch with his pillow and a quilt, wincing in pain every few minutes and generally looking rather pathetic and sick.Â I think he’s got a touch of food poisoning.Â Fun way to roll into his birthday tomorrow.

I spent part of the day at work today and I accomplished oh, just about NOTHING while I was there.Â I just couldn’t really concentrate on getting my act together.Â The highlight of the day was picking up our wedding proofs at the photographer’s.Â We’ve been waiting for 3 weeks to get them and oh my.Â They were worth the wait!