January 3, 2008

Yep, time to get used to writing a new number. I will be sad when 2010 comes, though, because I won’t be able to turn the date into a smiley face any more. As it is, you just need to make eye dots in the 00 and then put a smile beneath it!

The quilt continues to progress. I want to get as much done before school resumes Monday, but in the meantime I also have to do school stuff and I’m shopping with Dottie on Saturday. That means today is a good day. I also need to clean the other bedroom because I need the phone company to come out and fix my phone line, and they’ll want to check all the outlets. Bummer.

Of course, Ginny is doing her part to make sure I remain on task:


She is laying on the quilt that is now washed and needs to go on the guest room bed.

I finished making all of the strips yesterday. Today I need to sew the strips to each other, which is another easy part, but then work on the borders.


You still can’t really see the fabric that well. The pink has purple and green in it. The solid purple and solid green match the ones in the pink. The patterned green and patterned purple have sparkly stuff in them, which is cool but doesn’t seem to show up in the pictures.

I haven’t worked on reformatting Rolled-Up Streets yet. I forget that, but it shouldn’t be that hard to do. It just takes time, especially trying to make sure I find each italicized word. Then I might go back in and add visuals. I’m not visual, and I usually skip scenic descriptions when I’m reading, so I don’t think to add them when I’m writing. But since the protagonist travels to different places, he should at least describe them a little. Maybe.

I also have other stories that I need to work on! I have a short story that’s finished and just needs to be formatted for sale (or attempted sale). I also have two stories that got stuck. One has two different things happening in it, which I may take apart. I’m not sure yet. I do like the setting and the basic premise. But I could also move the basic premise to the setting for Rolled-Up Streets, because I love that setting as well. I’ll have to think about this!

December

And so it is a new month, as of yesterday. NaNoWriMo is over. The party last night was great fun, and today we’re going to see Enchanted together, at least some of us. The last movie I went to see was Harry Potter in the summer, and that was alone, so I’m looking forward to this.

My house still has fall decorations up. I need to take those down TODAY and start working on my ton of Christmas stuff. Then I have to figure out where I’m putting the Christmas tree, but I think I have an idea. It should fit next to the TV but I may have to move the TV over more. That is the only blank wall spot.

Yesterday morning before I went over to the folks’ house I typed up a computer tutorial for my father so that he can play around and do some of the things he wants to do. I gave him directions on how to add to the Microsoft Works address book, how to make groups there, how to make and print address labels in Microsoft Word, and how to make cards from the program in there. Then I made him an internet section with how to retrieve/send/reply to/forward e-mail, an Internet 101 sort of information page, and more on web pages. That was all I could get done in the morning, but it will allow him to independently do lots of things on his computer that he wants to do. There are beginning computer courses for seniors that he might call on Monday to sign up for.

To finish and fix this year’s story, I’ll have to print it out first to figure out what needs to be moved to where, etc., but I’ll do that in January, or when I finish this other project I’m working on. I also need to read those books I got so that I can tweak the story to make it more accurate. I’ll keep you posted!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh

It really does feel good to have NaNoWriMo finished, although now I look forward to next year already! My story still needs some major clean-up as well as the ending not really being finished yet. But I know that you have to submit your story to the word counter by midnight tomorrow in whatever time zone you’re in, and I don’t want to risk the computers crashing from the weight, so I tried to finish early. The thing is, though, that this book had some complex ideas in it based on reality, so I have to do some research before I do the final version. I have some of the books I need. A trip to a certain town in Northern Arizona would also be helpful, but I do have google globe thing for now. (I can’t remember what that’s called!)

School: First, I have to tell you what R did. The kids insist on chewing gum, even though they not only have to throw it out but they also have to write *I will not chew gum* a zillion times. So yesterday R was chewing gum, and I told him to go spit it out and then grab a paper to write. Well, he goes to grab the paper, but I didn’t see him spit it out. He’s the sneakiest kid in the class, so I reiterated that he had to spit it out. He replied that he did. Where, I asked? And he pointed to where there is normally a trash can by my desk. Normally. But not yesterday because I have two girls coming to school sick and so I gave them the trash can for their tissues. So what did he do with the gum then? HE PUT IT ON THE FLOOR IN THE CORNER!!!!!!!!!!!!! He went and got it and threw it in the can. Geez louise!!

There was major drama today, the sort that involves calling 911 for an ambulance. All I know is what I got from the students, combined with overheard announcements on the PA system. The kids said that a student stopped breathing. There were numerous announcements about emergency special ed meetings, so my guess is that one of the special ed kids stopped breathing. I don’t know anything else, though. We have a large special ed program, and I have seen most or all of the students, but I know nothing really about what happened.

In OMA today though, we finally got to use the bows on our violins! What fun! And we actually sounded good; no screeching at all! We had been practicing holding a pencil like a bow for weeks, and doing exercises with the pencil. Today after our plucking songs we played air violin first with the bows and then got to actually play. It was awesome! The way it works is that the teacher has this teaching CD. It has various forms of music, and there are things we play or pluck with them. We’ve been plucking to Les Toreadors for weeks.

Our huge science kit came but it took me until today to finish the inventory. We have to inventory it when we get it and when we return it. I finally got the kids to cooperate so I could finish. Part of the problem was that I didn’t know what some of the things were! But then we got to do the fun stuff! (There are a series of lessons; you don’t just turn the little angels loose or try to figure out what to do.) I told them that they would each get a battery, wire, and bulb, and they needed to make a diagram of how they thought they would put these together to light the bulb. They did that. Then I gave them the pieces and told them to figure it out and make the bulbs light. That’s it! That’s how remarkably helpful I was! When a couple fussed, I asked them: would it be more fun to figure it out or more fun for me to tell them how to do it? They decided that figuring it out was more fun. At one point, though, I did offer to tell them how, but I knew there were a couple who had seen it done before, and the kids decided that they’d rather keep trying. M was the first one to do it, and I had everyone clap for him, which of course he loved. Attention is definitely his thing, and it was nice that he could get it in a good way. Now, if you are a teacher, even though I have never told you my students’ names, you can guess right away what the M stands for. Except for the Aumanns, every M of this name I’ve known has been the same! But anyway, it was great fun as each child finally managed to light their bulbs (me too!) and that’s one thing I like about ending the day with science. They leave on a happy note and have something cheery to talk about at home!

After school I went to see the folks. I put the toner in Dad’s printer and installed it. His Microsoft Office won’t start without some sort of on-line key because it is a trial basis, but his Microsoft Works does. He wanted to make an address book and there’s one in there, so that’s something he can play with between now and Sunday, which is when the cable people will arrive to give him internet. The Word page has a bunch of different kinds of cards to make on it as well, so hopefully he may try to play around with that in the meantime as well.

Winner

Quote:
You Won!

So it’s official.

Our word-counting robots have analyzed your November novel, and they’ve delivered their final, binding assessment: Winner.

You did it! You did it! You did it!

This was, without a doubt, one of the hardest years on record for NaNoWriMo participants. At some point in the literary marathon, most of your fellow writers fell by the wayside. They lost their books to work, to family, to school, and to the hundreds of other distractions and interruptions that tend to shutter creative undertakings like NaNoWriMo.

But not you. Not this year.

This November, you set out with the ridiculously ambitious goal of bringing an entire world into existence in just 30 days. When the going got tough, you got writing. Now you’re one of the few souls who can look back on 2007 as the year you were brave enough to enter the world’s largest writing contest, and disciplined enough to emerge a winner.

We salute your imagination and perseverance. The question we ask you now is this: If you were able to write a not-horrible novel in 30 days, what else can you do? The book you wrote this month is just the beginning.

From here on out, the sky’s the limit.

We wish you well on your many upcoming adventures, and hope to see you for Script Frenzy in April, and again for NaNoWriMo next November.

Before you go, though, we have some NaNoWriMo Winner gifts for you.

The first are a couple of winner’s icons, meant to be posted on a website or blog.

Since your achievement should be proclaimed far beyond the internet realm, we’ve also created a special Winners Certificate for you to print out and hang anywhere novelist groupies tend to gather. After downloading from our site and printing it out, you’ll just need to grab your favorite calligraphy pen or re-run it through your printer to customize it with your name and the title of your new novel.

You can download your NaNoWriMo 2007 winner’s certificate using the link below. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you can just click the link to download and print from your browser. To download the certificate to your hard drive for later viewing and printing, use your browser’s ‘Save Link Location As…’ (or ‘Save Target As’) feature: PC users can right-click on the link to bring up a menu, and Mac users can just hold down the mouse button over the link.

On behalf of everyone here at NaNoWriMo headquarters, I offer you my congratulations.

Warm regards,

Chris Baty
Program Director, NaNoWriMo

Monday

I am getting my story caught up. I am having to use some of the tricks of the trade, but that’s OK. This is still just the rough draft.

It was a grey, chilly, dismal day. I’m not used to that, spoiled as I have been by warmth and sunshine. Now it is back to having a little blanket on the couch and a space heater in the bathroom. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

Long division is going to kill me. Half the class can’t multiply! And if you think about it, there are a ton of steps in a two-digit number divided by a one-digit number with a remainder. So the little cherubs during math today simply wrote things like r2 or r3 FIRST and then tried to figure out the math problem. Um, how do you know what the remainder is if you haven’t done any of the math yet?? We did a bunch of problems on the board, then I’d have them do one problem and they’d fall apart. Then I’d do it on the board. OK, you do the next problem. etc. It wasn’t pretty.

I got absolutely no school work done during the four days off. Usually I do, but I kept putting it off. Part of it was because I’m still just a sub. I’m not getting paid for the days off, let alone for any other time aside from my daily eight hours, so why spend my personal time on the weekends doing work for free? My mind hasn’t been a pretty place to live lately.

One Month Before Christmas

Time flies!

My father has a computer now. Buz took him yesterday. He will call Monday to get internet. In the meantime, he’s learning how to use a mouse by playing Solitaire and Free Cell. It is stressful watching someone use a mouse for the first time!! In the meantime, we had Thanksgiving Dinner, Act II at Dottie’s yesterday. It was great food, of course. Jaeden is learning to talk now. He is stringing two words together and you can understand him.

My story is behind. The writing meet-up was on the other side of town yesterday because our usual place was booked, and I was counting on writing there and getting caught up. Alas, nope. I’ll see how much I can get done today, but I also have work to do that I’ve not done all weekend — grade a math test and fill in a grid, grade a math pretest, grade a reading test, get the reading paperwork caught up, and then deal with lesson plans and such. Busy day ahead!

In the meantime, at some point (maybe next weekend) I want to take down my October/November theme stuff in my kitchen and livingroom and then get out the Christmas stuff. Maybe I’ll do the taking down part during the week and then next Saturday, which is December first I think, I’ll put up the Christmas stuff.

Autumn

It’s cooling off now. The high today is only going to be 63, and it was more like 43 when I got up. Inside the house it had only cooled down to 68 though! Nevertheless, I finally turned the heat on and set it to 68. That way if it drops further tomorrow night I’d be covered. In the meantime, I can play with my Sims and see plenty of snow. I have the Seasons version and they start you out in winter, so the family I was playing with this morning is in the middle of the snowstorm. They like to look out the window when it’s snowing; it cracks me up. Sims even have snow days sometimes!

I did some work on my story this morning, but need to do more to get caught up. I have an idea about other stuff that will happen, so I may just write out of sequence and move things to the right spot later.

I had the cactus (prickly pear) jelly on my toast this morning. I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but it was good! Otherwise I would have taken the rest of the jar to Dottie today!

Classroom Photos

I haven’t tried to upload photos to this blog yet. So we’ll see if it works. These photos were taken at the beginning of November. They show you all the … stuff … we have to have up — lesson plans, vocabulary, SFA stuff (the blue thing — I just change the stories and day numbers), etc. But I am still me. So when we had to write poems for SFA, I let them post them onto construction paper and decorate it. They loved it! Now they like writing poetry more. My SFA class includes a few third graders this term. I’ve made that my SFA spot on the wall so that it isn’t as much an experience of going to an alien room — the SFA kids belong there too. The blue baskets are also SFA — each group has its own basket, notebook for paperwork, folder for turning in homework (which I check while they’re reading), etc.

My regular class tries to write as little as possible, and that hurts them on the writing tests. So I told them no more short paragraph things. We’re writing big kid papers now, that have to be a page long or nearly so. They aren’t thrilled, but they did a decent job of it! Since we’re writing persuasive essays to prepare for the next writing benchmark, they had to persuade people to recycle. That went along with our school-wide recycling theme we had one week.

The last photo is from the kick-off party for the writing group. Some are dressed up because it was Halloween.

quacks and ducks

First the quack:

I called Phoenix yesterday to ask about my licensure. The lady told me they are 2-6 WEEKS behind and that either that day (yesterday) or the day before she had just put my application in the work drawer. They have done nothing. Nada. Not a thing. I have been rushing home every day to see if I have a license in the mail, because I have to drive downtown with it as soon as it comes (to get it stamped), and here they’ve FINALLY progressed to PUTTING IT IN A DRAWER!!!! Geez Louise! And so of course I have the next two days off without pay. So now I have to worry about Christmas vs. January rent because I also lose pay for two weeks of Christmas vacation if this isn’t resolved before then!

Ahh, but the ducks:

I get home and there is a key in my mailbox. That key goes to one of two larger mailboxes where the mail carrier puts packages. Someone sent me a package! And being both frustrated and brain-dead, I really didn’t know who it was from! Duh! So I got it out and it was from Sue! So I got it inside before I opened it, because I’m pretending I have self-control. I read the card first. What a riot, a duck card! And how awesome to see all those SJB messages! And then I opened the package and truly laughed out loud! Duck slippers and a duck washcloth!! I have truly never seen duck slippers like those! Well done!!

I also laughed when I read Mary K’s note. I had told Sue about this dream I had. Mary had called me once but I didn’t call her back. I kept thinking that I’d have my Arizona license any day now and then I could call her with the good news, since this is a big deal to me. But it never came, and I never called. I felt guilty, but still kept waiting for the license. So one night I dreamed that I found out that Mary didn’t really have all those friends I thought she had! I dreamed I was one of her only two friends, and here I hadn’t even called her back!! (I don’t know who the other friend was, though.)

There are some really … different things about teaching in a public school, or at least teaching in this one. No concerts. The kids don’t take music, as in singing. We are learning to play the violin. But there is no singing, and there is no Winter Program (aka Christmas Concert). There is no time spent on rehearsals; everything is geared toward getting the kids’ grades up so they pass the AIMS, even though the test is in a foreign language for most of them. So no time is spent on other diversions. Obviously that also means no time worrying about trying to come up with a parent gift for the kids to make. Every day is routine except for little things like yesterday taking time out to get a free book from RIF — our last RIF book of the year.

I keep thinking of my story when I’m not around a keyboard. On my way to school today, I was zooming right along when I approached an intersection and had to stop. Instead of the usual light, there was a cop directing traffic. This took longer than the light would have, so it was irritating. But while I was sitting there, I was thinking I should put that in my novel. Things deteriorate in the story and it would make sense that when the electricity goes out at random times of the day there would be someone directing traffic!

If you remember the woman who helped me get my job because she’d gotten a phone call for the job while we were on our way to sign me up at the sub office — well, every year she does a big Thanksgiving buffet sort of thing. Buz and Jemma have been to it before and of course were invited again. She and her husband got Dad and Dottie their place that they live in now, and they invited all of us to her Thanksgiving thing. So we are doing that tomorrow at some point. I really don’t know what time. Then Dottie wants to do a meal at her house on Saturday. When I lived in Syracuse I often went down to her place on Thanksgiving, except the years I was under *house arrest.*

day #18,261

And here we are, the last day of my 40s. I am at a coffee shop with some of the other people who are writing for NaNoWriMo this year. Right now there are five of us here, and we are at the place where we had the opening night party (the first part of the video, with the games, etc.). The ambiance is fascinating, and I’m drinking some neon green concoction called Twisted Tea that’s a blend of different kinds of teas and fruit juices. But hey — I’m ending my 40s doing something I like — writing — and having fun. And it’s nice to not be home and thinking — I don’t do so well when I’m home alone and thinking!

Tuesday my class had to stay in at recess with me. Then we went to the cafeteria to get the bag lunches (you can order a tray lunch or lunch express — which comes in a bag) and brought them back to my room and ate in silence. This is because they were so horrible on Friday. So today they had privileges — and were horrible — so horrible that the entire fourth grade is experiencing the same lunch arrangement again tomorrow! Yeah, that’s how I want to spend my birthday! And then we have a meeting after school, about math or science stuff. I don’t remember which. I don’t care either way — I just have to know which fourth grade teacher’s room to show up in after school.

Some of this blog stuff and work stuff is weird, with my story now. That’s because my character has a blog, and now we’re at a really bad part in the story (or it might be really bad — I don’t actually know yet, but it is tense). Then I drive to school and it’s like “ahh, it was all a dream.” It is weird to set your story in a real setting!

Sue called last night, which was great fun! But then it was surreal, because I couldn’t just say “see you tomorrow” and pop into her classroom the next day. And her kids are in a school production this weekend … that I can’t exactly go to.

Gotta go — more people are coming and I’m getting distracted. I’ll try to write more when I get home!