I got the job!!

After a bit of a roller coaster I can't believe that I got the job.

I know some of you might have been thinking, "What?  Teaching?  I thought you didn't want to do that anymore?"  All I have to say to that is:

SURPRISE!

After a short stint at REI which should have been a better experience than it was I decided after the first of the year to go back to CGU (Claremont Graduate University) and try to get back into my program.  I didn't know if I would have to re enroll or I would have to reapply or what.  As it turned out, I just had to get reinstated and I would be credited for all the work that I already did.  Hooray!!  And my eligibility for my intern credential was still good and I could go and apply for a job now.  I didn't have to wait until my classes resumed in the fall.  AWESOME!!

As soon as I found out that I could start looking for a job I changed my Facebook status to read that I might be teaching sooner than I thought.  Well, one of my old friends from high school whom I haven't spoken to in about 19+ years, but I added on FB, commented on my status with a "teaching?"  And thus it began.

I explained my story and how I was looking for an English position to apply for.  Oh, I'm sorry, English is old school, it is now Language Arts.  Really?

My friend, Maria, told me that there was a Language Arts position open at her Middle school  OMG!?!?!?

She said that she was interviewing the next day.  9 People!  Oh, Maria is the Department Chair, awesome!  She talked to her principle and tried to get me in for an interview.  As it turned out, I had applied on Ed-Join and sent in a hard copy, but I was a day or two too late.  Bummer.  Out of the 9 they agreed on 4 to do a demo lesson of 15-25 minutes in front of the class they would be taking over and in front of the principle, a couple of teachers, a counselor and a parent.  Geez!!  At this point the principle agreed to bring me in to interview IF none of the other 4 did well in the demo lesson.  Both Maria and I thought it was a done deal.  The 4 all interviewed really well.  I thought, unless they all pull a hamstring in the last quarter, I better start looking elsewhere. 

 

Can you guess what happened??  I know, it is insane!!

3 out of the 4 pulled the hamstring.  

One of them was boring.

One of them was doing the lesson incorrectly.

One of them had problems with the overhead projector and was afraid of technology.

The last one was fine, but not great enough to just give the job to her.  They wanted a choice and there wasn't one.  Therefore, round 2 of interviews here we go!!!

I couldn't believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I arrived for the interview I was so incredibly nervous. My tummy was doing flip flops. Mostly, I was nervous waiting to go into the interview. The interview itself was fine, I even enjoyed it a little. Of course, I know this comes as a shock, but I do like to talk. Ha!  There were 5 people at the interview and they asked a total of 14 questions.  I felt really good about my energy, my answers and I let my personality show.  I was pretty confident that I had a good chance to go to the next round, the demo lesson.  

As it turned out they chose 2 out of 6 to do the demo lesson.  I was up against a teacher with 3 years of middle school experience and she was the favorite, I was the dark horse.  What else is new?

I kicked ass!  My lesson was on idioms and I drew cartoons on transparencies to put on the overhead which the kids loved.  I engaged the kids and the responded pretty well to me.  I was 10 times more nervous about the lesson than I was about the interview.  I finished and felt like I had done my best and if I didn't get the position I would feel badly.  I knew that I wouldn't have done anything differently.  I left the school and went home to wait.  The next teacher was a 1/2 hour after my lesson.  She was doing analogies.  Ugh!  I waited.

After about 2 hours Maria called me to tell me how great I was and that the other gal didn't do very well considering she had 3 years experience.  She told me that the principle was going to call me and offer me the job.  Woowoo!!!

He did and I said thank you, very enthusiastically. 

The one thing that I had going against me was that I didn't and don't have a full credential yet.  A lot of districts don't really like having to deal with internship credentials.  However, I must have impressed them enough to take a chance on me.  I really feel very proud about that.

Shortly after the principal called, the district called to officially offer me the position.   

I am so excited.

So when do I start??  This is the big question.  I am caught in a paperwork trail.  I had my fingers printed, my pee tested, my heart listened to, and all my test results copied.  I was sent home with a pile of papers to fill out and return.  I am now waiting for round 2 of paper.  I have sent my application to the CCTC to reinstate my internship credential.

Keep your fingers crossed for me.  I can start at anytime.

This is the beginning of a new adventure!!!

What am I doing?

I am.
I have decided.
I am excited.
I am scared to death!
I will excel...eventually.
I will be tested.
I will be challenged.
I will succeed and
I will fail...at times.
I will be rewarded.
I will be under appreciated.
I will struggle.
I will be supported.
I will learn.
I will teach.
I will.
I am going to be an English Teacher.
Wish me no luck, but wish me patience, understanding, and joy during a soon to be amazing new chapter in my life.

So many things to report

Where oh where do I begin.  I have totally slacked.  I think I will have to make this short and sweet and make another vow to not go so long without blogging.

Ok, first of my computer took a totally dump and became a brick.  For 2 weeks, I was sans my desk top.  Yikes.  Thankfully, my super hero hunny fixed it up and made it bette than ever.  Thanks love!!

I have a new management company for my NY props.  Woo-woo.  It is still in a transition stage, but I am actually sleeping at night and not waking up with dread in the morning.  How glorious!!

I have been a taking a class at The Santuary of Spiritual Living and it has truly been great.  I am learning a lot about myself and I am finding my Chi.  I am taking it with Cheri so It is fun that we have a little day together.  She has been growing so much.  It is awesome to watch her go!

Mr. David will be movin' on in soon.  Really soon!!  Like in 2 weeks soon he will be here!!  Yippie!  It will of course be an adjustment...no more walking around the house naked...wait, that's not me!!  (or is it??)  But it will be great.  We will have fun times to come.  It is great when you have friends that support each other.  Isn't that what friends are all about??

I just found out last week that my Coaching Biz where I have been working with the Dr's office's will be continuing for another 10-15 offices.  That is great.  It has been a very challenging process, but a learning experience none-the-less.  It didn't really turn out to be the full time career that I thought it might, but I am ok with that.  In fact, I have learning during this process what it is I truly want to invest my time in and this isn't really it.  However, I will finish what I started and then I will put more efforts into my private coaching.

And in the meantime, while I am waiting for all my ducks to get in a row I decided that I would take a job to get me through the holidays and for however long that I need to get everything else lined up.  I am happy to report that I did get a new job and I signed the paperwork today.  I am working at REI.  It seems, so far, like a great place to work.  What I like best is the positive work environment and the fact that it is all about crunchy, outdoor fitness.  I love that.  Since my private coaching speciality is fitness and weight management, this fits right in.  Yippie!

My LAUGH class.  I am currently teaching a class/support group called LAUGH.  That stands for Learning And Understanding Good Health.  It is a small class, but there has been some great work going on in there.  I am proud of everyone in that class!!!

Oh and I almost forgot that I am almost done with my website!!  Woowoo.  As soon as it is up I will put up the link.

And lastly, my friend up date.  In the last month or so I have seen so many friends nd I have reconnected with some old ones.  SUPER AWESOME!!  I have been able to share the political process watching the debates with Arik and Michael.  I have seen Cate being crafty at the Claremont Fair and her booth rocked!!  I was able to enjoy The Foo Fighters and ZZ Top with Cat and Randy and Pat and Patty!!  I went trick or treating at California Adventure with Pat and Patty and family.  I was able to reconnect with old school friends at Hip Kitty Jazz Club with Tricia, Tami, Glory, and Josie!  It was like time stood still.  I went out to dinner for Jody and Cheri's birthday with Robert and Denise.  I also found a ton of old friends on Facebook.  I mean like 10+ peeps.  Freakin' Great!!  I think I am forgeting something, but that is it for now.

So, busy and loving it.  So blessed!  So greatful!

I am so tired of the lies!

I have become very emotionally involved with this years presidential election. I think now more than ever I am reading and watching anything to do with this fight. I am attributing this to the fact that everyone I know and everyone I speak to is suffering from the spiraling downward effect of our declining economy. The only thing that is on the rise is unemployment. People are losing their jobs, their homes, their pensions, their hard earned money on the rising costs of everything, gas, food, clothing, which is in part a direct effect of this costly, misguided war...we are in a depression. No doubt about it!

What bothers me most are the attack ads. I realize that this is part of the political process, but I don't remember it being so vicious and I don't recall the truth being spinned so far out of control.
The lies are countless. I urge anyone who reads this to go to Factcheck.org to get the truth. About everyone. This is a website that explains all of the ads and tells the truth on the these poor facts that are being bent out of shape.

This video I posted is a response to the horrible attack ad from the McCain camp saying that Obama supported sex education for kindergartners. Well, yes I guess that is true if trying to pass a bill to help educate small children against sexual predators is called "sex education".
Disgusting!! I think this false representation of the facts that makes a man who has 2 young daughters of his own look like a perverse letch when in truth he is trying to protect our innocent young people is deplorable! The tag line of McCain's video attacking Obama stated that Obama wants kids to learn "about sex before learning how to read." A total and complete lie. Yet, McCain said on the ad that "I'm John McCain and I approve this message." Bah!!

There are many other lies and exaggerations that are literally making me sick. For instance, Gov. Palin repeating, in at least 7 different speeches I have seen, "Thanks, but no thanks to that bridge to no where."
The truth, she was in complete favor of that bridge and didn't change her opinion to "No thanks" until the bridge was ridiculed in congress.
"Virtually every media outlet -- from the Wall Street Journal to FactCheck.org -- that has investigated the claim has found it to be a wholesale fiction. Though Palin did abandon her onetime support for the bridge after winning Alaska's governorship, she did so only after federal dollars dried up. Moreover, she kept the federal funds already given to Alaska."-The Huffinton Post

I think it is obvious that I am an Obama/Biden supporter. My true fear about this election is that not enough people will take the time to truly find out the facts. Please urge your friends to be informed. I don't care who you vote for as long as you KNOW who you are voting for and what they really stand for.
Unfortunately, I know that the people who will be reading this are not the people who should be reading this. Please help to spread the truth!!

Duet

I am working on a web mini-movie called Duet. I am excited to work on camera, which is something that I have never done before. The movie has 14 episodes that will run on youtube, one episode a week for 14 weeks. I am in 4 scenes. I play a doctor, so I am insistantly cool. LOL. I was supposed to film last weekend, but I was sick and I couldn't make it. Last Saturday was my official first day on set. Ha! It was a lot of fun. My friend Christopher is the director. He also wrote it and is in it. He is a busy guy. And my friend Yvonne, his wife, is the resident tech person. At this shoot Michael, who was a lot of fun, was the only other actor for this scene. There was supposed to be one other actor there, but she had a scheduling conflict. We are filming in a tiny space so there is a lot of creativity going on. And boy it is HOT on the set. Lots of water needed!!
Anyway, I wanted to show a sneak peek at the effects that are being used in this movie.
So this is before. Yes, that is a green scene screen. It is needed for the CGI effects in the movie.
Ok, here is the after.
Pretty cool, huh??
I will let you all know when it is done and where to see it.

So Much as Happened!!

Ok, my bad. I am so far behind. It is time to do what my good friend Cate does in situations like this....To The LIST!!!

I had great intentions of doing many separate blogs, but alas that wasn't meant to be. I will now list the craziness that has been my life for the past few weeks. I am going back to July because even though I did blog twice in the month of July they were both about the adventures of my book.

July 4th- We had a mini BBQ at our house. This was a lot of fun. Cat, Randy, Matt and the kids, and Robert and Cheri. Growing up My mom always had a 4th of July party, so it was neat to have something at my house this year.

July 5th-Hootenanny. Had no idea what I was walking into. I knew there was music and cars and it was all day. I saw the list of bands playing and I only knew 1 name. And I knew there were port-a-potties, not my favorite. We met up with Pat, Patty, Frances and Katelynn. So as we got there, it was a Rockabilly concert. Had NO CLUE!!! It was an eye show. I had fun looking at all of the dresses, hair do's and of course the shoes!!! It was funny watching these beauties trying to work those shoes in an open field somewhere in the hills of Irvine. TeeHee. Didn't really like much of the music, it was more psychobilly not rockabilly. It was ok.

July 8th-Jody's Dance Class. Catherine and Kaisara and Cat and Randy came over for some swing dancing. We moved the sofas out of the way in the media room and Jody taught us a few moves and Catherine and Kaisara showed off what they learned in their dance class. Fun, fun and fun!!! It was Randy's first time dancing swing and he was a quick learner. We are doing it again later this month!! Awesome.

July 11th-Our first weekend. Jody and I went on a weekend get away to Palm Desert. Not where we really wanted to go, but it was a special offer through AmEx so we thought for $200 for a 3 night get away-Awesome!! Well, it was hot and monsoon weather so it was very muggy the whole time. The hotel was just ok. It was a Westin, but the room service food was iffy at best, the fire alarm went off about 7 times one day while we were getting ready to go out, and there were no little shampoos. Now I know that sounds weird, but every hotel is supposed to have them and this was considered a luxury hotel. However, the spa was great. I got a massage and a mani/pedi, yummy!!! We had a good time despite the little things, but we won't be going back.

July 16th-The Drowsy Chaperone. So I got I call from Catherine saying that she had an extra ticket to see the Drowsy Chaperone and would I like to go!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you Ms Catherine. What a great show!! It was funny and clever and witty and campy and poked fun at everything, oh my I can't say enough about it!!! The musical was catchy and interesting. I bought the soundtrack. That means I like it. Cat and I car pooled which made it a fun ride for sure!! I highly recommend this show to anyone who wants to forget about reality for an hour and a half.

July 17th-Denver. Never been and I loved it!! What a great city. Mr. David picked us up from the airport and we headed to our Hyatt hotel in beautiful downtown Denver. Awesome!! Mr. David really showed us the town in high style. We had yummy pizza at a local hang out the first night. We went to the aquarium and saw fishes and tigers!! Who knew a tiger would be at an aquarium. We saw a Rockies game at Coors Field. I am not a baseball fan, but I had a great time!! He got us really fab seats. Then we got a rickshaw ride from the stadium to the hotel. The big reason for going was to participate in the Moonlight Classic Bike Ride for charity. It supported seniors. It was a 15 mile ride that started at 11:30pm and the route was through downtown Denver. Very cool and fun!!! We also visited Fort Collins and Boulder. Finally we ended our trip with seeing The Dark Night at an IMAX theatre on opening weekend. We did a lot of walking, all over!! Totally great weekend!!


July 25-Wicked. I think I am alone here, but I thought it was just ok. It was fun and entertaining, but I have no need to see it again. Both Jody and I agreed. We went with Pat and Patty and their whole gang, including us 9 in total. We met them at Miceli's Italian Restaurant for dinner, I mean lunch. It was only 3:30pm. Then we walked to the Pantages for a behind the scenes tour. The tour was ok. Most of the behind the scenes secrets were things that anyone with theatre knowledge would go, "Oh, yeah, I knew that." But there were a few cute stories. I think that peeps who are not familiar with theatre would find it interesting. I think that Wicked has had a lot of hype and I was expecting a little more. Again, it was fun and entertaining, but I didn't care for the music that much. When I say music I mean the actual orchestration. For me the music of a great musical needs to move me to an emotional response and this one didn't do it for me. Oops!

July 26th-Vegas. What a day. Jody was supposed to go with me, but unfortunately couldn't. Cheri was awesome to take on the challenge of going to Vegas for 24 hours and dealing with my family. I was going to celebrate my baby cousin's 21st birthday. Yikes! We got there and after settling in and we went and met my one aunt at her hotel to shop and then we met the whole family at Diablo's for a dinner of tasty Mexican food. It was hot as hell at 9pm and the upstairs patio where we ate was open air. Ugh!! My one aunt felt sick from the heat after a while. Cheri and I went out with the bday boy and my big man on campus coz Dave and 2 of his pals. We went to the Playboy Club at the Palms. It was pretty cool. It was $40 a person to get in, but Dave's friend got us all in for free. I, like a stupid teenager, drank a bit too much. I paid for it dearly the next morning as I was trying to get myself together to drive back home. What a fool!!! Cheri was great and we did have a lot of fun.



July 27th-The kids arrive. Jody's nieces came and stayed with us for the week. We took them to UCLA and usc (I'm not bias) to visit a college campus and get them excited about going to school. They are 15 and 16. We went to Venice Beach and had dinner at Santa Monica Pier. We saw Hellboy 2 one day and another day I took the girls for an all day shopping extravaganza. We also played the endless setlist on Rockband. 58 songs and it took 5 hours! Whew. Other than the fact that the girls were in the need of more "pleases" and "thank yous" they were great. Hey, they're teenagers. Ugh, I feel old.

Aug 2-The Night Before The Free To Breathe Walk. We had a slumber party. Cat, Robert and Cheri came over and spent the night because we had to get up at 6:30am to get up to go to the Lung Cancer walk. It was only the 2nd year of the walk. It was a very small event, 100's as opposed to the 1000's that I have seen at the AIDS and Breast Cancer walks I have participated in. I was very excited to be able to walk in honor of my mom. It meant quite a lot to me. And it meant a lot that Jody, Cat, Robert and Cheri came too to support me and my cause. I raised over $700 and I was very proud of that. I even made t-shirts for all of us for the walk. After it was over Jody had to do Gma day and the 4 of us went out for a crazy big breakfast at BK Cafe. Yummy.

Ok, I think that about catches me up to date. This weekend I am happy to say that I have nothing to do!!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about that. Jody and I had a great day yesterday running little errands and watching the great Olympic coverage. We watched the opening ceremonies on Friday night and we are both having mixed emotions about the Chinese Gov't and how the people are treated and Tibet and all of it. Trying not to think of that and focusing on the hard work and the fabulous stories of the Olympians. Go USA!!!

Here's to a restful weekend.

The Answer To The Book Question!

Yes, yes, yes...I did find the book. Only after I made a mad dash to Border's to replace the old one. I have the patience of a gnat!!! If I want it, please for your own safety, do not stand between me and whatever it is I want.

So, I have, or rather had, 2 copies of the 2nd book in the Dexter Series. Jody's mom got me 2 of book 2 for some reason. I didn't realize it until way after the present was given. When I became distraught that my 1st book was GONE I ran, not walked, to the nearest Border's to exchange the copy of the 2nd book for a replacement of my missing 1st book. The boy behind the counter was very sweet and pretty cute. He explained to me that since I didn't have a receipt that he could only exchange it IF they had a copy of the same book in the store already. I smiled sweetly and said, "I completely understand."

I kept my fingers crossed. I think I was holding my breath while he was typing my book title into his computer. I was trying to read his facial expressions. Either he was good at a poker face or I was having a difficult time figuring him out. I was giving in to the very real possibility that it was going to be a no-go! My thoughts were already into Plan B.

"Yup, you're in luck. We have it." Woo-Woo!!! I gleefully ran over to the crime drama section and found my book. I giggled with excitement.

The cute boy helped me with the exchange and I walked out of the store with a proud smile on my face. With a feeling of pure joy, I walked over to Jamba Juice and got myself a tasty treat.

Since I got my prize on my way to work, I had to wait until I got home that evening to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

To my dismay, as I was about to lay on my comfy bed to pick up on chapter 8, where I had left off,...I see something. I was smoothing out my comforter and propping up my pillow when I saw something in between the bed frame and the mattress. It was my book!!!! It had fallen off the bed and landed on a little ledge in the frame. No wonder I didn't see it when I looked under the bed. It was sitting there as if it were placed on a shelf in a library.

Really?

Really!

I sent my copy of book 1 to Annette.