food, shoes and hair...

background music : mariah carey's cruise control

i finally sent the court papers in the mail today. let's hope the legal system speeds its way to settle and end this once and for all. (jane shakes her head at joffin knowing that this is only step 2 of the process, noo-ni-noo-ni-noo).

in other news, true to my intentions, i did do my culinary experiment on saturday. i busied myself in my tiny kitchen to whip up a pot of SEGEDYN GULAS, a czech stew made of pork, paprika, sauerkraut, milk and sour cream. this is one of czech boy's fave dishes. we actually ate this dish the last time we went to zlata praha.





i liked the texture and flavor of the dish, especially with the czech dumpling , knedliky. knedliky is similar in texture to the dough in our siopao, though the taste is very plain. kinda like our white rice. i didn't make the knedliky. that's a future project and surprise.

i added a special treat of authentic czech beer, the pilsner urquell. here's a picture of my humble creation.




and, what, virginia, was the verdict?

"busog!" says Z (one of the very few tagalog words that he knows)


i was very nervous as to how he would like it, considering this is my first venture into cooking his kind of food, but i must say he was appreciative. it's a great feeling for any cook to be praised for one's hard work no?

i told him that i need just 6 dishes more to cover the week and we're good to go.

i'm cooking up another pot of segedyn gulas to bring with me when i visit him this weekend.


in other news...

to celebrate my "being good" at not smoking, i bought a new pair of snazzy shoes. lookit.


aren't they precious?



i felt good while walking around with them shoes, though it seems like i was on top of a tall building wearing them. and man, did coming and going from one place to another take a loong time wearing those shoes. it's hard not to be cautious knowing i might get hurt and can be seriously humiliated if i trip in the hallways.

i did mention in my previous post that one should never cut her own bangs right? well whoopee-doo. here's proof of my mishap.



i look like i'm 12 again.

on the brigther side, at least i can still grow it back. for now, i'd have to settle for the cleopatra/baby china look until it grows back.


i can't wait for tomorrow. half day of school and looking forward to a sunny weekend, hopefully learning how to ride a bike? yes please!!!

nothing much

i can't believe the weekend is just around the corner.

last weekend, bruce and i visited Z and spent time just lounging and talking and talking. we visited a bicycle shop in his city and made inquiries about the tandem bike. Z is determined to teach me how to ride a bike before my 7th period boys beat him to it. while looking at bikes, the obvious just got clearer : i am really short. really.

had a treat of tiramisu from one of their local patisserie. the only tiramisu that can top this is moonshine's own creation which i have yet to taste (hint hint, my birthday's coming up)

had some of the spiciest buffalo wings i've encountered. my lips went angelina jolie-esque.

that like cinderella, i should head back home at a certain hour. night driving is really not for me.

the patch is doing its job, and with my posse behind me, i feel my fight against the deadly puff is getting easier every day.

i should never cut my bangs by myself.

i should get an inexpensive guitar tuner soon.

the moldy peaches' anyone else but you is my fave song of late.

lubsi is coming to town.

bipolar burr is also coming to town.

i will experiment in my kitchen and whip up segedyn gulas to treat Z.

i will eat one serving of yoghurt daily.

prune juice is the bomb.

fresh

i dunno what's with me lately, but since the patch, i've become more irritable and dead on serious when in comes to discipline.

i was telling off one of my boys and i was about to send him out of my classroom. my door was half open when some jack ass decides he wants a piece of the action and yells "SHUT UP!" at me at the top of his lungs as he strode by my hallway. when i turned to see who the culprit was, he ducked and ran for his life.

see virginia, the thing with teaching in the ed box is, my boys got my back. it's an unspoken rule that in the classroom, it is "alright" if they give me problems, but if someone outside of the class gives me a headache, they got my back.

by the end of the day i got the "boy's" name. "boy" is 17 and still a freshman (for the past three years). the next day, i pulled out his file from our database, tracked his schedule to serve him his lunch detention notice. i thought i saw him in the hallway, so i asked if indeed he was so and so. he said no. i said sorry for the mistake but i had the suspicion it was him. with the help of another teacher, who identified him, i served him his detention notice. boy went ballistic acting like a 6 year old having a temper tantrum.

boy : i ain't serving no damn lunch detention with you!"
me : what's the matter? well, when you shouted shut up, it was clear you wanted my attention. you're gonna have my complete attention now, all 25 minutes of it.
boy : it's my lunch time now, i'm gonna go get my lunch first.
me : no, you'll get lunch after your detention. lunchroom's not going anywhere.
(meantime, a couple of my kids already worked out a plan to look out for him in case he tries to hide)
boy : (mutters to himself) damn this shit...
me : noo-ni-noo-ni-noo.

boy sits in my classroom giving me killer looks

me: what's wrong with your eyes? better see an eye doctor for that.
boy : nothing's wrong with my eyes. what you talking about?
me : suits me just fine, you looking at me like that as long as you keep looking at me like that for the whole 25 minutes.
(boys looks away while i put on my mp3 player and busied myself tidying my desk)

a few of my boys "drop by" to say hello to him laughing at boy who got caught.

one of my boys, the "captain" of the group snickered and told him

"that's what you get for messin with our teachuh, n---- she's OG!"

TGIS

background music : cruel to be kind by letters to cleo

this week has been pretty back to normal. normal with all the little chaos in the classroom. no fistfights, more of word play. my "kids" are very restless and lazy. yep, pretty much normal into the last several weeks of school.

while my students already have summer in mind, i am just starting to teach them, as in really teach them. my freshmen classes are delving into the world of conflict in fiction. we're tackling romeo and juliet next week. as for my sophomore class, we're well under way finishing august wilson's play "fences."

the patch is still on. i just noted that every time i put it on my right arm i get sick. so it's on my tummy these days. again my kids have been on a vigilant watch. first week has been very good. i hope next week becomes even better.


my big childhood secret is out. all my kids know that i do not know how to ride a bicycle. my seventh period class has taken it as their project to teach me how to tide a bike before school ends. i turned down the offer tell them i've got my own personal trainer waiting for me.

discipline issues in the classroom have mellowed. my boys have been noticing i've been fresh with them lately. "you a'ight, ms. a, you've got them silent jokes." hah, if these kids only know how i was with my high school kids back in rural, they'd know what i've been giving them is nothing but a taste. i've been branded OG (old gangsta) and "you, mah nigga" by these kids, and trust me, in our world, that is something good, actually.

i have mixed feelings about leaving or staying at the high school. the OC side of me wants to go back to the middle school and take my game back. back to the structured "real" teaching stuff. the other part of me would miss the age group, and the sense of humor of the kids, not to mention the maturity of the literary materials i can explore in my classes. i will be patient and see what lies ahead for me.

yesterday my friends K, S and D and i went to a local resto/bar to celebrate our own payday friday. i had a lot of fun and i have come to the conclusion that my alcohol limit is indeed very limited. 2 drinks, that's it. i haven't even made it through my first drink and i was already BUZZED. thank goodness for my ADHD bladder, i pissed all of it away in 3 hours time. the funny thing was,when S and i went out to get something in her car, we met two tables of teachers from the 2 other schools from our district, celebrating payday friday also. heck, a week with our kids sure will send you celebrating the weekend just like we did.

today, bruce and i are off to see Z. noo-ni-noo-ni-noo.

noo-ni-noo-ni-noo

i'm one of those people who get a kick out of wordplay and ambiguous signage. on our day trip to nassau, we chanced upon this sign nearby a fort and i couldn't resist taking a snapshot...
come on now, what do you think of this?

my new guilty pleasures

i did it. i bought mariah carey's new album. the "touch my body single" and video are both addictive and cute. a few reviews i've read on the mags also made me take the plunge and buy mimi's cd.

never was a fan. my friend joycee liked her. lubs loves her. it took me quite a while to warm up to her, her being a diva and all. but the cd was worth the money.

oh and i also have alicia key's new album. that bought me bonus points from my kids. yesterday morning we were all crooning to her "teenage love affair" track on the top of our lungs, with my boys doing back up dancing. hilarious, i tell you.

just saw atonement on dvd and now i have this huge crush on james mcavoy.
i first noticed him on becoming jane. such a cutie! i guess i have a weakness for actors who look like they smell good and that clean cut look. (swooning). i also noted that he was the satyr on the chronicles of narnia. oh well, that's okay the geekette in me just finds him even more adorable. sigh. i never had this huge crush on an actor since my christian slater daze. ha!
on kikayness, thumbs up for dove's energy glow body lotion. it's got a subtle self tanner. what? me, use a self tanning lotion? not on purpose. they used to have the one that has no self tanner, but with a nice shimmer, but i can't find it in most of the drugstores i've checked out. anyway for our cruise, dove's energy glow fair to medium variant did well on my skin.
i will not trade the bodyshop's body butter, but it's a bit pricier now for $20 a tub.

for hair breakage, check out pantene pro v's breakage defense shampoo and conditioner. after a few uses i've already notice fewer hair strands on my comb after a shower.

my next big splurge would be bare minerals make-up. my friends rinelle,fanny, and lubs all swear by it. hmmm. i'll put my cigarette money on this fund.

last but the least, target's champion line of sporting clothes for women are very fresh. scored me a pair of running shorts and a matching top, both for a total of $20. the color, black with fuschia stripes of course.

that's it pansit. lemme go shake it to mariah's cd now....

noo-ni-noo-ni-noo

patch up

it's a saturday afternoon and i haven't been out of my apartment to even see what's the temp outside. i have a massive headache, and now i know exactly what "throbbing" means.

because virginia, bad jane has decided to finally use the nicotine patch. yes, i am a guilty/semi closet smoker, and i would really really like to quit. i tried the nicotine gum and i almost threw up. this nasty headache and dizziness isn't much fun either.

well it is doing its job. what stupidass would smoke with a big headache anyway?

yesterday morning, one of my students noticed the patch (even though i made sure it was under the sleeve of my shirt). he blurted out that it must be a birth control patch.i denied it of course and it didn't take them long to figure out it's a nicotine patch.

the realization that hit them almost made me cry. he said he was disgusted by girls who smoke and that he was disappointed in me. another boy chimed in and said he would've never pegged me as a smoker, but he wishes that i would stop immediately.

i didn't even defend myself. they are right of course. i did tell them that at that point i would need their moral support than their reproach.

one of my boys gallantly defended me and told the two other to chill on bringing me down. we shook on it and made a promise that i would try my best to kick this habit and they would check up on me, and i am not supposed to lie.

man, if i had known, i could've save my money from the patch and bought a new pair of shoes instead.

ha.


but seriously dear reader, keep me in your prayers also.