Utility company fails!

We paid our bill.  They sent us a nastygram (aka disconnection notice). 

While on the phone, they found the payment I made.

They went to make a notation, then took out another payment (TWICE) and now my account is overdrawn. 

This is not cool!

Had a great Christmas.  Emma was really taken by everything.  She got the motherload from Santa.  Woo!

We ate a lot of crap.  We were lazy.  I played some WoW, watched some television.  Ahhh!

The only news I have is that we have bluejays in our backyard and they're big, fat bluejays. They're pretty as heck, but I've seen them bully the other birds.  We also had a crow this morning cawing.  Weird, eh?

Bluejays are sent by the devil (according to Wiki) and the Crow is the symbol for death?  Eeeek!

I wonder what squirrels signify? We have an assload of thema s well.

Well, with the semester anyway.  AHHHH!!!!!  I get to horse around for a MONTH.  Yessssss.

I have one more week of classes and then a project to complete by December 15th.  I can breathe again.  This semester has been such hell.  I'm not sure next semester will be any better, but I think it will be less stress in a way.  I have four classes next semester: two undergrad and two graduate level classes.  We have to take one class outside of English (level 300 or greater) for the master's degree.  So, I'm taking a theater class / playwriting.  It should be hella fun. 

I'm also taking an intro to poetry class that is a prerequisite for the teaching licensure.  I'm actually looking forward to that class quite a bit.  I think it will help ground me in poetic forms, which I desperately need before I start my own class next year. 

I'll also have the internship (same as this semester) and I'm applying for a research position that is 10 hours a week (at $14 an hour)!  It would be amazing if I got that kind of position.  It would cover all our bills per month.  Yay for that!

I can't wait for the break.  I'm going to read some serious trash: we're talking VC Andrews, Jackie Collins trash.  Oh yeah.  Mmmmmmm.

Will be Tuesday, December 1st.

Here's my schedule.

9:30am - 10:45am  (facilitate poetry workshop for intro to creative writing class)
11am - 12:15 (take over an intermediate creative writing class)
12:30 - 1:45 (facilitate poetry workshop for intro to creative writing class)
2:00 - 3:15 (teaching creative writing class / present material on Experimental poetry)
4:00 - 5:15 (teaching reading class)
7:00 - 10:00pm (graduate fiction workshop class)

Ugh.  Ugh.  Ugh.  I'm already tired just looking at this. 

Thankfully, most of my homework is done.  I have all day tomorrow to come up with a lesson plan for the intermediate creative writing class.  (and read the short story presented that day.) 

Next semester is gonna be just as busy.  I need air!

List of Things to Do for School

(I have to get a list up somewhere or I'm gonna 'splode).

TUESDAY'S LIST
Experimental / L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry presentation (13 pages).
Graduate Workshop response: J
Graduate Workshop response: L
Poetry Workshop response: class #1 (8 poems)
Poetry Workshop response: class #2 (7 poems)
Prepare a presentation for the TA course - Intermediate creative writing - short story "Hot Ice" supp.
Assessment Portfolio for Teaching Reading - 12 pages
Finish manuscript for SpeakOut! Journal
Print off 7 copies to give to site/group leaders (of journal)

Ok, that's all due by Tuesday.

THURSDAY'S LIST
TA Workshop story #1
TA Workshop story #2
Checkpoint Entry for Multicultural Literacy project
Journal Response for Teaching Reading

Ok, there's that week.  One more week after (of classes), then finals week, then guess what?  Friggin' BREAK TIME!  Eat me, semester.  You've sucked.

Dear Self,

It's time to get busy.  Stop horsing around.  Get healthy.  Get smart.  Stop treating yourself poorly.  Believe you can do this.  Focus, dammit!

Signed,

Me

Again, to folks who don't watch Supernatural, uhhh, get busy, yeah?

This show is just getting better and better, and every season I don't think that's possible.  But it happens.

As a fan of horror (old skool mostly--we're talking 70's/early 80's stuff where horror really got interesting), I love me some Winchester boys.  The whole "hunter" feel is so fun, so rich, and the actors in this series are really top notch.

Things just keep getting more and more interesting.  Since angels were added the season before last, the show has really developed a few more layers (mmm, love me some layers).  But, for the most part, I just love Sam and Dean.  I love watching them "hunt."  I love the fact that they make fun of entire sub-genres of horror, of television trash, of everything and anything they can get their hands on.

Anyway, this season's rockin' like Dokken, baby.  Check it out if you get a hankerin' for something to rent or watch on hulu, etc.

I went to a sci-fi workshop last night.  The guy had a PHD and was a professor at the Air Force Academy.  He actually had some great material. 

But . . .

Why is it that SOME geeks (in particular) are rude and socially enept?  I'm not dissing geeks--hell I AM one, but I've met a few that make me want to stick hot pokers in my eyes.

One dude who attended was either drunk or on something.  He was red--like all over red--and his nose was even more red.  And he had glassy, red eyes and was talking REALLY LOUD.

We were asked to come up with a "what if" IDEA.  A sentence or two for a sci-fi idea/story.  And this guy goes on for 5 minutes about: "YEAH, DUDE, so I have this idea where it's post nuclear war and, one group is immortal, but they have to kill for it, and YEAH.  And the other group is, you know, hippy dippy fuckers, and there is this one scene where a guy meets a stoner chick and you know, his chainsaw explodes and she's, you know, all dressed in ragged clothes. 

WTF?  He went on and ON until the facilitator said, "Dude, you need an IDEA and that's it.  Summarize it."

So, he tried to summarize and it came out the exact same way only this time he had a scene he added about some "dude named Duane who got his hand chopped off, hurh hurh.. yeah, cool man!  IS THAT sci FI?  I JUST WANT TO KNOW."

Ok, fine, we finish his turn and we ask another person and the dude KEEPS TALKING, like talking to himself.  It's like he has no idea of what social manners are (or doesn't care because he's wasted--I wasn't sure).  And he kept referring to sci-fi as "that goofy stuff." 

THEN, we get Nancy-Know-It-All.  And let me tell you, I f*ing hate know-it-alls.  I hate people who think they know more than you, who think they know more than the teacher, who feel the need to try and CORRECT the teacher and who go on long diatribes about how much THEY know about a topic.  This is a common issue with some geeks.  I guess they have to compensate?  I don't know.

Well, every time he called on her to answer a question, she had to go into her life story about every short story she's written, how she knows everything about everything when it comes to writing a sci-fi short story.  Every time she raised her hand, I wanted to punch her in the face.  She was wearing these old, high-waisted jeans, a santa fe t-shirt tucked into her jeans and a fanny pack that she kept digging through when others were trying to talk.  (God forbid she give anyone else the floor?) 

I love me some geeks--but when the annoying ones come out, I want to turn in my membership card.

I have it.  I'm sick of it.  I was doing so well there for a while, then I got sick and took some Tylenol Flu night-time and it's been a stupid road back to non-drug sleep ever since.  I'm just dreading those 2-3 days of crappy sleep after you stop taking something to HELP you sleep.  My husband takes ambien to sleep, which I've tried a few and they do well, but I hate having to rely on that to get to sleep. 

J's uncle has been moved to hospice.  He's having a hard time with it.  He doesn't have a father, so his uncles WERE his father(s) in a sense. 

I have to teach an entire intro to creative writing class on Thursday.  The topic?  Pantoums, sestinas and poetry grammar.  Ugh.  I don't even know what a pantoum is . . . or a sestina for that matter, and I always thought poetry grammar was, you know, kind of loose anyway. 

E is wonderful.  She's all about Barbie these days.  I was such a Barbie freak when I was younger. 

Sunday nights are so depressing now that HBO has no new shows.  Bleargh.  In good news, Game of Thrones (the pilot) is in the process of shooting.  If it gets picked up--and I don't see how it can't considering all the awesome, cool names involved--it should air in 2011 sometime.  Maybe Martin will actually have Dance with Dragons finished by then?

Anyway, there's an update from my groggy-ass self.