Tampa and Other Happenings

This was in the backyard. Fancy! (It's a Redheaded Woodpecker)

Hello again! Sometime on Thursday, Tracy and his parents and I decided we'd go down to Tampa and spend the night so we could check out the Gulf... We drove down yesterday and stayed at a hotel right on Clearwater Beach. I wouldn't go as far as to say the water was actually clear, but it was warm and made you bob up and down and was a totally different experience than St. Augustine. Due to said bobbing, I got a little nauseous on this trip, but it was nothing that a little nap down by the pool couldn't fix. Did I mention that I'm really suffering and deprived of fun times? :) Actually, I feel like I've been on about 3 vacations this week. It's been nice to explore some of the state, but this coming week (my last week before school starts), I look forward to a little downtime in Gainesville... Sadly, we had to take Tracy's parents back to the airport today so they could catch a flight back to Wyoming. I really enjoyed spending so much time with them this week and "bonding," as Tracy likes to say.

Another exciting event since my last post is that the tutoring company I applied with here has decided to hire me, pending some fingerprints (which, by the way, are expensive to get done in every state... Why they can't just use my fingerprints from Oklahoma, I'll never know), as well as a completed W4 form and a direct deposit form. It pays well and will allow me to not have to work myself to death outside of my 40-hour a week unpaid job (yay student teaching) in order to have some cash for bills and saving.

Finally, my supervising teaching at Westwood Middle School-- that's my 2nd student teaching assignment-- has responded to my initial email, and she seems incredibly nice. I believe I'll be doing inclusion math, which scares the ever-living crap out of me, but I hope it'll be a good experience. The teacher was very friendly and is getting back to me on what I need to do to prepare for her classroom since she now knows the dates I'll be there.

It's currently hot, humid, and thundering, so hopefully we'll get some nice rain soon. Tracy and I are going to watch "Salt" at the movie theater tonight. A first date in a new state, one might say (if one liked to make up cheesy rhymes. Which one does). Life is moving right along, and I'm enjoying every minute of it.