why i don't really function as a normal human being

it is currently 1:09 am. there are several things i should be doing, mainly a.) sleeping, or b.) working on lesson plans. what am i doing? finally updating my blog.

this summer has flown by. i survived my first grad class. hurrah! for the most part, i did well just sitting in the corner and keeping my mouth shut, and i managed to make it through without allowing the bull to get to me. then, during the last half of the last class, somebody insults the marines in wwii and i had an aneurism. it was not fun. i had to keep reminding myself that i never have to see those people again. i start fall semester in about a week and a half. i'm a little apprehensive about the fact that one of the classes has a 14 book reading list. heaven help me. this is what i get for going to grad school full time AND teaching full time. plus playing in a band and volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center.

i'm insane.

i'm extremely apprehensive about the new teaching job. my last day at my dad's was friday. i'll miss the people, but not the commute. or the work, really. most of it was pretty routine. i'm definitely looking forward to being back in the classroom, and everybody i've met at the school seems awesome, but i have an impossible work load. five separate classes. 8th-12th grade. geography, world history I, world history II, US history, and government. five completely different preps. i had enough trouble trying to get lesson plans done for one class, much less five. they said they would try to take one away (hopefully the government - i don't like teaching civics or 12th graders - but most likely WH1), but i haven't heard anything for sure. my first day is the 25th, so i guess i'll find out then. my goal is to get as much lesson planning done this week and next week as possible. so far, it hasn't gone very well. there's just so many more exciting things i've wanted/needed to do.

the one good thing in all of this is that i'm teaching at a private school, so there are no standardized state tests. hallelujah. those things were the bane of my existence in NC. this means that if i want to spend two months doing a model congress, i can. if i want to spend an entire class period on a socratic seminar, no problem. if we just want to discuss current events, who cares. and the lack of a computer projector could prove to be a blessing in disguise, because then i'll have an excuse for just typing up some overhead notes, rather than spending hours of my time creating elaborate power point presentations.

in other news, the wedding of my two good friends from middle school that i've been planning for ten months was on aug 2nd and went amazingly well. the only problem all day was that the cake fell over, but that ended up being pretty hilarious, so nobody got too upset. all the work i put in definitely ended up being worth it, but i don't want to go through it again anytime in the near future. when i get married, we're going to vegas and getting married by elvis.

i'm at the beach now and it's amazing. this place has becoming engrained in my life. we've come basically every year since 1990. i'm loving, loving, loving being able to read all day guilt-free. (part of why the lesson-planning efforts haven't been very successful.) i just camp out on the beach and read for hours. so far i've made it through about four books, and i've got 12 or 13 more in my bag. the one sad thing is that my extended family (except my grandmother) couldn't come, for various reasons. i'm having a great time, but it's just not the same. hopefully everyone will be able to come next year.

after the beach, i'm staying with my grandma in the mountains for a week. i've really missed NC. hopefully i'll be able to catch up with some of the friends i made there. and get some lesson plans written...

(why do i feel like that is going to be the theme of the next year of my life. sigh...)