The Trip of a Puke Time

I'm finally home!

The ferry was only 26 hours late. But I made it home. It was quite a trip.

Everything started off fine. Well...


I set my alarm for 4:45 am to get up for a shower, etc. I couldn't sleep though and was awake at 3:30. You have to be at the ferry terminal 90 to 120 minutes before the sailing. We got an update the night before saying the ferry would depart at 8:45 am so this was a good time.

Well, I checked the update that morning and the ferry was delayed another 2 hours. So I was up early. Ok. I'll watch some TV.



What was I going to find on TV at 5:00am on a Sunday? Church TV! Wow, was I surprised when I stopped on channel 7 to find HARD CORE PORN! Ahh! That was not what I needed to see. I'm thinking the band council should look into that because as much as I like to watch porn (roll eyes here), I'm sure parents don't want their early risers to watch it. The crazy thing was that when the porn ended, the next movie that was on was one aimed at kids! I ate my oatmeal giggling about what I saw.



Ms. So-and-so and I got to the ferry terminal the required 90 to 120 minutes before the sailing. We were the first ones there. That was OK because we just rocked out to some old tunes in her truck, screaming the lyrics and being excited that we were going home. The tunes included, Paradise City by Guns 'n Roses, The Happy Days theme song, and some Offspring.



We actually left the terminal 15 minutes before the scheduled time (always a bonus)(and don't worry, no one missed the ferry from the early departure because everyone gets reservations and everyone was accounted for). We went for breakfast first. I had gross eggs, sausage and a hashbrowns along with some naturalpath seasick medication.



The first hour and a half was fine. This is the usual amount of time I spend of ferries. This trip was to be 7 hours. Well, after the first hour and a half I started to feel a little queasy. So I took some more pills. They didn't work. Next time I'm getting heavy duty Gravol. For the next five hours, I barfed my brains out. I managed to puke in puke friendly places like, my hand (no spillage), the toilet, a trash can, overboard, and in provided barf bags.



I was exhausted. The last hour of the voyage was the worse. That is where we are in the most open water and the weather was starting to act up. An announcement came on that we were going to try to cross the channel but we may have to turn back and anchor to wait out the storm if it was too turbulant. I was ready to die. At this point I was only puking up bile and I couldn't stand to do that for how ever long we may have to dock.



Luckily, we made it across. I started to feel better when we were five minutes away from the dock. I felt fine enough to hug all my co-workers and wish them a Merry Christmas. I was actually surprised they hugged me, not being scared of my pukey self. But apparently, I didn't smell like it.



The drive from the ferry to home was another 7 hours. But I made it home at exactly 12:01 am on December 25th. Merry Christmas to me!

FUCK!!!

This being my 100th post, I was hoping it would be something profound. But I'm so distracted because the ferry to get me home is delayed by at least 25 hours. First it was 10 hours, then 20, then 22, now 25. And the weather report says there will be another storm while we are on our way to the final destination. So we may anchor somewhere to wait it out on the way home.

FUCK!!! FUCK!!!

Here's a picture to distract you guys. We get barges going by and they interest me. I don't know why. Maybe because, as a city dweller, I'm use to seeing tertiary industry, not primary. Nothing like seeing some resources that made this country.

Fire Place Channel

When I first saw it, I thought it was crazy! Who would want to watch a fire on TV. It's nutty! Why not watch a real fire ... or watch The OC or something.

I mentioned it to my parents, and they were like, "We love that channel! We watch it all the time." I was shocked. My parents are pretty funky people, so I would never think they'd watch it.

There are different fire place channels. Some play Christmas tunes. Some roar like a fire and crackle and everything.

I like the idea now. I actually watched it two years ago when I lived with my bro and his girlfriend. We had it on when we opened presents.

I just saw a commercial for it yesterday. On Fox Rochester, it's called The Yule Log. It will be on Christmas morning.

I'm wondering other uses for it. I imagine people who don't have fire places, they can leave it on so Santa can come to their house through it. Cool!

I've been rated!

First off, it's nice to see blogger is out of the beta stage ... I hope that keep the site from being so cranky!

Ok, so when I was in university, there was (still is!) this site called rate my professor where you can do just that. I did.

Well, there is one called rate my teacher. I had to see if I was on it. I am. I have one rating.
It says I'm sarcastic and a wanna be gangster.

Hahaha! It made me laugh. I feel bad if I come across as sarcastic. I have to watch that one. But the gangster makes me laugh. I guess I could be preceved as that. I say "gangster" words like "word" and "sup" and "sweet" but I say them with a nerdy undertone. I say them to be silly ... because as a white chick, they sound kinda funny coming out of my mouth. I didn't realize it could be interpreted that I want to be a gangster (that's gangsta, to you be-otch).

I know I shouldn't take these things personal, and I don't. Kids have said worse things to my face. It's just interesting to find out what kids think about you behind your back. In all fairness, the kid went on to say I'm nice and I'm a good teacher.

Almost time for home

In just four days I'll be going home! I'm almost beside myself with glee! I can't wait. It's all I think about ... hence why I haven't blogged lately. Because all I can think about is going home.
So to distract you guys, here is a picture from last weekend. This is from my balcony.


Yes, envy me.

Celebrities I look like

I got this idea from Kelly's Website.

I did it twice. Here was my first result.



Here is my second result.



I think Donny Osmond is the funniest match. I love that I have Margaret Cho because she is so F***ing funny. I think I totally look like Mandy Moore and Valaria Mazza. Hahaha! Bic Runga has such a nice voice too.

It's funny because I've been told I look like Gwen Stephani or Reese Witherspoon the most.

Too much yet nothing at all

We had our Christmas concert last night. It seemed to go well. The concert committee decided to try something new this year by having the concert in the school gym (instead of the community hall). The other big change was that each class (elementary, of course) would be in their classroom until a runner would come and fetch them to perform. This is a common way Christmas concerts are conducted across the entire North American continent. But a lot of people were bitching about the change before they even saw it. My students were expressing their parents' complaints to me all week. All I said was that they should check out the new format before they start saying "it sucks".

Like I said, the "new way" seemed successful from what I could see. At the end of the concert, I was standing with the VP while parents and community members shook his hand and told him they liked the concert ... including one of the biggest advocates against the new format.

My job during the concert was to help out in a grade 2 classroom. This was fun. Kids that age are so great, especially when you're a guest in their classroom. I was novel so they liked playing with me (of course I played with blocks and pegs to make mathematical patterns). I even read to two girls ... while one of them had her arms around my neck, hanging off my back, her head pressed against my ear so I could only hear my voice rattle around in my head. The girls then braided my hair for me.

My other job was in the staff performance. I signed up for it hoping someone else would organize it. No one did, and damned if I wasn't going to be in the Christmas concert. So I took the reigns and ask Ms. So-and-so if she would join me in organizing our performance. We got a spoof poem of Twas' the Night Before Christmas titled Twas' the Week Before Christmas. It was about how a teacher goes nuts because her kids are bouncing off the walls. I read the poem while other staff pretended to be obnoxious students. It was really funny. The kids LOVED it during dress rehearsal and the community laughed pretty hard too.

The thing that got my got happened during the second meeting Ms. So-and-so and I called for the performance. Everyone agreed they loved our idea and were pretty excited because we knew the kids would think it funny. Once the meeting was over, one of our co-workers had the gall to tell us that we should do something serious because the kids don't take us seriously enough. She then added we should do something more traditional having to do with the true meaning of Christmas: Jesus.

First off, I'm serious all the time with the kids. True, we have a lot of fun in class (well, as much fun as you can have in a math class) but there is usually a pretty serious tone in class. Math is serious stuff. It would be nice for the kids to see us in a silly role for the Christmas concert. Second, the whole Jesus-Christmas-thing is pretty much avoided in the public school system. If you don't get what I mean, I can go into it further, but I'm sure most of you know what I mean. Thirdly, we all know the crap that First Nations have gone through with the church: residential schools, colonization, small pox, etc. As a new person to the community, I certainly don't want to open that can of worms. Fourthly, I'm not Christian. Since I was the one who stepped up to the plate I got to pick what we did :P

I was pretty speechless when she said this. And pretty ticked. So was Ms. So-and-so. We pretty much said that it was pretty much organised now and we weren't going to come up with something new with three days to the concert. Also, I said school was not the place to push religion onto people. Ms. So-and-so, bless her for not being a chicken like me, out-and-out said that she would not be part of some "traditional" performance. And we told her if she wanted to do something that was more traditional, she was welcome to organize something herself. She didn't take that suggestion up and she stayed firm with her opinion. She just wanted to bitch about what we were doing. We were glad when she opted not to be in the performance.

I've been wanting to put this in my blog for awhile to get it off my chest, but I'm not quite sure how I feel. So I'm sneaking it into the end of a long entry. I think I have a crush on one of my co-workers. But it's a bit complicated. The big issue is that he's 20 and I'm 27. I think I'm too old for him. Second, some of his closest friends are students – students that I teach. Thirdly, guess what his name is? Andrew. How strange is that if we dated? I would have dated three Andrews in a row. I think he may have a crush on me too. He was taking photos of the concert and stuff yesterday but it seemed he was taking a disproportionate number of pictures of me. At one point I said he could only take pictures of me if he were in them too. So he handed off the camera to some kid, wrapped his arm around me and had the kid take a couple of pictures of us. Again, I'm wondering if this is a disaster ready to happen with the complications, or is it that I'm a little lonely and I'm attaching myself to people who show interest in me. I think my trip home next week will give me the perspective I need to deal with this situation.

I'm going straight to hell for this one ...

I took my literacy class for a walk the other day. I know what you are asking yourself. "Why are you, Ms. Small Town, teaching literacy as a math teacher?" Answer: Because all the teachers do.

Anyway, we were walking by the new totem pole. It is very nice. One student says to the class, "Hey, doesn't it look like that face is going down on that frog?"



I couldn't help but laugh my ass off. Inappropriate? Definitely. A little bit true? Yes, a little.

Is it disrespectful that I laughed and still think it's funny? I told some of my fellow teachers, and they can't help but think that when they look at the pole.

Oh Christmas tree

Here is it. This year's tree.

I don't own a tree stand. So I improvised one out of my bathroom trash can, and some large rocks found on the school grounds.

It took a while to get the tree up and then it almost feel over when I was putting decorations on it. Good thing my head was in the way when that happened. That, of course, caused this year casualty.



I love glass decorations. Too bad the dinning room table doesn't share my sentiment.

I love my tree. It makes me happy.

Out of Popular demand ...

So every year that I've lived on my own (except living in res becaue it was BANNED to have a live tree) , I've gotten a Christmas tree some way or another. My first one was pretty funny. I lived with my boyfriend and we were spending our first Christmas away from our parents' homes. We were both students so didn't have much money. I wanted a little something and I saw this evergreen branch on the ground (how pitiful is that!), took it home, put it into a mug of water and tacked the top of it to the wall. I wanted something to put the presents "under" ... but it was more like in front of. It was ridiculous to look at too. It had eight decoration on it that I "bought" at Canadian Tire with Canadian Tire money.

My second tree (and all the ones since) came from Asshole's "back yard". He lived in a Strata and every year, we would go out and find a tree and saw it down. Of course, we would do this late at night ... because it wasn't exactly legal ... but it wasn't outright illegal either. Most of these tree were quite Charlie Brown-esque. But I loved ever single one of them. In fact, with the first one, I took a little Polaroid of and would keep on my desk during my final exams. I still have the picture in my wallet.

Here's my tree for two different years. It's funny because the candy cane on the wall
stayed there ALL year. You gotta love me in the sweatpants too. Soo attractive! I
look much better now. Ha! I would have scanned in the pictures but I don't have a
cord to hook up the scanner to the computer yet.

Ok, but here is what everyone wanted to hear about. My last tree from Asshole was in this cute attic apartment I lived in. It was three stories up ... a steep flight of stairs too. The tree made a little mess coming in the apartment, like most live trees do.

Well, Chirstmas came and went and the decorations came off (around the 2nd of January). The tree was still standing. Around mid-January it was time to get rid of this thing. The closest mall was having a tree recycling day so I wanted to take the tree to that (the funny thing is that I carried the tree to the mall). Anyway, the tree was very dry. You'd look at this thing funny and it would shed a zillion needles on the floor. It would have made a giant mess hauling this thing across the apartment to the stair case and down the steep stairs.

I'm a problem solver, as a math person. The tree happened to be in front of a big window that happened to have the capability to open. So I called my roommate over, we open the window and chuck the tree out. We had to really give it the ol' heave-ho or else it wouldn't have cleared the roof and then one of us would have had to climb out the window after the tree to push it off the roof. Good thing it didn't come to that. It was great! We had very little to clean-up and it was a great way to get out some angst. We had so much fun doing it, we were almost tempted to go get it, bring it back up and throw it out again.

The end of the story is that we threw it so hard, it almost landed in the neighbours yard. That would have been interesting to explain to the neighbours: how our Christmas tree made it over their 10 foot fence.

I hope that didn't disappoint anyone. I can image some of you were thinking I lost it with the tree and threw it out the window, decorations and all. I'm not a barbarian, you know!

Welcome to the world of wireless internet!

I'm a genius! Ok, I'm not really, but I'm pretty damned smart! Dad sent me a wireless card and I installed it into my computer today ... all by myself!

I love Macs, they make it so easy. I think I've only installed like 3 pieces of hardware into my computer by myself and I'm always so pleased.

Now what I'm wondering is, whose network am I? I just choose one that my card picked up. I thought I was choosing the one the school is on ... because all teachers are allowed to do that from home. But the school one is censored (I'll blog about my opinion on that soon) and right now I currently have access to some of the censored sites.

Hahaha! Whose network am I on. Maybe I'll never find out ... or I will because someone will tell me to get off it!

Staff Party

Tonight was our staff Christmas part, put on by the school board. It was lots of fun. We had a nice turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

The best part was the dollar auction. Everyone on staff donated an item. I donated a flash drive. It was pretty nice, it matched my blazer (see picture). You could buy one ticket for a dollar. Items were grouped with other items, and the MC would announce what items were up. If you wanted something, you threw a ticket into a hat for the draw.

I won something too! Something I wanted badly! My package include some abalone earrings; a Christmas Disney t-shirt, extra large (pajamas now); a day planner and ... A REAL CHRISTMAS TREE delivered to my house. I also get to pick what size I want. I was ecstatic that I won! I LOVE Christmas trees. I was sad that I wouldn't get one this year. And now I have one. Here's me all happy.

Fortune Soap

I got some fortune cookie soap as a gift two Christmas ago. I finally decided to use it because it was cool.


It took me two whole months to use up enough of it to get the fortune out.

Here is what it said.

It's time to take care of your dept.
A future opportunity will be missed if you don't.

What the f*** does that mean? Is "dept." a typo? Should it say debt? I am taking care of my debt! The only debt I have is student loans. I'm awesome at paying my credit card bill ... but then my limit is only $500. A future opportunity?!? Oh no, I won't be able to finance a car ... that I can't drive because I have no licence (by choice, by the way). Oh no, I can't buy a house. Too bad since I currently live on an Indian Reserve where I couldn't buy a house anyway because I don't have the right ethnic parents.

Does "dept." stand for department? I'm the head of my department! If you want to call it that. I'm the math expert in the school. Maybe I need to whip the other math teachers into shape? That would go over well. Not only am I new to the community, I'm also brand new to the profession. Wouldn't teachers who've been teaching since I was in high school love to see me "take care" of them.

Maybe "dept." stands for dependant. That would suck because then the fortune would be useless for me because I have no dependants.

This fortune soap sucked ... except it gave me a blogging topic. With that said, I can't wait to see what my next fortune will be. I'll keep you all posted. It should come out in about February or March.

Stinky bag

I have this student who leaves her bag in my classroom because the students at our school only have those half lockers. I'm fine with that except she goes super nuts with this perfume spray she has and her bag wreaks of the stuff. The worse thing is that I have the same scent in my collection. Needless to say, I will never wear it in this community for fear of people telling me I'm copying a student's signature scent.



It turns out the students in my HCE 8 class actually learned something! They are raving about how much they didn't "like" learning about STIs. God, I hope they didn't. But they've actually retained the information. they are currently trying to scare my current students with all the awful things they learned about, like the symptoms of syphilis and the difference between gonorrhea and chlamydia. I'm ecstatic that they learned this stuff! Am I a little perverse in my excitement about learning?

Lesson learned

I finally realized the lesson I was suppose to learn from Femina. It is to listen.
I believe people come into our lives for a reason. Especially ones we choose to interact with. I think we can learn a life lesson from everyone we interact with. I've thought about this with people I met this summer, especially because I know I would only be with them for a short time.

Out of respect for myself, and others I have choosen to erase this post. Thank you Femina, for all that you have done for me.

Unpacking

I finally got the last 14 boxes that Dad sent up It was like a mini-Christmas. I was excited to have my books, my winter clothes and my fancy kitchen stuff back. I can't beliveve how much better it is to do dishes with a dish rack! I've also gotten use to having to wait like 20 minutes to heat up food that the microwave is not taken for granted anymore. It is thanked profusely daily! I also got some bonuses like Nutella and this awesome printer/scanner/photocopier.

I've been quite reluctant to unpack though. Here is the current state of my spare bedroom.



It looks like a packing supply factory threw up in there. I'm usually really keen on unpack, but with this move it's taken me sometime. I'm wondering why that is? I have the space to unpack stuff (unlike my cramped dorm room this summer). I'm pretty darn sure I want to stick around here for a couple years.

Maybe I'm just sick of the packing-moving-unpacking cycle. I've moved at least once a year for the last four years (I moved twice in one year for the last two years). Maybe I've gotten so use to spare looking living areas. Maybe I just need some insentive. I know that when my mom or sister or brother come to visit, I'll have to have the spare room in shape.

I am having fun popping some of the bubble wrap when I unpack a valuable though :)

Today was parent teacher interviews...

And here is what the parents saw when they entered my room ...



Sometimes I still think it's weird that I'm a teacher. Like on my door for the interviews, it said my name. It's weird to see my name like that.

I met a few parents and they were all nice, thank god! But some of them I was tempted to give parenting advice to. Like, maybe you should ground your kid until they catch up on work ... or maybe you should make sure your kid's not on the internet until 3 am every night. But who the hell am I to give parenting advice. I'm no parent. Heck, I'm barely an adult. But it's funny how parents will give me teaching advice. Hmm....

P.S. Blogger has been a real be-otch lately. It took me three days to post this because of picture problems.