Ten on Tuesday

1. What’s the recipe for your favorite drink? (Smoothie, alchoholic, coffee, whatever.)
I'm kind of a big fan of coconut rum and orange juice. It's delightful.

2. What kind of razor do you use?
I used to ALWAYS use Venus razors, but they're expensive. And now that I live with a man who believes that razors are communal and uses them on his massive beard, which ruins them. So I just buy cheap ones now. Not like suuuuuper cheap, slice your leg off type razors (cause that's what I'd do, not even kidding) but definitely disposable.

3. Who is your favorite Sesame Street character?
I always loved Big Bird because my aunt bought me a stuffed one when I was little. Now, I don't know, there's probably more interesting characters.

4. What makes the perfect salad? (Lettuce type, toppings, dressing, etc.)
I like my salad with a lot of crunch. A good crispy lettuce base (like iceberg) is an absolute must. With other crunchy veggies like celery and onions. And crunchy toppings like bacon bits and croutons. (I'm almost drooling right now)

5. What was your favorite subject in school?
Language Arts. I love to read. Love it.


6. What’s your favorite summer tradition?
Cooking smores on a campfire. Hands down.


7. Do you suffer from season allergies? How do you combat them?
The further south I move, the less bad it is. But more so in duration than intensity. Last year in central Maine I had a HORRIBLE bout of allergies that actually resulted in an outbreak of hives, a trip to walk-in care, and a prescription for a triple combo of anti-histamines.

8. How often do you have to charge your cell phone?
Every night.

9. Do you have a bucket list?
Uhm, not really. But whenever I do awesome things, I usually think "Well, that's something I'm glad I got to do before I die." Almost a better way to think about it, I think.

10. Do you have any desire to go back to school?
Yes, but not for a long time.

It's Monday

I had a second job interview this morning. My initial reaction of the school was positive when I first interviewed last week. Today I had a teaching interview and spent some time in a classroom... and I would say that view of this place as drastically changed. It was a toddler classroom... I expected bright cheeriness, happy teachers, smiling children. Yeah, none of those. The classroom was dingy and dirty. All the furniture was at one time white with yellow trim and no other colors. All the bulletin board type stuff was old, faded, peeling laminated construction paper letter. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. The teacher had poor routines and poor teaching techniques. I don't think they were people that I'd get along well with as co-workers. I just... ugh. I don't want to teach there. I'm not even sure how well the interview went... probably not that good. But if offered, I won't be taking the job.
However, I'm still holding out to hear from the pretty much dream job in Easthampton. I waaaaant that job. I want to live in that town. I want my own cute little corner classroom with my 8 or 9 cute little preschool children. However, just in case I don't get it I put in an application for another job in the dream town and a company with several job openings in the general area. Plus maybe there will be something full-time coming up in my current company, which I would jump all over.

Today is June 27th. My parents' anniversary. Their last anniversary. Their divorce hearing is tomorrow. And tonight my mother is sleeping on my father's couch so she doesn't have to be up at 4 AM to get to court. All kinds of fucked up, guys. All kinds.

Also, I've been hearing some oh so freaking lovely things about myself from my family. Apparently a certain family member thinks that I am overly emotional, I blow everything out of portion, and now apparently I am untrustworthy and I am trying to turn everyone against my mom. The only information I passed on to other family members is common freaking knowledge. The absolute truth. Shit my mom has completely admitted to. Yup, and I'm the evil, malicious one now. Oooookay. I'm not the one who tore the family apart. I had no part in that. And I don't believe in doing that kind of thing. It fucking hurts. I would know.
One of these days, I'm going to confront this family member. One of these days...

Tornadoes in New England??

Wednesday was very likely to be on the scariest days of my life. I check the weather on my way to work. They were forecasting thunderstorms to begin around 1 o'clock... nap time at preschool. Fun... I have several little ones who are quite afraid of thunderstorms. Many who could care less, but a few who are afraid. So I was not looking forward to crying, terrified children waking up from their much needed naps.

One o'clock rolled around and no storms came. However, the Pre-K teacher assistant informed us that we were under a tornado watch. Being in New England, tornado watches come on occasion, but we never get tornadoes. Ever. But, just to be safe we reviewed the emergency plans for the school. The plan was to be aware of the weather (the director and mentor teacher were listening to the weather radio) and when the watch got upgraded to a warning, we would move from the classrooms to our "evacuation" place in the stairwell to the basement. At this point, we were light-hearted about it. The mentor teacher was running around saying "Auntie Em! Auntie Em!" and said it was okay to take the kids outside to play - just come in if we saw cows flying by. (For the record, I didn't take my kids outside. Storms can come on fast! Keep reading). I did, however, text Danny on my break to make sure he was home from walking from the bus. Westfield (where we live) was under a warning before Springfield (where I work) was.

Around about 3:30 when I go back to my own classroom after floating for breaks, it started storming. Bear in mind, this is my first week that I'm "allowed" to be in the classroom by myself (Complicated situation. Needed to be licensed in the state of Massachusetts, needed 3 months experience, etc etc etc) so I was a little nervous. I managed to keep my little kiddos under control though. Once the thunderstorms started, many parents picked up their kids so by 4 o'clock I only three children left. Two boys who were playing an imagination game about African safaris and my little girl was snuggled up in the quiet space with her blankie to hide from the storm. After one of the boys went home, I took them to the classroom next door where there were more kids to play with, and so I could clean up everyone's snack dishes.

And then fun began!
We got no advance warning before we got word that a tornado was on the ground in Springfield. The teacher from the downstairs preschool room ran up and yelled to us that a tornado was on the ground in Springfield, so we immediately evacuated the classroom and moved to the stairwell. (Which is the best place in our school - central, below ground, no windows)

All the children were safe and entertained, although many of the parents were exceptionally late, mostly due to traffic. We were able to take the kids back upstairs at 5:30 (end of my workday). From our vantage point, it looked like not much happen. However, traffic was horrible (the cause of most of the delay in parents picking up their kids) so we knew something must be up. While there was no damage to the school, there was a lot of damage to nearby areas, and some of the students' homes. Everyone is safe; everyone I know anyways.

On my way home from work, I hit crazy rain (thankfully not much traffic.) Called my dad and my sister, who were also having crazy storms up in Maine. Found out when I pulled into my yard that there had been a possible tornado on the highway right after I had driven across. Most terrifying thing I've ever heard in my life.


The damage in Springfield, Westfield, Monson and surrounding areas is devastating. I'm just thankful that no one I love and care about was effected.