Multiple Ramblings

First ramble:
I just returned from the gym, yes I comment a lot about going, but when I don't do a lot, and the gym is one of the main consistencies, it's going to be commented on. Deal. I took last week off due to my need to have a mental/physical break so working out my legs today about killed me, as usual. Then, my trainer had the bright idea to have me sit in the dry sauna for 30 minutes to sweat out the rest of the toxins in my body and to relax my spazzing muscles. So, 30 minutes later I emerged drenched and actually feeling a lot better. Only downside is I feel like I've laid out in the sun for hours and now I'm dehydrated and exhausted. Gonna sleep well tonight! :)

Second ramble: I've said it before, but grad school REALLY is kicking my butt this semester. I don't feel like I'm ever going to catch up on the reading and homework and it's only four weeks in to the semester. Sleep is something I require and need a lot of but it's not been a reality the past week so I'm sort of feeling like I could do without working right now. Too bad I have bills and needs that require me to work, so I continue to get up at 5:00 am and pretend to care.

While I was filling my water bottle with ice at work I decided I needed to rid myself of the negative attitude and focus on the positive (my mother would be so proud) aspects of work, so here is a list in random order of what I am grateful for at my job (my teaching job that is):

-there is an ice machine to fill my water bottle, ice pack, cooler, cup, plate, whatever I can find, with ice whenever I want

-the PTA pays for us teachers to have Olympus water in the office so I can fill my water bottle (after I've put the ice in) with lovely water that comes from the mountains to the East. I can also use the hot spout and cook my instant oatmeal for my breakfast, make myself hot chocolate, fill someone's coffee cup for them, see if pouring hot water in to a plant effects it, etc

-I have a document camera that sits on my desk and projects whatever image I have under the camera through the LCD projector on to the projector screen, such as my students starters, answer keys to assignments, notes, a book I'm reading to them so they follow along, a student's hand to see what the veins look like under the camera and what it looks like when you change the view to black/white or sepia

-That leads me to the next one: the LCD projector. This thing rocks! I can use the previously mentioned document camera, show images from my computer, even better show MOVIES that academically linked to the core of course and whatever else I feel the need to project

-my sound system that plays the sound of the movies throughout the classroom, the music I have on the internet or the music on my CD's. It's like my own little club (still working on getting permission to have a disco ball)

-the Bath & Body works hand soap and hand lotion placed in each of the faculty bathrooms

-the microwave in the library back room so I don't have to go downstairs to the faculty room and socialize

-the 'one minute' music that is played throughout the halls to let the students know they have one minute to get to class or they are tardy. It ranges from Sleeping Beauty to Miley Cyrus to AFI to the Bee Gee's (today's prominent choice).

-the teachers who dance in the hall when the music comes on adding laughter to the day and fear to the students as they aren't quite sure what to think about the teachers (whether they are cool or crazy)

-the students who make me laugh, such as the one today who told me he couldn't work because he had left his 'thinking pen' in his locker but he didn't have any hall passes so he wasn't allowed to go. He kept telling me his thinking pen was lonely and that the hall passes didn't need to be with the pen so I should allow him to go get both and then he could give me a pass. I just said 'nice try' and he every so often he'd sigh out loud and say "I just can't do it without the thinker!" He's going to try tomorrow to bring his thinking pen so he can be productive in class and not have to stay during lunch and work.

That's today's positive outlook regarding work. Tomorrow may be different; I'm working on about two more hours of homework. I may need some prayers, seriously.