Queer Damozel of the Isle of Lesbos

Spent this morning wrapping Christmas presents. I don't have many, but my mom and grandmother will be hogging all the wrapping supplies over the next few days and I figured I'd get it out of the way early. Also mailed off the crochet wrap to my friend this morning. I'm hoping it makes it to her by Christmas, but if it doesn't it's not a super big deal.

I'm a considerable way through Huck Fin already. I don't think it's an awful book, but I don't find it super interesting or compelling. It's a little boring, honestly. I don't know how I'm going to get a whole classroom of freshmen to be interested in it enough to read the whole thing. There's a lot of thought provoking talk of race and racism in the novel, but how to discuss that respectfully is something else. I'm certainly going to need to ask for guidance from my master teacher on that one.

In other news, I'm driving into town later tonight to go have dinner with my mom for her office's Christmas dinner. My dad's not one to go out to eat frequently, and especially not with people he doesn't know, so I've been going with my mom the last few years. The food's always good and I know my mom has a good time showing off what I'm doing to her colleagues, so I continue to go. Hey, free food is free food and I don't really mind that my mom brags about me.

Today was my brother's last day of finals and the last day I have to drive him up to campus, which is great. I love him, but waiting in the car for more than an hour is a pain in the ass, regardless.

In other news, I got around to photographing the books that came in yesterday!



That's ten whole books, not including my Shakespeare plays, which I already had in an anthology. I finished The Taming of the Shrew today, which was much more disturbing this read than it was during the last one. I remember thinking the way Petruchio treated Katherina towards the beginning was unkind, but there seemed to be a lot more even ground between the two of them. This time, I really couldn't see that even ground. The ending showed a broken woman who caved to her husband to survive; there was no hint of the playful back and forth I thought I'd seen previously. It's going to be interesting to see what students see more, the equals learning to live together, or the man torturing his wife until she conforms to his desires.

Next, I'm starting on Fahrenheit 451 since that's the novel I'm most excited to teach. Then I'll his Huck Fin since I know literally nothing about it. I vaguely remember Tuesdays with Morrie from when I was a senior in high school, but I don't think we ever read it, just watched the movie, so I have to get around to that one sooner or later. I'm hoping for at least a book a week, so maybe I can squeeze in Left Behind or The Catcher in the Rye before winter break is over.

I ran out and bought the dvd of Venom today, too. So that's what I've been watching all evening. It was just as good as I remember it and I can't wait to force my dad to watch it this weekend; he's going to love it.

Took my brother up to his study group today and swung by Michaels for more yarn while I was there. I was going to pick up another three skeins of the bulky yarn I started on last night but could only find one. When I tracked down one of the workers she couldn't find the rest of their stock, either, even though they had it somewhere. It wasn't her fault of course, but I was still supremely disappointed. Their yarn section is incredibly small and unorganized and it's a pain in the ass to find what your looking for. I can make what I have work, but it's still irritating.

I've got a meeting with my advisor for final student teaching next semester tomorrow first thing and after that I've got to hang around and wait for my brothers' finals to end. I'm gonna take Shakespeare collection so hopefully I can get through Romeo and Juliet today or tomorrow.

Tumblr's nsfw ban goes into effect starting tomorrow. I'm hoping my blog doesn't vanish when it hits midnight east coast time since it's been marked as explicit; I'm shadowbanned too, from what I can tell, even though none of my posts have been flagged. We'll see how this nonsense plays out, I guess.

Today was my last day with my 8th graders. They were super sweet and I had several students tell me they were going to miss me come January. One of my kids gave me a little card thanking me for helping them with all their assignments this semester which was really touching. I passed out candy before my classes left as my thank you to them for being so great all semester. Multiple kids told me I should go teach at our local high school so they can have me again next year. It really was a reminder that what I'm doing makes a difference and means something. I'm putting the thank you card up on my wall for now and when I get my own classroom, I'll be putting it up behind my desk.

To kick off my three week break, I really laid into my crochet project. I've got another 28 rows to go, plus the edging. So I'm close to being done, finally. There's probably another 5 or so hours of work there, but at least the end is in sight. I might actually have this done before Christmas so I can give it to its intended recipient, which is exciting. I love giving crocheted stuff away as gifts; people are always so excited to get them. So that's my plan for the weekend--finish crocheting the wrap I've been working on and maybe read some Romeo and Juliet if I have any extra time.

In other news, I do have one small meeting I have to go to on Monday for my teaching credential stuff. My coach next semester, who I'm supposed to meet in January, has a scheduling conflict next month and won't be in the area until February. Rather than throw us into student teaching with no support, we're meeting with her on Monday and going over expectations and ways she can help support us in the coming months. I'm not wild about it, but I'm appreciative that she's reaching out to us now rather than waiting to meet with us until February. So far, next semester seems to be promising and I'm really looking forward to working with Freshmen and Seniors.

So yesterday was long as hell; I took my friend to the evening showing of Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberly and it was just as good as it was Sunday! We also ate at this little hole-in-the-wall burger joint/sports bar place and the food was incredible!

Today I told all my kids that Friday's my last day and some of them took it really hard. They'll be okay, but I'm gonna miss them. They're a pain, but I'm really fond of them and it's gonna take a little bit to get used to teaching Freshmen and Seniors as opposed to my little 8th graders.

I'm down to one last final, my portfolio for the methods and materials class. Most of the stuff that needs to go into it is already done, but I've got to clean it up and put it all together in a coherent website to be graded. Which I will probably get around to either tomorrow or Friday. Probably Friday, if I'm being honest; I've got a lunch date with a friend tomorrow and she and I can chat forever so I wouldn't be surprised if I waste a majority of tomorrow chit chatting with her. It's fun to see her, though! I don't get enough in person social interaction anymore; I'm always so busy.

Anyway, the semester's basically over and I'm spending the next week or so just tying up loose ends now. Almost there!

So I took a personal day today and didn't get any work done. I'll go grab the community pictures I need for that project tomorrow after I finish teaching in the morning. Instead I slept in and took my mom the the Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberly's showing at the college I attend. My mom's been pretty obsessed with Pride and Prejudice since I read it during my undergrad and recommended it to her so I figured it would be a good a thing to take her to as an early Christmas present. It was a super cute play and really funny. My mom enjoyed it and so did I, so it was a good time. I'm taking another friend to see it this next Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

I started reading Romeo and Juliet this morning, so I guess I'll be reading through all that next week and annotating it. The annotation will take the longest, but I've already read the play so it should go a little faster than if I'd never read it. After that it'll be The Taming of the Shrew most likely, but that one's already been annotated, so it should go by pretty quickly.

I'll probably top the evening off with some Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. I've played more than 100 hours now and I'm still nowhere near having beat the story line and I'd like to do so before I have to start teaching again in January. So I'll have three solid weeks to hopefully get through it.

So today closes out my second full week of teaching almost entirely on my own. Most of my kids are still doing great and I'm managing with the sub, so I'm getting there, I guess. I did get to meet my mentor teachers for next semester and I am so excited to get to work with them! It seems like both of them are really putting into practice the kinds of things I've been learning about in my classes, which I just haven't seen at my current placement. The only book I'm not wild about teaching is Huckleberry Finn, but I've honestly never read it. So maybe I'll catch a break and it won't be too bad. Hopefully.

Outside of that, has anybody seen the new Outer Worlds trailer yet?



It looks beautiful and amazing and I honestly can't wait to play it. They've also got up a gameplay trailer that just further proves it's something I absolutely have to play:



The whole thing just radiates Fallout: New Vegas, Borderlands, and Mass Effect. I can't wait to get my hands on it; I've been so RPG starved lately, with the exception of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. And a special shout out to the new trailer for Crash Team Racing (which I won't link here, since I've already linked enough). I played CTR as a little thing and I'm delighted to have the chance to play it again.

So today's been all over the place but I'm home now and I've had dinner, so at least things have calmed down a little bit.

So for those that don't know, I'm in initial student teaching at a middle school right now. My master teacher has from now until after winter break off, so I've been teaching my classes (2nd and 3rd period) full time, but the class still has a long term sub for legal reasons. And today we had a school-wide rally type event where the kids got to hang out and play games at different teacher directed stations. It was great and the kids had a lot of fun, but I had literally no idea it was happening until I got into class this morning and my sub was losing her mind over the fact no one had sent her the schedule for the day. So that was frazzled. And to top off the day, I left my damn umbrella in the classroom when I left. Of course, it's been raining pretty steadily ever since.

Other than that, I've got a lot of final projects to do and finish up before the semester ends in the next two weeks. Most of them should be fairly easy, but they're going to take a substantial amount of effort to finish and I'm having trouble rallying enough energy to get going and get them done. I'm saving Friday and Saturday this week as work days, so hopefully I can finish up at least a few of my final projects then.