M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 64

Waiting on the Mailman

I'm sure you know by now I'd rather shop online than in person. I went on a bit of a spree last week and now I'm waiting for the deliveries.

1) A pair of beaded sandals I got from JC Penney, $13 and no shipping

2) Seasons 2 and 3 of Deadwood, $20 each and no shipping

3) True Blood season 3, which I used my Best Buy Rewards points to get for $20.

4) vacuum attachments that are meant to remove pet hair. Was $30, marked down to $15, $5 shipping.

5) A Bugs Bunny video I used to have when I was music teacher ($10 and $3 shipping)

6) A pair of Levi capris to replace the 2 year old pair I have that just ripped ($31 and free shipping here and return, if I need to)

Do you like shopping online? I admit, I went a little crazy lately….

Goals for the Week Before the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL

Wow, last week was rough. My kids are eating my lunch. I have a kid whose parents are splitting and his afternoons are out of control. He's mean and disrespectful and I don't know what to do. I call home, his mom says, "I'll talk to him" and hangs up. I send him to the office, nothing changes. Add to that catty girls and kids who don't get their work finished…and you know why I know there are only 56 more hours of school.

This week:

1)      Add 4K to Bluestone story

2)      Field Day

3)      Awards Day

4)      Move my classroom. I'm mostly packed, but need a couple more plastic totes.

5)      Not freak out over test scores, which absolutely should be in this week

6)      Keep up house

7)      Keep up exercising

8)      Grocery store/library

DNF

I don't often blog about books I don't finish. In fact, there aren't a lot of them. I'm pretty stubborn about finishing books, but this one…this one just upset me. It was a contemporary romance, by a big-named author. I've read all her other books, and a lot of her old characters showed up, all grown up and GIANT JERKS. Okay, so maybe the heroine is a bit aimless, but she did not deserve the horrible way everyone treated her, including the hero! She had no place to stay, no money for FOOD, for heaven's sake, would eat pilfered food, and didn't feel like she could call her parents, the hero and heroine of a former book, because they'd cut her off. I'm thinking they would have helped her out of this hell-hole. And the hero just kept putting her in worse situations, for no reason other than she was available.

I just couldn't go on with the story. It was just too miserable.

Do you push through? Or do you set it aside?

10 More Days of School

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by. I keep thinking we should do this thing for Easter or that thing for Mother's Day, only to remember that holiday has passed.

Last weekend, we had gorgeous weather, so I started getting ready for summer. I bought my pool, I cleaned out my ice chest, I bought new patio chairs and plants. My back patio is ready to inspire me this summer.

Things I'm looking forward to:

My flavored water. I only make it on holidays, because otherwise it goes to waste

Writing full-time. I plan to write 2000 words a day. In 10 weeks, that's 100,000 words, more or less. Hopefully more. And mostly will be new writing. I should have some revisions in there, since I have an October book and a December book, but mostly, new writing.

Road trips! My mom and step-dad like to go to small towns around here, and my husband should be taking some time off. I love getting in the car, going out to breakfast and hitting the road.

At least one plane trip. I want to go back to visit my grandmother in CA, since we didn't get to spend much time with her back in September, and I'd like to go visit my dad again for a long weekend.

Summer movies–Pirates, Harry Potter, X Men are at the top of my list.

READING! I have over 300 books on my Nook, many free, and I want to read a LOT this summer.

Lounging on my patio. Nothing like fresh air to fire up the muse.

Ambitious? Maybe, but still will give me lots of time to relax.

Movies, Again

I watched two movies last week, one I loved, and one I loathed.

First, the one I loved. No Strings Attached was not high on my list, but I did want to see it. I think Ashton Kutcher is an adorable beta hero, though he's often the same character. Anyway, the movie starts with two teens talking at camp, forming a bond. They see each other years later at a frat party, she's very no-nonsense and he's very led by his–emotions. A few years later, another encounter, and he gets her number. So far all their interactions have been platonic. But when his dad (played by Kevin Kline) upsets him, he calls her up and ends up at her apt. Their relationship heats up, but she's very distant and wants no strings attached. Ashton's character is ready to go with it, for now, but it's not that easy.

No Strings is a perfect romance novel come to the big screen. It would have been (and maybe has been) a great Blaze plot. I kept fearing they'd screw it up (like How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), but no. It's one of the best rom coms I've ever seen. Raunchy, but great.

The one I loathed was Country Strong. I wanted to beat every one of the selfish characters with the heel of a stiletto. Honest to God, not one likable sympathetic character. Not. One. I'd hoped for a nice romantic subplot, because that boy does have pretty eyes, but no. Not nice. Not romantic. I hoped for a decent soundtrack, but will settle for buying a Hayes Carl CD instead. Hated hated hated hated this movie.

What have you seen lately?

Goals for the Week I'm Writing Again

I can't believe it's been a week since I blogged! No scores last week. Now they're saying they might not be in until this Friday at the earliest.

13 more days of school. I'm looking at ticket prices to go back to both CA and MN this summer. I'd found a GOOD price for MN, but by the time I contacted all parties, it had gone up almost $100. Will keep checking.

I'm sitting on my back patio on my new resin Adirondack chairs that look just like the old ones. I already had the footstools, though the chairs are broken, so I stayed with the same color. I'm almost cold back here–it's only 60 degrees today! I hit 4 nurseries yesterday, so I have a little more color in my backyard today.

Okay, on to this week:

1)      500 words a day—that means I'll have a quarter of the book done by the time summer starts.

2)      SPN Sisters blog–season finale review!

3)      An interview for Romancing the Genres

4)      Traffic duty

5)      Keep cooking (I cooked three times as much last week as the week before)

6)      Keep up the house

7)      Make apple crumble.

8)      Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Goals for the Week We Get TAKS Results

Well, the good news is that this time next year I won't be stressing over test results. We should know by Friday how the kids did. I feel better about math than reading and writing, but we'll see.

1)      Finish edits on short story

2)      Finish reading Chasing Fire, due Thursday.

3)      Field trip Monday

4)      Mom's bday Wednesday

5)      Mother's Day celebration today

6)      Blog for SPN Sisters tomorrow

7)      Exercise

8)      Cook/Keep up house

And hopefully not be in knots over the kids' results. :::sigh::::

Big Changes in Store

I found out today that I'll be going back to music. I taught it for 7 years before leaving The School From Hell for my current place. I've been in the classroom since 2004. I've got really mixed feelings here.

The good:

No more tutoring

No more morning/afternoon duty

No more teaching to the test, a new one next year.

No more Response to Intervention paperwork, which had me in tears yesterday.

No more retaining kids/parent conferences.

I don't have to worry too much about taking a day off. The kids can go to PE if they can't get a sub.

No more field trips

No more science lab.

I get a Smart Board.

The Not-so-good:

I have to come up with a routine for the Veteran's Day program.

Teaching little bitty kids. I am not used to little bitty kids.

No window in my classroom. Also, moving classrooms.

Lunchroom duty. Every. Day.

Working with a new group of people. I'll be working more closely with Coach and his team. Which means some days outside, including helping out for Field Day and such. Which…I may be too old for that.

Inservices with other music teachers, not my school peeps. It's kind of isolating.

I don't have all the materials I used to use, or even the scope and sequence I developed, or the lesson plans I had. I left that other school in May and didn't return.

So I'm tripping. I have 3 months to get ready, and I'm sure it will be fine, but in the meantime…gah!

Movies

I've seen some stinkers lately. Do NOT watch Skyline, no matter how tempted. O. M. G. If you're curious, they mashed Independence Day, Cloverfield and Matrix into one movie that is not as good as the SyFy Saturday night movies. God, it was awful.

Then I got How Do You Know, the Reese Witherspoon movie. At times I felt like I had started watching in the wrong place, or that I'd skipped over some important scenes. I ended up not being charmed and turned it off after half an hour.

Now, one that I enjoyed, a LOT, was The King's Speech. Colin wasn't the only one who deserved an Oscar there. I loved Helena Bonham-Carter and Geoffrey Rush, too. I love knowing the men remained friends. I was able to identify the actor who played the PM before Churchill as the actor who played David in a movie about Wallis and David years back, back when they seemed romantic and not selfish and a bit creepy.

Actually, Wallis and David led to a conversation in my house. If they were Nazi sympathizers, as alluded to in the movie, and in other things I've read since, what would have happened had he remained king? Churchill may not have become PM, and if England had sided with the Nazis—would we be living in a different world today? What do you think?

The next movie I have coming in Country Strong. I've heard meh reviews on that. I need something to get me out of my slump!

Goals for the week of ARCADE FIRE!!!

We're going to see Arcade Fire on Tuesday. It's my Mother's Day present. I'm beside myself with excitement. I've not been to a concert since I saw the Foo Fighters on my birthday back when my son was in middle school. I remember because my husband didn't want to take him because of the cursing. Also, Baby Brother is graduating this week and my son and his friends are going to New Orleans for the Jazz Fest.

So this week:

1)      Buy Mom's Mother's Day/birthday presents/cards

2)      Buy SIL's bday present.

3)      Bank/library/grocery store

4)      Get stuff for kids to make their mother's day presents.

5)      Talk to a web designer. At the very least, get a newsletter template made.

6)      Concert!!!

7)      Baby Brother's graduation dinner (he's not walking the stage, so there's that.)

8)      Oh, and write sometime this week! Also pray for no revisions to come until NEXT week.

9)      Also, keep up house/cook/exercise. I MAY have cooked one day this past week.

Do you know I only have 5 more weeks of school? 24 more days and I'll be free!