feeling crazy restless today.
probably has to do with all the work i did NOT do this weekend and the constant rain that prevented any trips outdoors. perhaps also that the one paper i wouldn't mind writing isn't due until next week so i should probably be focasing on things that are due tomorrow and following days.

friday afternoon brought a fantastic treck through the trails behind the university with grant and joanna. 3 hours later we were exhausted, but know a LOT more about each other - and due to grant being an environmental geographer - a LOT more about the trees and dirt and rocks and whatever that we found in the trails. i can now ID all the coniferous trees in that forest. (with the help of my dichotomist key of course :P). it's fun spending time with people who are willing to share what they know - particularily when they know interesting stuff :P.
that night was a section party - it was good times - i'm still very skeptical that most of these people will turn into the "family" that everyone claims we will be - but they will make this year doable at the very least.

saturday - as most of my saturdays go - this one involved sleeping until noon - staring (not doing) at my homework - and some movies. jen and i walked to the bank/mall at one point because there was a brief moment of sun - however it rained the whole walk back... not quite as pleasent.

today - more homework - not really getting anywhere... good meeting with the curriculum development group.

so ants in my pants - can't even write well tonight...

problematic for the assignments i should be doing...

i better get back at that...

i am old.
at least mentally. or something.

now i don't want you to get confused here - i'm not going through some sort of quarter-life crisis or whatever you want to call it - i don't even really truly believe that i am old - rather i believe that in the grand scheme of things i am young... but right now - i am old.
monday afternoon i had an hour to kill before going home because jen finished class an hour after me - rather then staring at the rain that had been pouring down all day long i went to the wall - the campus bar - with 2 guys from my class. we had a great time - discussing practicum and classmates and life. eventually - as it always seems to - the topic turned to relationships. now it often feels (no matter how true / untrue this is) that everyone in the section is paired off - or "significantly othered" as it has been termed - with the exception of a few. so in this conversation - one of the guys is married with children and the other is single like me - and is friends with primarily the opposite sex like me. we basically decided that for us - dating is going to be hard... this of course led to... "the backup plan".
the backup plan is something traditionally geared for marrying someone if you are both single at the age of 30 and then poof - your singledom is over and you have a quick husband[/wife]. up until this point - 30 was far away. the idea of having a backup for the age of 30 seemed reasonable.
monday that came crashing down around us - 30 is only 8 years away. 30 is within reasonable sights.
30 is way too soon for a backup - and i am old.

i'm having issues focassing this weekend. i started this weekend with an uber long to-do list, and unfortunately it's still just as long if not longer. i'm at the point where i don't feel the need to have the 3 pager + lesson plan and can probably make do with some scribbled notes in my notebook - but school requirements say that i must write out complete plans - so i should probably get on that at some point. so far the weekend has been good - friday night daddio and i watched the replacements and i attempted to design a tree house for him - apparently my plans all sucked tho, because he didn't want to use any of them... wanted them to be affordable or something :P. saturday i got up - took a nap - went on a walk in the BEAUTIFUL weather, and didn't do much else then stare at my notes. then we went to stratford and saw ceaser and cleopatra. i enjoyed it quite muchly. christopher plummer played ceaser and he was good - but i really wanted him to break out in 'the hills are alive' as a sort of encore. that would have made my year for sure! - however that was probably out of character lol.
sunday was church and then nap time and then the first t-giving dinner of the weekend... it wasn't bad - and i got some marking done while we were there. driving over the skyway bridge was intense... there was a strange thick fog just settled over the bridge that made it feel like we were going to drive off the end of the bridge into nothingness. history tells us that the world is flat, and explorers were always worried of falling off the ends of the earth. i think whoever thought that up was sailing into one of these fogs. but then we made it over the bridge and slowly the air was clear again. crazy stuff.
today follows more of the same - t-giving dinner part 2. it should be good. we'll see what happens.
happy thanksgiving all!!!

you know how you have like 20,000 things to do in a weekend so THAT is the weekend that you get sick. it's tres annoying. just so you all know. i managed to finish 6 of the 9 lesson plans which i guess is good because now i have another 6 more to add on top of that (for all you non-math people out there... i'm back up to writing 9 plans). I have to start teaching 4Cs thursday which is actually a little intimidating for me - which basically just means my plans must be solid. baaaaaaaaaaaah must get to work! especially cuz my show is on at 8:30 so there's half an hour i wont be working.
in other news.... i'm off to work now :)

life is insane. not counting the last week of practicum i did at the beginning of september (which i'm starting to realize doesn't "count") i have been 'miss visser' for a week now. 225 minutes of that was me teaching - my own class. they ask me the questions - i assign the homework - i'm allowed to give the detentions for being late... not that i have yet - that's just another hurdle i have to get over in terms of the whole 'me being in charge thing'. it's insane how much planning goes into these things. for every one and a half hours i teach - i'm probably planning for three hours. they say that'll speed up as i have practice - i really hope so as this weekend i'm hoping to write out 2 weeks worth of lessons for grade nine. we'll be learning fables, the argumentative paragraph, and writing a test on the rhetorical modes... and i doubt i'll be able to fit that all in. it's so weird to move into this environment where it takes months to get through a novel when i've spent the last 4 years having a book read every week for every class. i'm slowing getting used to this timing thing - it's taking a bit tho. the school is really good - everyone is awesome about including me, and it seems that everyone wants to make sure this experience is the best you can have. the music teacher i work with (unofficially) ensures that i have the opportunity to teach in his class and offers suggestions and feedback even tho he gets nothing out of it (other then the chance to sit and practice the trombone in the band while i conduct). the english department ladies got me to teach them how to conduct today in their office - because they found agatha and were making fun of me for owning my own baton - but it's all in good fun. the tech guy came out and explained to Gordie and i all about the different technology things available at the school which was really great as we were taking up his lunch period asking him questions. other teachers just give me handouts of the stuff they're doing because they think it's cool and they want to pass it on.
we were talking in my grade 11 class today about how a road often symbolizes a journey. the fact that all of my favourite poetry and art has to do with roads - whether they be well travelled or winding through the bush - makes a lot of sense to me. i really like the journey. i like the road. i like being able to cut through the bush quickly to see what's on the other side, but i also enjoy sitting on the side of the road and checking out the flowers and the trees and the stars. i like teaching kids how to slow down and REALLY look at something - and they are doing the same to me. it's so easy to see something one way and decide that THAT is the only correct way to look at it - but often times they have these crazy ideas that are awesome.
i think i'm a rambling mess right now - i think that's what living at school all week and then coming home and planning for school does to you - but it's just a stop on the road - and that's pretty cool.
more will come this weekend i'm sure as i need breaks from the incessant lesson planning.

9 hours of class (4 hours - 1 hour break - 5 hours) is TOOOOO much.
just so you know.

i'm officially done a week of placement. the kids treated me with respect - and i survived. i met teachers - managed to fit in with the entire department and not feel toooo much like a misplaced student for the most part. this week made it clear to me that this is what i'm supposed to do - at least for a while. even tho i'm not 100% in the specialty that i would have chosen this week, the feeling of knowing something and being able to lend my expertise is quite satisfactory. students came up to me and asked for MY opinions on things. they put up their hands and were satisfied when I was the one that came over to help them. even the insane class has offered me a level of respect - it's going to take work with them - but i don't doubt that i can handle it.
preparing myself for the trip back to north bay - not dreading it half as much as i expected.
it's all going to be ok.

so i'm in north bay. started school today. have a new laptop. have some new friends. it wasn't the big tragedy that i was looking forward to. rather it was easy. my friend scott is in my section - so we had a chance to hang out all day today (and probably tomoro and the next day and all this year). i'm waiting up until midnight to sign up for a class that i seriously hope i get into as it's a big step toward my ending up in kenya - which lets face it - is the ideal for this adventure girl. anyways - i'm out of here for now... more later - i hear my day tomoro is spent learning how to turn my new laptop on - and since i'm currently typing on it - i'm gonna go with i've got that covered.

can i just say that i have some pretty stellar friends. the type who when i'm going crazy and need a break will reorganize their schedule a bit and work for me so i can holiday it up for more then just the weekend. i'd like to say i'd do the same no questions asked - and in this case probably would... but this idea of dropping things that are maybe not as trivial to help a friend out needs to expand into everyday life.

hmmm

in other news - had a big visser family lunch today - gotta love the whole... 'so do you have a boyfriend yet??' questions... well - no - i don't have a boyfriend... and oddly enough my life is plenty full and plenty amazing... who knew that was possible 8- that being said - my family is pretty fantastic in their own way as well...

oooo embarrasing story time: so i was carrying a bag of my clothes, etc from camping into my room yesterday when i turned the corner to sharply and jammed the knitting needles that were in the bag deeply into my leg... needless to say i have holes in my leg now and it still hurts. a lot. probably not as nato tho - he nicely broke his arm while at the cottage this week... lucky him.

so. life is continuing. adventures are flying by - some good - some bad - some rather indifferent.
checked some more items of the list of life - the most notable being a groomsman in my friends' wedding... it was a fantastic weekend of prep and celebrating and catching up with old friends.

i went camping with the gang this past weekend - got a little bit burnt... no more being casper for me!

i dyed my hair hot pink... well - streaked it at least - however all this going in the water has faded it out quite a bit, and now - not even a week later i'm back to being a blonde with some pale pink woven through it... the next step is to alternate blue and pink... we'll see when i find time again.

i went over to western to empty out my locker the other day... it was weird - seemed very final. i've had that locker since the beginning of 2nd year and to remove all of my random belongings from the building was weird.

i haven't figured out what i'm doing with nipissing yet - i have a place to live in north bay (thank goodness!!) but beyond that - no clue. still haven't registered for classes etc... don't even really know if/when i'm supposed to - hopefully they email me back soon about that.

the car and i are having a marvelous time together - we have been up to north bay, to stratford, and camping together in the last couple weeks - beyond that - our journey consists mostly of going to and from work... back and forth - consistently...

work - what to say about that... i'm teaching someone that i put behind me 5 years ago in waterdown - was glad to leave them... i guess i'm ok with the fact she's back in my life - it's also just strange however.
people are insane. i don't understand why everything is such a big deal... so your kid didn't pass to the next level --- most kids don't... it isn't as much a scarring situation as they make it out to be... take a chill pill and teach your children to accept failure as a normal part of life... they can't learn that they will succeed in absolutely everything all the time... and now is when they should be learning how to deal with these "disappointments"

anyways - this adventure girl has to clean her car/apartment... do some laundry... bake a lasagna all within the next 2.5 hours... aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh

if that happens --- road trip up to sauble tomoro!! woot woot