Oh hi, nerves. You're a little tense lately.

I am officially one-step closer to having to having a job...I got an interview! I mentioned here that there was a chance that there was a possible job opening for me to start teaching, and it has happened. Now, I can actually talk a little bit about it.

The job is at my old high school, and it would be teaching theatre, which incidentally, is exactly what I went to school for. The theatre teacher that I had has changed positions within the high school and now I have this outstanding opportunity before me to take her place. The interview is tomorrow, and I have been nervous about it since the moment I found out, which is odd for me, because I'm generally not an overly-nervous person. It's just that I really, really, really want this. While I no longer live in the city limits of my hometown, I do live a whopping twenty-minutes away, which has allowed me to stay active within the community via my church. With the number of things that our church does that I've assisted with over the years, I have been fortunate to know a lot of the students in the high school already, and I feel that that's a good thing, especially since their current teacher is leaving mid-semester.

Overall, I feel like I have the ability to really 'wow' the interviewers tomorrow, but I do feel like I have one strike against me that could definitely be a defining moment as to whether or not I get this job. I'm still not at the point to start my "internship" level of my program, which is the level where I may legally be hired as a full-time teacher. However, in about two weeks, I will be. I take my content-area test this Saturday, and it takes about two-weeks for the results to come in. That's all I have to wait for---the results of the test. As long as I pass it, (which I feel confident that I will) I am legally hirable. Hopefully, the interviewers will be so taken by me that they'll be willing to wait.

Dear God, I hope so. I feel like a little kid crossing their fingers in hopes of getting that pony for Christmas.

I have ashamedly gotten my hopes up for all of this, which frustrates me, but someone told me yesterday that having my hopes up will show how much I want it in the interview, so I guess there's that.

Quick change of topic:

For the people that seem to think that status updates on Facebook = a diary...

Get an online journal. Please. I do not need or want a minute-to-minute play-by-play of the occurences in your life. If I wanted to read every mundane detail of your life, I'd subscribe to your LiveJournal account.

But then again, you'd probably have a Xanga.

There is honestly someone who has posted not 1, not 2, but SIX status updates today, all of which were posted by 10:30am.  It's not even noon. Your day cannot be that exciting before noon. I refuse to believe it.

If you feel like I'm taking about you, I probably am, in which case, it's time for you to get an account with one of the aforementioned online-jounal communities.




Now that I've said that, hopefully I'll know something soon about the job. If you're reading, please do whatever it is that you do when you want to wish someone luck, whether it be praying or carrying around a rabbit's foot. I'd really appreciate it, times eleventy. :)

Gettin' Edjumakatid.

Well, I've been busy and neglecting my blog because I've finally started my classes for my alternate certification program so that I can be certified to teach. My classes started a week ago today, and so far, so good.

I go Tuesday nights from 6-9pm and on Saturdays from 8:30-3:30pm. Each class is 3 hours, (we have 2 classes on Saturdays) and it's actually not too bad. The class goes by relatively quickly and I'm meeting some nice people.

I will say, however, it never ceases to amaze me just how stupid some people can be, even future educators.

In order to be accepted the particular program that I am enrolled in, you make an appointment at the office, you go in, you watch a video that breaks down how the program works. After the video, a representative of the company, (in my case, the founder of the program) comes and takes questions about that video, then explains that a critical thinking skills test is going to be administered. You then take the test, turn it in, and wait for it to be evaluated. When they're ready, they call you in, let you know if you've been accepted, and if so, they explain the program to you AGAIN and give you a folder with all sorts of information, including a flow chart of how the program works.

HOW IS IT that people STILL had questions about it on Tuesday, our first day of class? Seriously? It's not that difficult.

1. Get accepted.
2. Begin your classes.
3. Take your content-area test. (so the state knows you're competent in your subject)
4. Do observations
5. Do an internship or student teaching.
6. Take another state-test.
7. Become certified.

Not difficult. At all. Yet after our teacher went through the program breakdown on Tuesday, a jillion hands shot up. I just don't understand how it's so difficult to understand. I mean, teachers are supposed to be somewhat intelligent, right?

At one point, our teacher was asking people what everyone's content-area is, and this guy honestly responds, "Uh...I think it's uh...social studies."

Really? You think you're certifying in social studies? Shouldn't you like, know or something? I mean, considering if you're taking the course, you HAVE to take your first content test in the area that you have the most college hours in. People really exasperate me sometimes.

However, I have found a friend in the class who experiences the same frequency in eye-rolls as I do during our classes. She and I have taken to shooting looks at each other when we really want to just raise our hand and yell, "SHUT UP, seriously."

Additionally, I'll never fully understand why people feel the need to randomly interject their long-winded personal stories and outlooks in the middle of the lecture. It's one thing if we're having a Q&A time, but when the teacher is trying to explain the principles and theories of Piaget, why must someone raise their hand and just start telling their personal life story on why Piaget has influenced them to become the magnificent teacher they hope to be at that moment? The rest of the class would like to just hear what the paid professional at the fron of the classroom has to say about Piaget, not the fellow student.

Maybe I'm bitter from endless years of schooling, but that kind of stuff just bothers me. The teacher isn't there to be a one-on-one conversationalist with you. The teacher is there to teach THE CLASS, so please respect the time and money that everyone is spending on the class and SHUT UP.

:) Oh, the life a student...I thought I was done. I may sound really negative, but I've found myself looking forward to going to class and all of that. I'm enjoying learning about being a better educator and knowing that each class is bringing me one step closer to becoming certified, but I just have a low-tolerance for idiots.

My Near Death Experience(s) on the Interstate

Yesterday, I had the fabulous task of driving through Houston. I decided to go at a time when the roads wouldn't be clogged with traffic, since I just knew that would make my drive easier.

My lesson? Just because you're not in bumper-to-bumper traffic doesn't mean that you're not on the highway with Houston's finest idiots.

I was probably about 15 minutes into my drive, enjoying my Frou Frou CD somewhat mindlessly when I realize that I'm going about 55mph in a 65mph zone. UM...WHAT THE HECK? I immediately throw on my blinker to get around the bozo in front of me that has NOBODY in front of him so that I may continue on my journey at a speed that is suitable for highway driving.

OF COURSE I CAN'T GET OVER. Everyone is speeding around ME, being truly Houstonian and NOT LETTING ME OVER. Then, the vehicle in front of me starts speeding up, and I was like, "Oh, good. He finally got the memo that this is NOT the place to be trailin' along like Granny."

Nope. He slows back down to his comfortable 55mph. This guy is killing me at this point, so much that I may or may not be audibly saying in my best whiny 6-year old voice, "Dude, COME ONNNNNN-UH!!! JUST DRIVE-UH!!!"

I finally manage to get around this person, and of course when I do, traffic is slowing down a little due to merging lanes and whatnot, and I find myself wishing I was still behind "10 & 2" my favorite slow-moving driver, (I actually verbally called the slow guy '10 & 2' at some point, because when I was driving next to him he had his elbows locked and his hands precisely at 10 & 2) because I have managed to get stuck behind an 18-wheeler, and that's never fun. What felt like decades later, I finally am able to get past the slow-traffic, past 10 & 2 and past the 18-wheeler. I'm driving happily at 65mph, (I truly am not much of a speeder) where there wasn't really anyone on either side of me and I start coming up on another chunk of slow-traffic ahead. (That's part of the beauty of Houston traffic. Just as soon as there's an open part of the highway, it's only seconds before you're at the next slow. SO FUN. Try it sometime.

I inevitably find myself in the left lane sandwiched between the barricade from the highway and yet another stream of 18-wheelers, driving behind a very large industrial big rig. This makes me uncomfortable because in my head, my reality is turning into a scene from Final Destination and it always freaks me out a little. Moments later, a lane begins to merge into the left lane of the highway, and there's nobody coming, so there's finally more space. It was like a breath of fresh air and happiness to me until...

OHMYGODOGMYGODOHMYGOD. IS THAT TRUCK SERIOUSLY ABOUT TO JACK-KNIFE IN FRONT OF ME?!?! OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD. WHY IS HE SWERVING? I'M GOING TO SLAM DIRECTLY INTO THIS GUY AND BLOW UP WHEN MY CAR HITS HIS GAS TANK. OHMYGODOHMYGODOHMYGOD.

These are the thoughts going through my head as the industrial big rig starts swerving in front of me at weird angles. I start slowing down as I'm picturing explosions and imagining what it's going to feel to die in 10 seconds when the truck gets it together and keeps truckin' along and starts speeding to about 75mph.

What just happened? Why did this guy just put MY life in danger? Doesn't he know how to drive that thing?

As I'm contemplating whether or not this guy even has a license or the training to drive that vehicle, yet another fabulous incident occurs. Before I tell you, let me explain something to you.

Down here in the good 'ol south, there are LOTS of large trucks, and the kind of trucks I'm referring to are called "DUELIES" 'round these parts. Usually, "DUELIES" are meant for farm-use, as denoted on their license plates, but I always manage to see these stupid trucks on the INTERSTATE IN HOUSTON, which is clearly NOT on the farm. I believe that in order to own a "DUELIE" you have to be completely devoid of intelligence or driving skill, because these are always the jerks that are inconsiderate on the road.

For anyone scratching their heads and thinking, "Really...what is a 'duelie' and what does it look like?"

ENTER "DUELIE" DRIVING HICK WHO CUTS ME OFF AND ALMOST HITS ME WITH HIS EXTENDED 5th AND 6th WHEELS.

Seriously, had I not just encountered a horrifying near-death-experience with the random industrial big rig? Was that just NOT enough? Ugh, sometimes, driving in Houston is just too spayshul.

I did manage to make it safely to my destination, in one piece, without my life turning into a scene from Final Destination. Whew.

War of the Crickets.

Since we have moved into our apartment, we occasionally have moments with crickets being really loud. Once there was a cricket that had gotten into the wall for a few days and I was moments from getting a sledge-hammer to find that little sucker because it was driving me crazy.

If I lived out in the country and had this fabulous porch wrapping around my house where I could sit in my rocking chair from Cracker Barrel and drink fresh sweet tea in the evenings, I'd probably love the sound of the crickets as I rocked slowly back and forth taking in everything nature had to offer.

I don't live in the country.

I don't have a Cracker Barrel rocking chair on my porch with a great view.

I certainly don't live where the weather is nice enough to sit outside and feel a "cool" breeze.

I do however live in an apartment where my porch has a grill and a small table that when I sit there looks at another building in our complex and the weather here is hot and humid. So in the evenings, my husband and I will curl up on the couch (with a laptop nearby, of course. It's 2010. Technology is in our lives.) and watch shows together until he decides that he ready to go to bed. I kiss him goodnight and go back to the living room or spare room and watch things on the DVR that don't interest him or random items that I can instant stream from Netflix. (Weeds, anyone? I love that show.) Everything is great, right.

Well, except for the crickets that have currently taken residence in the plants right outside my front door. They are so loud it sounds like they're IN MY HOUSE and I can hear them even in our bedroom with the door closed. I have decided that when it's just one cricket, it's more annoying than when there are many crickets, but still. If they could go to the grass across from my apartment, I'm sure that the crickets and I could get along fine, but since they've set up camp outside my door, tension is being set up.

Did you know if you go outside and just randomly spray your Raid for Flying Insects it won't kill the crickets? I probably sprayed half a can all over the plants and ground outside of my door, (which will probably kill the plants, but hey, they aren't mine. The complex can deal with that.) and the crickets have still made it.

I will say, however, that the day I decided to go out there and spray, a cricket got into my apartment, and that cricket lost the battle of his attempted invasion. I'm sorry, PETA, but crickets are freaky.

If you have any cricket-repellent pointers, please, tell me. It's been a nightly issue for the last few days and it's getting old.