Saturday, December 20, 2008

All I Ever Wanted

There is no school (my 8 - 4 job) and no tutoring (my 4 - 8 job) for the next two weeks. I am on vacation, and as much as I hate being in school until the middle of June, I must say that I enjoy my long breaks. I have a large rolling crate, a big tupperware storage bin, and 3 filing baskets FULL of things that I have to deal with before January 5th. I have to revamp my math and reading programs to address the needs of myself and my students. I have a masters program that has been seriously neglected. And I have dogs who are so desperate for attention that we can't go outside without being attacked. Finally, I will have some time to address all of these things and more. I have plans to wrap presents as they come in (my overcrowded schedule kept me from Christmas shopping until about a week ago), knit a few scarves (a hobby I returned to this week during my snow-enforced free day on Thursday), and do a lot of sleeping in. It might be that I manage to do some more regular blogging, too, but I'm not making any promises. :)

Thursday, December 18, 2008

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Yesterday we had a snowstorm that would have even impressed some of my MN relatives (a little, at any rate). It snowed all day, leaving a thick layer of slush/snow/water/ice mixture covering our entire yard. This morning the sun came out long enough to burn off the layer of fog covering the whole world, then went back behind the gray woolen clouds. CalTrans currently has the main road closed to anyone without chains or snowtires starting just about where we are and going up into the mountains. A friend reported seeing several cars and an ambulance in the ditch last night as she drove home. I am trying to balance my intense guilt at missing school with a healthy concern for my own safety. Luckily, I have Mikey (my voice of reason) to weight in on the side of safety. We used Mikey's new video camera (a birthday present) to take footage, and turn a tiny bit of it into a YouTube video. It can be found by clicking here. While I doubt it will stick around long enough to make Christmas white, it was certainly exciting.