.... yawn .....

today was a full day.

in the am i had to sub in ap's first grade class. fortunately only long enough to take attendance. i don't know how they do it. i could never be a first grade teacher. so many kids in one room makes me nervous.

mrs. m. had a sub today. i was helping her out the whole morning. she didn't speak any spanish. i had to interpret some things. one thing in my job i am happy about - juan carlos can read now! at the end of august he didn't even know his letters. today he read out loud a page in their story. not that i had anything to do with his progress - i just helped him with his shortened list of spelling words.

another thing i like about my job right now is that for four dollars i get to go on the all-school field trip too! let's see... four dollars i lose for two hours of "work"... put that against what i make in two hours and it's not a loss. i think it may be fun. maybe. the whole school in one cine - is that possible?

i tutored two boys in physics today. TWO. and both times it was like the impossible tutoring hour. i felt like a dumbass with the one who is in honors physics - and unprepared and unprofessional with the other one. the first, C, my mom recommended me to him. she works at the high school... the community's tax dollars are not paying for me to tutor him, so i don't feel as much pressure. it's easier though to tutor him because they actually use math and have homework in his class. the other is a homebound student - has medical problems, not life-threatening, depending on how you look at it. anyhow, my resume had arrived in the office of the woman who organizes the homebound tutors, and fifty bucks and a sub certificate later, they assigned him to me. i must be one of the only tutors available to do physics. and they pay much better than i pay myself. i mean, tutoring through the high school i make twice as much per hour as i charge independently. time to change my rates, but only for new people.

you know, i did have interesting ideas this afternoon at work when i had nothing to do. should have escaped to the computer lab to type them before they leaked away...

for the past few weeks i have been sleeping with the tv on. it's because, even though through spite i am accustomed to sleeping in the middle of my queen-sized bed, i still like to have the illusion of some company. i don't know why i can fall asleep with the tv on and not with someone snoring in a bed next to mine. i guess tv is just generic noise, almost as uniform as CMB radiation when you think about it. it is predictable - how many times are the same plot lines repeated in as many different sitcoms? i used to do this when i was a kid; only then i slept with my closet light on and my door open and someone would turn it off after i'd fallen asleep. now, the door stays closed (so the damn cats don't get in), the closet stays closed (b/c i'm borderline obsessive-compulsive and if i don't keep it closed every night something bad will happen, or i'm still scared aliens may come out of there), and nobody comes in my room. everyone sleeps with their door closed, except my sister "so the cats can get their food." i can stand that girl less and less since london. maybe it is the cats thing - she complains when i laugh out loud at conan o'brien (yes, with my door closed, he's that funny) but does nothing within her control to not hear me (she could close her damn door but says that it must stay open b/c of the cats). or maybe b/c she's not going back to school next semester and is probably betting she will be married before she has to live on her own or - god forbid - do her own laundry.

well that's enough nonsense for now. i am trying to keep bitchy-me at bay but she keeps popping up her firey red head. i owe my mom 27 dollars, and offered to pay her in form of a pedicure (going tomorrow, have to dress nice on friday). i hope sedatives will not be necessary to keep her (bitchy-me) away for the afternoon.