The One Where I Give a Life Update

Apologies for my very depressing post earlier in the week.  I’m glad I finally took the time to get how I’m feeling written down so I can make sure that I never feel that way again.  Plus, it’s a healthy reminder that life isn’t all unicorns and butterflies even though I wish it were. 

Anywho, despite the fact that I hate my current job location, life hasn’t been terrible living in Houston.  I’m actually really loving living here. 

Since I’ve been absent from my little ol blog for a few months I guess I should give a little update.  Forewarning, this is about to be the most random assortment of…..events? things? I dunno the right word but sorry if you get a tad confused.

Lets break it down by the missing months shall we?  Yes, lets.

November

This was not a very eventful month.  Thanksgiving was had and enjoyed, I made all the Thanksgiving Day pies and the only one that came out decent were the pecan pies.  I kinda sorta might have forgotten to put sugar in the pumpkin pie I made.  Whoops!  To quote my 5 year old cousin, “Kafween, this pie has no favor.” (And no I did not misspell flavor that’s exactly how he pronounces it and it’s adorable!

This is also the month that Jenny (my roommate, in case you’ve forgotten who she is) and I flew home together after Thanksgiving was over and she got stopped for having explosives pretty much all over her stuff.  It was pretty entertaining to watch.  She was searched……very thoroughly if you know what I mean.

Oh and I got bangs for like a hot second!  They’re gone now…but it was fun for a few weeks.

December

December was a mix of extreme happiness and extreme sadness. 

Lets go with the happy parts first.

One of my best friends from Disney now lives in Georgia with her fiancé.  And I am lucky enough to be in her wedding this October.  Well I haven’t seen her since we both moved to different states back in July and it was likely that I wouldn’t be seeing her until June or later of this year.  So her very thoughful fiancé pulled together the best surprise EVER!  He actually flew me to meet them in Orlando! And she had absolutely no idea I was coming.  She was pretty darn surprised when I showed up at the airport rather than the 17 year old male golf recruit she was led to believe they were picking up.

 We spent 3 fun filled days at the Most Magical Place on Earth.  It was heaven and exactly what I needed after having such a terrible school year so far. 

Now for the the sad part.

My sweet grandmother passed away.  She passed on December 23 (which just so happens to be my Grandfather’s, her husband, birthday).  It was a really rough Christmas to say the least.  But I know she’s now in heaven with her sisters, my other grandparents, and her husband.  I am so thankful that I got to know her for my 26 years.  She was the kindest, sweetest, funniest, most loveable woman in the entire world and she will be greatly missed by all of us. 

We had a really sweet and informal memorial service for her on January 17.  She was finally layed to rest beside the love of her life on the day they would have celebrated 65 years of marriage.

January

This month has been pretty good.  I had some Florida friends come into town the weekend of my grandmother’s memorial service so even though I had to leave to attend that, I still got to spend some time with them.  We went to dinner in Downtown Houston and to the Houston Aquarium. (I was not that impressed, even though I vaguely recall being really impressed with it when I was a freshman in high school.)  Still it was great seeing all of them!

I started to blog again (2 whole days! Go Me!)  and I may or may not be going on a second Match.com date this Saturday.  So you lucky readers will get yet another exciting edition of Online Dating: Episode 2 (you can read Episode 1 here).

I plan to use the last weekend in January to really get back into the swing of thing on le blog.  Future posts will include:

– Goals for 2015 (yes I know this should have been done January 1, but oh well)
-A fun red carpet look
-My best friends baby shower
– EuroTrip 2015 update
– Refurbishment of a cute vanity stool
– Book Reviews

I’m really excited about getting back in the blog world.  I’ve missed having a creative outlet.

So wish me luck on my date and I hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend! 🙂

Less Than Stellar

Where oh where did 2014 go?  And where oh where did I go?

I was on a hot streak at the beginning of the school year (read: back in October) and had fully intended to stick with a “I’m gonna blog this school year” attitude.  Unfortunatley this school year has been less than stellar.  And by less then stellar I mean it has been the worst school year in the history of school years.

Seriously I have miserable in my new job since about September.  Which is a very strange feeling for me because well, I’ve never hated a job before.  I’ve never wanted to quit a job before.  I’ve never gone home crying because of a job before. I’ve never complained so much about a job before. 

There are multiple reasons for feeling this way about my job. Mostly I think its because I unknowningly got a job with the worst middle school in our district. 

Here is what I’ve had to deal with on a daily basis:

1. Disrepectful 13 and 14 year olds.  Ok I remember being in 8th grade and I never dreamed of talking to one of my teachers the way some of my students talk to me.  I’ve been called just about every bad word there is.  (Not directly to my face, save for 1 or 2 times, but I’m not deaf as my students seem to think I am and I can hear every word they say). 

2.  8th graders are mean.  Story time.  I got bangs for a hot second back in like Oct or Nov.  Just wanted something a little different for a while.  So throughout the day I had students tell me some nice things but mostly it was, “MS!  What’d you do to your hair?” in a not so nice tone.  Fast forward to 7th period.  A students comes up to me and we have the following interaction:

Student:  Ms. Norris can I tell you something.
Me: Sure ______, go ahead.
Student: You know how everyone has been complimenting your hair and telling you look nice today.
Me: Yeah.
Student:  Well, they’re all lying.  Your hair actully looks really ugly.
Me: Shocked face and no words. 

I actually did have a lot of words to say to this student, mostly along the lines of how disrespectful and rude her was.  I think he did feel bad after he said it.  But still never in my life would I have dreamed of telling a teacher that.

3. Rough area of town.  My school is in a very ghetto area.  Again a fact I was not aware of when I took the job.  Most of my students come from pretty rough homes which I sympathize with 100%.  I think it takes a very special type of person to work with and be able to handle students who need as much extra help as the majority of these students do.  And I am just not one of them. (Sorry if that sounds a little selfish!)

 I do want to say that not all of my students are little terrors.  I have a few who have been absolute delights and have really helped me remember that teaching is what I want to do. It’s for those students that I’m able to get up in the morning and get to work, rather than do what I’ve been tempted to do since about week 3 and that’s quit.

Luckily for me, I had a great first year of teaching last year.  So I know it’s not the teaching profession that I dislike.  It’s simply my current work location.  And thank goodness there is a fairly easy fix to my current situation, which is…….get a new job.  I’ll be spending a portion of the Spring the way I spent last Spring, job hunting.

Because if there is one thing I’ve learned from teaching 8th grade this year, besides the fact that I’m pretty sure I dislike children between the ages of 12-14, it’s that you absolutely must love going to work everyday.  It makes getting up everyday so much easier.  Feeling your stomach drop down into your butt every morning on your commute to work because your job makes you feel anxious, stressed, and disappointed doe not. So if you learn nothing else from this post, learn this:  love your job and don’t settle until you find the one that makes you love getting up in the morning.

**Sorry for the lack of pictures in my post.  This is another way you can tell I dislike my job, I have like 2 pictures from the school year on Instagram.  Whereas last year I took like 5 a day.  The struggle is real y’all.  The struggle is real.