The Fix is Coming

Todd is home now and I'm sure he'll be able to fix up the comments problem soon. Thanks for waiting!

I'm a Nerd...

In case you didn't know, yes, I am a nerd. Or geek. I don't really know the difference between the two. If someone wants to enlighten me, I would appreciate it. Either way, the title remains true. Everyone at work was talking about their summer plans - shopping, going out, doing this and that.

Do you want to know what I did before I came home from my last day of work? I stopped at the library. And filled up a bag with books.

What can I say? I love to read and I'm looking forward to a relaxing summer full of wonderful books.

Now, my first ten books that I checked out were all my type of sci-fi/fantasy novels. But fear not! After I get through these, I will be journeying upstairs to the non-fiction section. I just didn't want to get more books than I could carry (yes, I had a huge bag, but I didn't have Todd to help me tote it around today). I plan to venture out into different genres this summer so maybe I'll add book review to my blogging repertoire.

In any case, I'm not a total lost cause. I do plan on going out tonight to celebrate a friend's birthday (Woot, happy birthday Celeste!). I will also empty the dishwasher (that's for you, hunny). See, I write these things down and then I have to do them because I said I would.

Don't pay attention if this post it edited later. It just means I read all night long and didn't do anything. =)

A Minor Work Rant

So, I'm sitting here in my work office right now. Yes, I'm blogging at work. You might ask, "Why are you blogging, Ashlee? Don't you have so much to do?"

Actually, no. My classroom teaching team got everything done early. We worked super hard on Monday and Tuesday and finished things up Wednesday. We finished cleaning the classroom, organizing the office, filing our paperwork...And now? Now we're...not sure what to do. There's a movie playing on one office computer, I'm here on my computer, and some other teachers are just wandering around. We have a peer file review, but we can't start that until our manager gets here....at 1pm.

Fantastic. I mean, I'm all for movies and hanging out, but I feel a tad guilty that tax dollars are going to pay for this. "But why don't do you do stuff? Be efficient and productive?" Well, we sort of did that already. All of our classroom books are alphabetized (and put on different shelves according to whether they belong in the curriculum, are random books, or are books allocated to the site). All of our teacher resource books are organized, along with the binders that come along with them. Our classroom is completely wiped down and has passed the inspection by the Facilities staff. Remember? I already made a little post about Celeste and I indulging in our inner organization-freak drive.

Now, I could start planning for next year, but a lot is already planned (as in, I have all the lesson plans from this year saved so that I can expand on them next year). Plus, I'm going to be working over the summer with the other members of my Early Childhood Education (ECE) Teach For America (TFA) cohort on scheduling indicators and goals for next year. Side note: There are a ton of acronyms that you'll become familiar with in the reading of this blog. So...planning is sort of happening already and I can't go too far ahead because I really value the work I'm going to be doing with the cohort this summer.

So I guess my rant is about efficiency and efficacy, which is something that I feel could be greatly improved upon in my workplace. I haven't had a lot of experience with working in a federal agency, but my little glimpse of experience through Head Start has made me aware of the bulging mass of bureaucracy the envelops these organizations.

I might go into more specific detail at a later time (because trust me, there are a lot of thoughts I have about more efficient and effective ways to do things), but right now I think I'm going to work on some Arizona State University (ASU) paperwork.

And then...maybe another movie? Or another post? Haha.

Ugh. Whew. Etc.

My mind feels like it is wrapped in a blanket of wool -the icky stifling kind, not the warm and comforting type. The little guys that make up my immune system are working overtime. When I woke up this morning, I almost thought I had lost my voice. But no, I just sounded like a 80 year old smoker. A couple of pills - vitamins and Tylenol Cold/Sinus -later (and a whole thermos of tea with honey), I was feeling somewhat capable of going through my daily routine like a normal human being. Or at least semi-normal. It's about 4:15pm now and I'm seriously considering eating and then going to bed. What a busy, busy and exhausting day. I feel a little like this dog looks right now (especially if he happens to have a sinus infection and cleaned dusty cabinets and shelves all day).

Work today was, despite my stuffy head/nose/sinuses, super productive (it tends to be that way when there are no students around). The site is almost ready for inspections.

My super cool TFA morning teacher-counterpart (*High five Celeste!*) and I decided to go on an organizing streak. The inner part of me that is a little OCD is pretty excited about that. It helps me to feel more prepared for next year.

Normally that OCD part stays very hidden, as you well know if you've seen my closet a.k.a. the  "shove everything that I can't take the time to put away right now" area. Speaking of which, maybe my closet is a task that I will tackle over the summer. We'll have to see about that.

And now I'm going to go forage in the kitchen for some goodies. I don't really have to sit down to a real "meal" tonight since Todd isn't here. He can't really keep hunger at bay by foraging in the kitchen cupboards like I can. Woot for not feeling like cooking a real meal!

Why, Hello There!

The thought for this blog came into my head earlier tonight and I just couldn't wait to get started. Who ever thought that Ashlee would be impulsive? Pft! After waiting for a decent period of time (4 hours), I decided to start figuring some things out. There's so much to do! I had to look for a template and now I have to make sure that everything is how I want it. I know, I know. Why ask for everyone's input if I wasn't going to implement it? Well, it's not too late. The only thing that is kind of stuck is the URL. But the title can change! And so can the template!

Plus, Todd's leaving tomorrow and if anything goes wrong, he's still around for a few hours to fix it. After that, I would have to try to edit the html in order to fix things on my own while he's in Tucson. And we all know how that could turn out. If my blog is broken for the next week, you'll know what happened.

In any case, here's my rough idea for my little corner of the internet. I'm not sure that I like the format yet, but we'll see how it works out. I'm also not really sure what I will be posting here, but I guess we'll find that out too. It could be long and thorough dissertations regarding different political structures throughout the world. Or maybe anecdotal stories from my time in the classroom. Maybe this will be the first sounding board for some book plots I've been pondering. Or another place to vent about all those things in the world (and in my workplace) that don't make sense. But probably not (unless, of course, you're totally fascinated by political discussions?). More than likely, it will just be a way for me to communicate my random thoughts and ideas for anyone who is interested.  And if people aren't interested, then they don't have to read it! That's why blogs beat emails, I think. They involve a greater portion of voluntary participation.

Speaking of voluntary participation, feedback is always welcome. I would love to see this turn into a collaborative/discussion oriented site. Who knows? It could be fun!

So, thoughts?

P.S. Here's your fair warning that the template may be changing a lot over the next couple of days! Beware!