procrastination just took up so much of my time today!

today i have been procrastinating. but i had a good reason. (no i didn't) (YES I DID!) (no, i guess i really didn't)....i cannot...CANNOT be trusted to go into barnes and noble to get just one item. it's true, i am the one-item-failure.

so i decided to try it at petco and once again, BIG FAT FAIL. although i did find some really cool toys and chaco hasn't ruined his yet! it's been all of an hour since i brought it home. give it time. as i was at the checkout, petco has their little snack bar for dogs, but it smelled good enough for humans...look at these! i was tempted until i saw the fly.

i mean...chocolate chip cookies? i'm IN!!!

upon checking out, the cashier girl was a chatty, and she asked what kind of dogs i have.
me: yorkies
chatty: oh, i want to get a schnauzer or schnauzer mix, they do adoptions through a rescue here. i think they're the coolest! especially the mixes because they have the coolest names, like schnitzu, schnorkie,  i could even name it whatever the mix name is if it's cool, like schnack russell...i would be like, this is schnack. and people would say, "snack?" and i'd say no! SCHNACK! 

yes, that conversation really happened. i'm sure she practiced it in the mirror at home and uses it as her go-to conversation line. thank goodness there was someone behind me and i was able to leave without incident.

before i hit up either of these stores, i had to stop at radio shack to see if they could help me with my phone. for some reason my 4g was not working (remember when i had a pager...and no clue what 4g was because it wasn't in existence...wow, i'm older than i would like to admit!) so when i walked in, i wanted to take it over to the young black guy who was stocking things, because i figured he'd be able to help me better than the elderly white gentleman at the counter, but i went up to the counter because i wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt since he does work at a technology store...the A/C was perhaps too cold because his nose was at the dripping point, and i kept worrying that it was going to fall onto my phone, but just in the nick of time, he raised his hand to wipe it off and continued to swipe across my screen. in my head i was racking my brain trying to think if there was anywhere that i had sanitizer. unfortunately i switched bags, and left the bigger little one in the other bag. and i had used the last of the vial-sized two days ago, when i was down for jury duty.

he ended up having to take it back to someone in the back and they were able to get it re-installed-apparently it was a really easy fix- i just had to pay my bill. i didn't realize that i had it connected to the card that i had to cancel, so i immediately got that taken care of-no worries, i will not have to pull the pager back out.

part of the procrastination period included some letter-writing, which is nothing out of the ordinary, i tried to make it a marathon; pulled out a bunch of addresses and got started, but i have SO many more to go! i have so many little things to do, and 3 weeks within which to do it, so i really probably ought to pull out a whiteboard and start making a list and crossing these items off! (i learned that one from Dr. Hughes; and it works!) 

tomorrow after our first day of summer school, we have our kick-off for personalized learning, so i am guessing we will have a little better idea of what we will be looking at over the next few months of exploration. feeling a little like jean luc picard going boldly where no man has gone before-star date 2020...i know, i could've use cptn kirk, but his uniform was ugly.

alrighty then, time to get back to planning..tomorrow comes too early.
jules

if i'd had a compass and the coordinates, it would've been no big deal.

well. i'm back. i have not given up, i have just been a bit busy. thanks for waiting around!

to explain what happened today, i have to go all the way back to saturday. so, saturday we had an awesome day working in the garden at our school. it was a big deal because we wanted to make sure it was ready for them to work and learn in. (ok, major thrust to get it done because our Real School Gardens trainers are coming on Wednesday, and we needed it to not look totally in shambles. heaven forbid they call the 'garden cps' on us). 

so, yeah, some weeds had taken over 

teamwork is so much quicker and better than solo work!

look at all of those weeds!!! and that is only the first wheel barrow-ful!

i had gone out a few weeks earlier and spent about an hour and barely finished weeding one bed (not nearly as well as it should have been), and by the end of that time, i was drenched and thought i might pass out. so i was thrilled when 11 of our finest showed up at school to pitch in and give it the ol' team effort! linda's banana cake and the pizza made it all worthwhile, the weather was amazing, plus, i had some great conversations!

the best part is that it looks amazing! looking forward to the cabbage, broccoli, cilantro and garlic that will be joining us soon.

well, i thought it would be good to write thank you notes, so i decided to go up to school early this morning to put them into boxes. on the way to school i had to get fuel and a diet coke. so i stopped at the 7-11 around the corner. then i headed to the school and dropped off my notes and stopped in my room to look up the address one last time. when i got into my car i realized that my phone was not on my hip...uhoh. i thought i had brought it from home. so i looked through my bags and did not locate it.

hmm. i had planned to use the nav system on my phone...it's ok, i took a pic of the directions just in case i lost the signal...oh, guess what it's on the phone...so i went back to the apt to look for it. not in the 3 most likely places i had remembered seeing it earlier. not there. so i went to the 7-11 and the girl at the counter said no one had turned it in, and gave me that 'if-i-didn't-have-17-people-in-line-right-now,-i'd mourn-with-you' look. so i pulled out and decided i remembered just enough of the directions to get there.

well, the truth is: i knew just enough of the directions to get lost and frustrated.for those of you familiar with dallas...the numbers 121, and 114 stuck in my head, so i set off on my venture to the west with about an hour to spare. i was feeling like i had gone a little too far south, so i pulled off to a gas station, because all attendants know the area, and are super helpful, right? well...as a matter of fact, that would be FALSE. 

i purchased a map (for 9.98) and went up to the counter and opened it up and asked the lady where we were and how to get to keller. she folded it back up and scanned it as if she hadn't understood what i wanted (she was a foreigner, but i couldn't understand the accent, and her hair was dyed red, so i don't think she was really irish....); i opened the map back up and looked at her and asked if she knew where keller was and she said no. so i stepped outside and there was a guy out at his big construction truck. 

he wasn't a map-guy either...although he was able to point to keller...good job, big guy. i just needed to know where we were because i DO know how to read a map (we actually did that when i was in social studies class in elementary school); i'm telling you, kids need map skills...adults too. so i got back into my car and my clock was ticking at this point. so i got back onto the interstate, and went back to 635, unfortunately my map wasn't complete-it was mostly fort worth...so when i came south again on 121, i actually went through the dfw airport and exited down south. so i took another exit and decided to get off and try another filling station. this time, there was a young man at the counter-also not from around here. he said, "keller?" and he looked at the frito-lay guy who was stocking the shelf for a little think-pair-share, and that guy had a blank look. c'mon frito-lay guy! you deliver stuff, you should know the area. so finally i just asked the kid where i was, and he said, "irving." great.

at one point i was pretty sure i was glad that there was no one else in my car with me because the thoughts in my head were coming out of my mouth, and it wasn't pretty. (i'm glad there was no speaker on the top of my car like the old, old orange crush commercial). and at about the time i realized how frustrated i was, i had to remind myself of what maria reminds us every once in awhile: why get mad? there's nothing you can do about it; it won't change anything. so true. so true.

as natalie so eloquently put it: i took a tour of the major dallas suburbs today...not on purpose...people without phones are probably the most likely to suffer from road rage.

so i got into my car again and this time i stared at my map for a minute and looked for a cross road 1709 looked good. all i knew was that i needed to be going west first, so i kept the sun to my back and took off. i was so frustrated with all of those cars poking along...without a care in the world...80 would be good here, folks. so interestingly enough, when i finally found 1709, i was able to cut across 3 lanes in time to make a graceful exit. i figured i would eventually find keller parkway-even though it wasn't on my map. 

as i was driving, i noticed kimball. guess where i'd seen that street before. it was the first exit i stopped at the first time around, only a bit further south. if i'd known and simply taken it all the way up, i would've been early to my workshop. as i drove, i noticed, i had passed from euless into southlake. then before i knew it, i saw keller signs. i was in keller! i looked at the road sign, and it had turned from 1709 to southwest pkwy to keller pkwy...i mean, why not? then i saw an address close to what i was looking for, only on the wrong side of the road, so i had to make a u-turn-then i drove right past the place i needed to be, so i had to make two more u-turns to get back to the parking lot, which was full.

yes, there are three u-turns in there, and one of them may have had revving of engine and squealing of tires

it didn't look like a building that would host this training, but i asked a lady carrying a bag of ice across the parking lot and she said it was. when i got upstairs, fortunately i recognized one of the reps, and after i explained why i was an hour late, she said let me get you situated and get you a diet coke. soothing words. 

what a great training! at about noon, natalie showed up, and she, maria and i went to fuzzy's for a little-too-much lunch. on the way back from lunch, i was recounting-to natalie- my story of what had happened. at the end i was saying i really thought the phone was lost, but that i needed to stop by school to check and see if it had fallen in my room or something, otherwise i was going to need to purchase another one. at that point maria did her sales pitch for the iphone, and i said i would probably get a samsung like natalie's-i like my android. to which natalie responded, that she liked hers and probably didn't use it to its full capacity.

so we had an entire conversation revolving around my missing phone making me an hour late to the workshop and very frustrated.

when we got inside and linda had arrived at our table, she said, so you got your phone?

what? how did she know about my phone? linda looked at natalie, natalie looked at me, and then she said (mind you AFTER that whole phone conversation)...."oh yeah, i forgot to tell you, linda has your phone." as linda was handing me the phone. it had actually fallen in the room, and one of our other coaches found it and sent it with linda. what a relief! obviously someone had other things on her mind. smile.

i got home much more quickly, and i know i will be early tomorrow because guess what. they have croissants-real ones, not pillsbury...although those aren't bad either-bacon and scrambled eggs. tomorrow will be a good day. today was a good day, but tomorrow will be even better!

hot dogs, an avatar, "hey cheerleader!"

two bus-loads of children from k-5th grade...mostly 3-5th, but still. there is no way to spin this to make it sound like it was great fun. was it a great idea? yes, i still think it was great for these kids to come to the football game and get a glimpse of high school life.

i walked because it was pretty much across the street, and only about 99` outside. so when the bus got there, it was only about an hour and a half before the game. (sar-casm)...but we got good seats, so it was probably the right choice! right be the exit and easy access to the bathroom and the concession stand (which we got to take kids back and forth to all evening). the game was a blow out wt white won! go horns!

as we sat in the stands, every time a cheerleader went by, different kids would say, "hey cheerleader!" they were in awe of the cheerleaders, football players, band...pretty much anyone who stood in front of the crowd. one of the girls brought a pen because she wanted one of the players to sign her arm.. and i'm sure it was good for the high schoolers and made them feel like stars. i turned around shortly after arriving and one of the kids had taken the sidewalk chalk they were given by the target lady and began 'face-painting' themselves. and by the end most of them had. i think ms. velez' youngest had blue all over and called herself an avatar.

at kamp i got used to counting my kids, but they were high schoolers. trying to find my 13 in this group when they kept moving around and i didn't really know most of them was a task and incessant. i didn't have any cash on me, which was a problem because i was dying for a diet coke (dire need). fortunately our principal was in lines with a bunch of kids at the same time i was with mine and he loaned me his last 2 bucks to get one. refreshing!

in the 4th quarter, the cheerleaders' coach had them come over and they performed 3 cute cheers for cabell elementary school because they wanted to do something fun for them. the kids were fired up! they were standing and jumping and crazy! shortly afterward, we got the kiddos on the buses and they took off. i turned around and walked home.

on the way, as i was getting ready to cross the street i saw a girl sitting on the corner and she said, "hey miss, can i use your phone?" so i asked what was up. she was waiting for her sister to pick her up. so i dialed the number and the girl told the person on the other end it was her and she needed a ride. she then said, "it's sara!" and a weird look and she hung up. i was a little confused and i asked if her sister was coming and she said she'd be fine. well as i was in the cross walk, the phone rang with the number i had just called. a girl's voice said, "who is this?" and i said, "no, who is this?"  pause..."oh, well, i just got a call from this number." so i told her her sister was waiting for her and she said "what? i don't have a sister." 

i marched right back and said "who was that i just called? she said she didn't have a sister." the girl told me she thought i dialed the wrong number and said it again. yep. i had. so i dialed the new number and got an answering machine and left a message. boo. hope she got picked up!

i must've gone to bed hungry because i woke up and in my dream i had been crawling over stacks of macaroni and cheese boxes with 2 other people and i wanted them to slow down so that i could get a picture on my phone to put in my blog, but before i could get my phone out, the dream kept going and we were falling off of the edge of the sea of boxes (which a split second before had seemed like a never-ending sea) about 15 feet to a dirt area that was being cleared by tractors. and in moments we were in the middle of a talk show out in this dirt field surrounded by an audience set up in an amphitheater.  it was a doozie.

have a great weekend! rest from your labor and have a great weekend!
julie