Long Time No Blog

Oh jeez, where to start? It's been about two weeks since I've blogged, and lots has happened. I guess I'm gonna have to go with the old standby of a bulleted list to cover everything...

• I went to Oklahoma! It was awesome, but the visit felt so short. I don't even want to confess to you how much I ate in those few days, but it was a lot. Ok ok, so I had Freebirds, Jason's Deli, Taco Bueno, Uptown Subs (Enid), and Olive Garden. My belly was SO happy! Other happenings in Oklahoma included getting that pesky OPTE test out of the way, going on 6-mile walks with the parentals, getting new running shoes, and watching OU kick the poo out of Iowa State in the first shut-out of the season.
• Middle school has begun again for me, my friends. Only this is middle school like I never experienced. There are over 1000 kids and like 6 or 7 buildings at this middle school (as compared to about 200 kids and one hallway at my middle school). A few of the interesting situations I've encountered--- students kicking out the boards on a ramp to the portable (right in front of me, I might add), suspensions for everything from soliciting sex in the hallways to holding blades to people's wrists to trying to sell rock salt as cocaine, etc., enough wacko slang to make me feel decades older than these kids, and so many bad home situations it's not even funny. We're not in Norman anymore, Toto. It would be an understatement to say that this school is ROUGH. I've never experienced anything like this in my life, and Capitol Hill Elementary in OKC didn't hold a candle to this. Every day is interesting, however, and I do not sit down from the time I get there till the time I leave.
• My cooperating teacher is really nice. We even look a little alike, prompting at least one or two "Are you sisters?" comments a day. She's a great teacher, and I can tell she really cares. The only downside in all of this is that school is literally her life. Somehow she has gotten it into her head that the later she stays at school, the better she is as a teacher. Long after all the teachers have gone home, my teacher stays at school. On the nights that she doesn't have to go tutor at UF, she stays till 9 or 10 at night, no exaggeration. Then she's back at 8 the next morning. Because I have to do as the cooperating teacher does in student teaching, I've been staying till around 6 each night, doing nothing in particular. I understand being dedicated to your job, but I personally feel that this is a little obsessive. At some point you gotta go home, say hi to the guy you're with (she's engaged and put off having a fall wedding because she was too busy with school.... for real), and just not think about teaching for a few hours a day. There's more to life than work, and I think it takes a healthy balance for you to be good at anything, professional or personal.
• Speaking of work, my tutoring job is no more, unfortunately. I discovered that they were being paid MUCH more in federal funding than what I saw for tutoring (as in, they were getting 70% of what I made every hour), and they also wanted me to drive around to several surrounding towns for very little money and no gas compensation.... Quite frankly, I could not afford this job. I lost money doing it, and I've got to find something else. I'm hoping I can find a place that will let me work exclusively on the weekends, due to the fact that I now don't get done with student teaching until after 6 p.m.
• On a more positive note, other areas of life are going well. My GRE has been scheduled for December 10, and I'm still studying when I can find the time and energy.
• Tracy and I are commiserating over our utter lack of time off work, as the hospital makes him work some pretty bozo hours. He's working a 24-hour shift today (well, and tomorrow technically; he gets off at 6 a.m.), so I'll be bringing food up to the hospital for him this evening. 24-hour shift nights are our date nights! Haha, I bring a bag of Chick-Fil-A or Chipotle, we sit around in the little lounge area and eat and chat for a few minutes, and then he's back to work with his zillions of pagers. It does break up the looooong shifts though and lets us at least talk face-to-face instead of by text.
• Oh! And I may be joining something called the Junior Medical Guild, which is basically a social club for people who are girlfriends/wives of residents here. I guess a lot of people have my problem of moving to the area and not knowing anyone, so they have a little club thing that sends out invites to dinner, a book club, girls night, all kinds of stuff. I'm really excited about the opportunity to meet other people who are new to the area and want to check stuff out. I think that's all the updates I have now-- I'll try to get back on track with updating on at least a weekly basis so that I sort of remember the stuff that's happened. My brain is like spaghetti after these past two weeks. Enjoy your weekend, and BOOMER SOONER!