welcome june!

i just came back from my morning workout at curves. i am nursing a cup of coffee as i wait for amy to wake up.

yesterday, we went to costco to pick up a few things for her to take home. i got my supply of soymilk, carrot juice and this naked green concoction that's supposed to be very good for you.

after costco i drove to white castle to introduce their soft square burgers to amy's palate. we were giggling as we pulled into the parking lot. harold and kumar? nah, it's jane and pilar go to white castle.

we head back to the apartment and went to a nearby county park to just sit in the grass, reminiscent of baker field, but not quite. talk. talk. talk.

dinner was garlic rice with sisig from tocino grill.

another talk marathon.

tonight we will see rilo kiley in the city.

weeeeeee.

(oh, i took a mental health day today, tee-hee)

another sunday morning

background music : middle of my life by sun 60

it has been a quiet weekend. mostly boring, but the calm and idleness is well-deserved given tomorrow will be the start of another school week.

our high school students are becoming more and more restless. more fights. more kids being sent to detention. less work from them, ladidadida.

yesterday afternoon i watched the film coach carter. it's one of those inspiring films. i got a bit teary eyed at one point. somehow the players on that basketball team reminded me of some of my students in our school basketball team. if only i can inspire and change them coach carter style.


chocnut and s both called me while i was at target yesterday. i feel comforted that given the latest news about work, they both encouraged me to move forward and give this teaching position for another year.

there must be reason why they want me to stay.

and as always, i look up to the sky and say "i don't know why, but i know You got my back on this."


it's june already. like my kids i am countind down the days 'til school is officially over.

tomorrow, my brother JP will celebrate his 31st birthday.

and pretty soon, i'll be 32.

maaaan.

in a pickle

background music : should i stay or should i go by the ramones


"don't be too good up there, they might not want to let you go."

i laughed off my former boss's remark and said, "yeah, right."

boy i did not know those words would be prophetic.

i found out yesterday that although there is a place for me back in my "home." the family in my new home are not really happy to let me go.

wow. in a way i feel loved.

so now i am in a quandary, hence the title of this post.

honestly i do not know what i am going to do. the hard-headed idealist in me wants to go back to my old home and get back to work. real hard work. back to 60 or more students. migraine-inducing checking of papers, hormonal pre-teens. and sometimes annoying parents. back to my color coded lesson plans, back to stand up comedy, back to stern li'l ol me who demands a student's shoe if he/she did not bring a pen to class and has to borrow from my stash. back to line writing when a student as much as say "shut up" in class.

the work in my new home is not bad at all. certainly easier, but a lot more stress dealing with special ed students. don't get me wrong, i love my students, especially my period 1 and 2 classes. but i yearn to teach and perform in class. i don't get to do that. it seems my primary job is to contain my students everyday for 50 minutes and prevent them from beating up each other.


of course i can always assert my preference to teach in my old home, but with the way things have been, me resigning and getting myself back in the fold, i guess i better play it by ear.

di na bale, survivor naman tayo.

ay mali, di pala survivor, winner, ateh!

a lesson on dating vocabulary

my first period class are all boys. they're a great bunch. they come in, they sit. they work. everyone's happy. in between work we talk about , oh stuff. the other day they were talking about, oh girls. and then for some reason the conversation got to lil ol' me. they found out that i live by myself.




student 1 : but why?

me : because.

student 1 : BUT WHY? are you single?

me : oh, i've been married before

the rest just shrugged and someone else said " oh, i was about to say... you can't be single all this time..."



back to today. in one of our read and talk mornings, the subject went to the shore.

student 2 says he can't wait to to go down the shore so he can watch girls. i told him there weren't a lot of girls yet on the boardwalk.



student 2 : how do you know?

me : because.

student 2 : HOW?

me : because i'm down the shore most weekends.

others: why?

me : (oops) uhm, (in my faintest voice possible) my boyfriend lives there?





commotion.

student 1 : but you said yesterday that you were single.

me : i am.

student 2 : yo, miss you can't be single and have a boyfriend.

me : why not?

student 1 : you're just not. why do you say you are single?

me : uhm, because i'm not married and i live by myself.

student 3 : that just means you're independent.

me: okay...

student 1 : you're not single.

me: okay.

student 1 : do you like him?

me : duh, i guess so.

student 3 : miss then you are not single.

me : alright.

student : you're not, okay?

me : OKAY. grrr.





gee, this is more annoying than friendster's : "it's complicated."





btw : i am blogging this from my classroom. sigh. why is it not 3 pm yet?

jane tamad

something's wrong with me.

since i got back from da shore, all i do after work is eat and sleep. i sleep at around 4pm and wake up the next morning, feeling hung over. no, no alchohol involved. my wine bottles and pilsner bottles are all untouched.

yesterday was the worst, after my afternoon lunch/dinner i lay down to read and when i woke up it was already 4:30.

ayayay.

i need jolt cola.

weekend round up

tandem biking was very enjoyable since i pretty much didn't do anything but sit on my ass and enjoy the ride. it was a beautiful sunday morning yesterday and we took full advantage of the weather to spend outdoors.

so the question is, did i learn how to ride the bike?

hmmm, not yet, but almost there.

after tandem biking for almost an hour on the boardwalk, we exchanged the tandem with a regular bike for my lessons

you see virginia, i am a very bratty student. luckily my instructor was very very patient with me.

Z : (excited) very good, you are doing it already.

me : ssshhhh. don't cheer me on. please be quiet.
Z : okay

after 1 1/2 hours of demo and attempts at making at least 20 meters of pedaling i said that's enough lesson for now.

Z agreed that it was enough for the first lesson.

yes virginia, i apologized for being a brat, and yes i've been nice since.


the rest of the afternoon we spent just hanging out and exchanging childhood stories.

i drove out at 5:30 am and got home by 8 today.


today, i met up with amy and pj. we went around soho for a little shopping and then had a quiet lunch at a neighborhood pub.





did some walking and talking. caught up wit amy. checked out some shops. went to sephora. noo-ni-noo-ni-noo. here's a picture with amyamy and i are sched to watch rilo kiley next week. yipee!oh.tomorrow is tuesday.back to work.sigh.

not giving in

it feels like almost a month that i've decided to kick the habit. well virginia, bad habit kicked me right back.

hard.

accordig to Z's handy-dandy hi-tech-i-have -no-idea-how-to-operate-this-thing-with-too-many-functions since i weighed last december 24, i gained 3.98 lbs. the only good news is that m body fat then was 41% and now it is down to 35.1%.

if anything, i have noticed that i can jog for longer periods now.i used to jog 1/2 a block and almost faint to exhaustion (like my lungs will explode). thesae days i can jog three full blocks easy peasy. fresh breath and clearer skin.

and to make sure i don't balloon back to my old self. i intend to:

1. stay away from the filipino bakery to stop any impulse to to buy pandan mamon.

2. tell Z not to let me buy tiramisu everytime we pass by their local pastry shop.

3. walk for at least 15 minutes after my afternoon meal.

4. walk/jog to and from curves every moning (yes, all five mornings of the workweek)

5. always keep a pack of sugarless gum handy.

we plan to take advantage of the sunny weather and finally get me on a bike today.

i'll take a leisurely jog at the boardwalk in an hour.

enjoy your memorial day weekend!