Life is Good

So life has been good this past week. I had a pretty good week at work, even though it was hectic as ever, but it was still good. It finally rained this week! We have been in a drought since May and I was rather excited when it started to rain. Yeah, I get excited over strange things.

Anyway, yesterday was one of the best days ever. Why, you may ask? Because of this:

Yep, I saw Wicked yesterday! We went to Columbus, since that is where the tour cast is right now. I didn't mind the hour and a half drive at all. I just wanted to see my FAVORITE show!! We had perfect seats that were not in the front, but were in the orchestra section with no obstructions. Though my mom did get a little manic since she's been wanting to see this show for quite a while. But it was all good. After the show, we went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Columbus, not far from the theatre. It was really nice except for the man at the table behind us...he was drunk...I mean REALLY drunk. He kept yelling, getting up, singing...let's just say he was making a fool out of himself and the people he was sitting with. When they finally left, everyone applauded (I kid you not). Best dinner ever, LOL.

Anyway, this week will be nice since it's only a four day week (4th of July...). I am not sure if my family is going to see the fireworks or not (personally I'd really like to), but it would be a good family outing.

This coming weekend Kyle is coming down! I haven't seen him since February; our schedules have both been very hectic lately, but he was finally able to get some time off work. So yay to that. =) I can't think of anything else, so I'm just going to end my entry here.

Ciao!

Lisa

It's My Birthday...

...And I'll cry if I want to...but I'm not going to. Hehe.

Okay so yeah...today's my birthday. I was dreading today more than anyone could imagine; don't ask me why. I've never been a fan of my birthday, LOL. Anyway, it went a lot better than I thought it would.

When I got to work, my co-workers and director all remembered (since all of our birthdays are posted on the wall in the teacher's room) and so they brought in snacks and stuff like that. It was really nice of them. One of my co-teachers, Gina had given me a scented candle, a journal, and what looks like a flower pot...I think. It was so sweet of her; she didn't have to do that and yet she did. :-) So that made me smile.

Then one of my kids, Zane came in. Now I know teachers aren't supposed to play favorites, but he is up there as one of them. He always has been. Anyway, when he came in he ran over to me and handed me a flower and yelled "Happy Birthday Miss Lisa!" It was beyond cute. His mom had to kind of cue him, but it was still adorable. We were also celebrating Israel's birthday today (Yom Ha'atzmaot) and one of the little girl's in my class: Naomi's birthday. Her birthday was last week but we didn't get a chance to celebrate it then so we did it today.

After lunch, Zane (who is almost 3 ... birthday is on Friday as a matter of fact), who is not yet potty-trained decided...*on his own* to go into the bathroom. We basically thought that he wanted to sit down and just try...we were wrong! He went to the bathroom! I know, this may sound gross to some of you but it was such a HUGE leap for this little boy who was once completely freaked out about going into the bathroom. We are *SO* proud of him! (Even if he did miss the toilet...which he did...but who cares! He went!) I made sure to make a HUGE deal of it to him (who was rather mad at himself for missing the toilet) and to his dad when he came to pick him up. You should have seen the smile on his dad's face...and Zane's. PRICELESS!

Ah...and then I came home and got my mail; I got a card from my parents and my aunt and uncle (along with $25...hey I'm not complaining!). Nice timing, huh? I'm going to call my parents as soon as I finish writing this and thank them. I also noticed outside my door was a little bag with a card attached. I looked at the envelope and saw my name was written on it and immediately recognized that it was my mom's handwriting (she and my dad have a key to my apartment for obvious reasons). I opened the bag and inside were gummy worms (my favorite candy, hehe) and these other gummy things...they're black licorice flavour I think...blech! I think that's more for my mom, LOL. I'll have to bring them over to her this weekend when I see them.

Well I guess that's all for now!

-Lisa

Life Sucks

It really does. I'm sorry; I'm just really irritated with my director Audrey right now. Today I asked her for April 6th (a Friday) off. That week is Passover, one of the most important Jewish holidays aside from the High Holy Days but that isn't why I'm angry.

I'm angry because when I asked her for that day off she flat out told me no. Okay so that IS the week of Spring Break and there will be a few teachers out, but has the woman ever heard of substitutes? There's a reason that we have them. Yeesh.

The reason I asked for this day off is because that's when my parents and I are planning to go up to Chicago to spend the weekend with my extended family...who I get to see only once a year (twice if I'm lucky). Plus we're going to have our annual family Passover Seder on the 7th. We have been doing this since I was a baby...maybe even longer. So yeah it's a tradition in my family.

Well Audrey had absolutely no sympathy for me whatsoever; not that I really expected her to, I mean the woman has half a heart. She could care less about some of her employees...and we all feel the same about her: we don't think she should be the director of the preschool.

Anyway, she basically made me start crying. Did she care? Nope. I'm not one of her favorites who she'll give any day off to. So she pretty much shooed me out of her office even though she could clearly see tears starting to come out of my eyes. I stormed out of there and into my classroom where I simply openly cried. Yes some of my kids saw me crying and my co-workers saw me crying (they actually care and offered comfort; that is one of the reasons why I like working there...them) but I didn't care. I just told Gina (co-teacher) that I had to make a phone call to my dad and she said to take all the time I needed. Thank goodness for her. So I went and called my dad and told him. He was pissed to say the least. Apparently he was also devestated from what my mom said when I later called her during my break. Yet my mom gave me some hope...

My mom said that my dad was thinking that perhaps I could fly to Chicago on the 6th in the evening so I won't miss work...so I'll please Audrey by coming in. *Cue eye roll* But I'll probably have to leave early; and if Audrey doesn't let me...well I'll be majorly pissed. Even more than I am now and trust me I'm majorly pissed right now.

My grandma is going to buy me a plane ticket (she offered, my parents accepted) and have me fly to either O'Hare or Midway Airport and then take a cab to the hotel we're going to stay at. This is one of those times where I'm so thankful for my family. I've always been thankful for having them but now more than ever. My mom even said that if I can't go, she won't go...same goes with my dad. He said if I'm not going and my mom's not going...he sure as hell isn't going to go by himself. This is a FAMILY tradition.

All right that's about all...my rant/vent is over. Thanks for listening/reading.

-Lisa

I'm Giving In

Okay so I have been kind of sick this past week. It started out as your typical cold/allergy type thing, but by Friday I knew something wasn't right. I pretty much figured out (without going to the doctor) that I had a sinus infection. I wanted to go home early from work, but one of my co-workers was rather sick and had to leave early so considering the fact that I was not nearly as sick as she was (she has a staph infection which may require more than antibiotics to cure), I volunteered to stay. Since Audrey was sick, Pat (one of the on-site supervisors) thanked me and gave me a hug since she knew I wasn't feeling well. In other words, she appreciated the fact that I stayed.

I had been taking Tylenol Sinus and cough medicine throughout the day and night. Yet by Saturday morning, I was feeling even worse. My mom suggested I change a few things in what medicines to take. Now normally I don't really listen to her about that stuff but I was feeling so "blah" that I listened and did as she said.

If only that worked. Today (Sunday) I felt the same so my parents, being the generous people that they are, brought over a few things and...get this: they're doing my laundry for me. I am quite thankful for that.

In exchange, however, they said that I have to call the doctor tomorrow morning and make an appointment since I have been getting way too many sinus infections. My dad said I may have to go to an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat doctor) to see if I need further care. Hopefully that won't happen. In all likelyhood my doctor will prescribe an antibiotic and tell me to come back in two weeks. That's fine, I can do that.

And get this--I actually called in sick for tomorrow. That is something I rarely do. So now I know I'm sick. ;-)

That's about all I guess. I'm going to lay down and watch more of season 2 of "Degrassi: TNG" which I now really love (it's Kayla1 and Kayla2's fault... ;).

Stay safe and stay warm!

-Lisa

Snow...

Okay so today was not exactly what I would call a "good day." It started off all right; I went to work, it was freezing, but it was like that yesterday so it wasn't a big deal. When I got to school, I saw that we only had *7 kids* in class. Normally on a Tuesday we have 12. Well that was a bit of a relief; it sure made our day go a lot smoother than usual. Anyway the morning was fine; we had a double birthday party for two of our kids which was really cute.

But then 12:45 rolled around. As I was getting something from behind the changing table, I looked out the window and saw that it had started snowing. Now I knew that it was going to snow today; we had a snow advisory since last night. They (the Weather Channel) said that we were going to probably get 2-4 inches of snow. I have no problem with this, just so long as the roads are plowed and salted (at least some salt; it doesn't really work very well when it's really cold outside like it is here). Okay so the snow slowly starts to intensify by 1:15. I was getting a little worried about how I would fare when leaving work. But my co-workers told me that everything would be fine and that we'd just follow each other's tracks as we left.

Ha! Easy for them to say. First off, all my kids were picked up by 5:30...parents were smart and came and got their kids earlier than usual so to avoid traffic. Anyway by 6:00 the center, which is usually open until 8:00 Monday-Thursday (preschool closes at 6:00 every day), closed at 6:00 tonight due to the weather (it was still coming down pretty hard). There was one little boy left; his dad had gotten stuck in traffic and by 6:15 Audrey finally told Britany and I to go home. Hey we weren't going to argue with her on that. So after spending about 10 minutes clearing what looked like 3 inches of snow off my car, I began to VERY SLOWLY drive out of the parking lot and easily drove up the small hill out of the center. Now there is another hill that takes you to the main road. This hill is rather steep. This hill had not been plowed. I got STUCK on this hill! I swear for about 20 minutes I was trying everything: reverse then going into drive, downshifting to 4th, 3rd, and 2nd gears (I do not drive a stick; I drive an automatic), but NOTHING was working. Finally Audrey who was behind me...sort of told me to go into reverse and then just go as fast as I could up the hill. I tried that. Nope. By this time I was in tears, having a full blown panic attack. I got out my cell phone and called my dad in tears. He said he would come help me. After we hung up I tried one more time; I backed up and put the car into 2nd gear and slowly...very slowly I somehow made it up the hill and on to the main road. I called my dad to let him know that I got to the road (after thanking my car over and over again for making it...not to mention a certain higher power...). He said he was proud of me for sticking with it and for getting up the damn hill. He also said he'd stay on the phone with me the whole time I drove home; now I know this is not the smartest thing to do when driving in snow, but when you are having a panic attack like I was and are unable to concentrate, talking was the best thing for me. So he and I talked the entire drive home. I told him where I was when I got to certain intersecitons; he'd say "you're that much closer." I FINALLY arrived at my apartment complex and found a "parking spot" (you couldn't see any of the lines since there was snow covering everything) and thanked my car and G-d again and again. I told my dad I made it home and he said he was very proud of me; he also said to just relax now that I was home; don't worry about the weather, just do a whole bunch of nothing. Good advice, dad. Thanks. I plan on doing that.

I was still rather shaky after hanging up with him, but I felt so relieved that I was safe and sound and secure in my apartment.

One last thing: I HATE SNOW!

Okay I'm done now. ;-)

Stay safe and warm!

-Lisa

The New Year So Far...

Well it has been quite a while since I last wrote anything here. So I am writing now. Yay me!

Anyway there has been a lot on my mind lately but I've been too lazy to write about it. And I have had a lot of stress put in my life lately. So this kind of needs to be written. The nice part is on my iTunes right now is "Dancing Through Life" from Wicked so that's an interesting coincidence.

So I have been really stressed out about work lately. Not because I'm not getting along with anyone; I get along with all of my co-workers very well as a matter of fact...well almost all of them, but I'll get to that in a minute. First off, the main reason I'm stressed about work is because there are too many children in the classroom on certain days. Technically because there are 3 teachers in the room there can be up to 21 children in the room (ratio is 1:7) but we just don't have enough room for that and Audrey (director) wouldn't do anything that nuts...at least I don't think she would. Anyway we have 16 kids in the room on MWF and there have to be 3 teachers in the room at all times to keep the ratio. Well that's a bit of a problem at times because sometimes the teachers have to get something from the break room or use the bathroom or warm up their lunch...well we don't seem to have enough staff for all of this. So what happens? Audrey 'yells' at us because if we leave the room for one second (just to put something in someone's cubby which is right outside the room) we're out of ratio. Please! We are right outside the room for half a second. Ugh she is getting on my nerves more and more lately.

One of the main reasons being that she's a comple hypocrite. She told us at a recent staff meeting that if we (staff) are sick, to call either her or the other on-site teachers by 6:30am that day. That's fine, I have absolutely no problem with that. Except when I called in sick one morning (at 6:15 thank you very much), she sounded as though she was angry and didn't believe me. She had the nerve to ask me if there was any way I could come in for a little while. I was sick with the stomach flu. I wanted to puke on her! Well not really but I was that mad. So yeah she tells us that she wants us to STAY HOME if we are sick so we don't get the kids sick. Good, that's how it should be. But on more than one occassion teachers have been sick and have had to come to work. Isn't that pretty much what Audrey did not want to happen? Hmm, makes one think if she's really cut out for this job.

All right enough ranting on about that. The bulk of it is on my myspace blog. So I will end this by saying hello to the LG.org "gangstas"! Hi guys! You know who you are. :-)

-Lisa