Gaaaahhhh!

That's the sound of me coming up, gasping for air.

I'm a little exhausted and haven't made it home before 6pm since school opened.  Classes seem to be off to a good start, and I'm up to my eyeballs in wading thru file cabinets and book rooms of books, papers, documents, files, old technologies, trying to figure it all out.  Some of the papers I've found date to the early 80s, and some of the books go back to 1953.  I haven't found any bodies in the book room yet, but maybe I haven't looked thoroughly enough.  

It took me two hours to go thru all the DVDs in the department, sort them out and catalog them.  I haven't even touched the substantial VHS collection.  It has also taken me a ton of time to figure out exactly who is using what books at each level in each language.  Chasing that info wasn't easy, but I think I've got it sorted out.  It's been, um, interesting.  My days teaching 5 classes had a certain rhythm to them, and I haven't figured out this new schedule's rhythm yet.  It will fall into place eventually, so I'm not worried.  I'm just really tired, so tired sometimes that it physically hurts.  

Even though I'm getting home really late, I'm still managing to get in my 30 minutes of exercise most days.  I've been noshing on frosted blueberry pop tarts (they have tons of vitamin A!) in the morning, so I have to work it off somehow.  I think the stress level at school leaves me constantly hungry, and it's been a real battle to watch the calorie count--much easier in the summer.  At least the change in my job is making me move around the building, so I'm often running from the basement to the second floor a few times a day, and then of course trying to get from one end of the building to the complete opposite end to make lunch duty in time.  I have an elevator key to move my cart around, but I'm using the stairs the rest of the time.  I figure every little bit helps.  I have a healthy stash of snacks in my office, but the calories add up.  

Highlight of my day:  cleaned out a file cabinet and got permission to clear out the book room.  That might take me until June.... 

I'm doing ok dealing with my thyroidless brainlessness too--I have a clipboard with my daily to-do list.  It really is a feeling of accomplishment to cross stuff off as the day goes on!  It's helped a ton and I feel like I'm getting things done.  I haven't lost the clipboard yet.  I'm thinking that since I basically have my classroom stacked on a cart, it's harder for me to misplace stuff?  I'm loving the Husky tool bag too.  

However, I don't know if this is related or not, but I've noticed that I'm reversing letters a lot more than usual whey I type.  I'm a pretty decent typist and know the keyboard, so I'm baffled at this latest cognitive blip.  I figure it will pass like every other blip I've had?  Maybe my tingly left pinky and ring finger are adding to it? I'm used to making some mistakes, but this is getting ridiculous. 

Off to crash.  The weekend should be fun since Sis is coming home so we can go to a surprise retirement party for a family friend--we were told that we had to go since my parents aren't able to be here.  It promises to be a good time. 

Oh--and, Ireland rugby beat Australia! Woo hoo! 

Happy New Year!

Crazy crazy crazy few days here!

Happy New Year!  The 2011-12 school year is off to a roaring start, and I'm barely able to keep up.  I'm logging 10-12 hour days so far and keeping a large to-do list on a clipboard that I'm trying very hard no to misplace during my zipping all over the building throughout the day.  I have a cart to roll my stuff around on thru the halls and so far have not mowed down any sixies (7th graders, the little guys, running bewildered all around the building with me) as I move from my kind of cool basement office to the classrooms on other floors that I have to invade twice a day.

Great Husky tool bag I bought at Home Depot to organize all my desk stuff!  

I can carry everything with me and keep it on my cart at the same time...anything to keep me organized...

Whew!  My classes seem fine, but I haven't shell-shocked them yet with all Spanish, all the time.  That's coming soon.  I have larger blocks of time when I'm not teaching to do other stuff, like read about using data to inform your teaching practice,  and brushing up on exactly what the state standards say, and looking for ideas for the new teachers that I'm supposed to mentor once a rotation.  The larger blocks of time tend to fly, and before I know it I have to pack the cart to get moving again.  And I have lunch duty.  It is amazing to watch 800 kids come streaming into the dining hall, line up, inhale their lunches and be on their way again 22 minutes later.  Sustained controlled chaos for 22 minutes, and then it's over.  I haven't figured out a rhythm to my day yet, and it's keeping me slightly off-kilter.  It will get better I hope.

So, not much blogging lately, but I'll try to work it in occasionally.  Energy level crashed a little last week, but picked up again off and on.  So damn frustrating that it won't stay stable.  This week I'm so tired at times that it physically hurts.  Off to dreamland now...what should I wear tomorrow?

I forgot to mention that I turned 43 on 9/11--Happy Birthday to me!  It was a nice weekend with Sis and Mr. Wonderful, but the 10th anniversary brought me right back to the actual 9/11 events, and made me not really want to celebrate much.  It was low key, but full of great food--BBQ at Redbones, a full Irish breakfast and pint at the Kinsale, and two cakes from Patsy's!  I'll have to pedal for hours to work that off!

Happy Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month!

Or Happy *&;^%$ September, summer is almost over.

It is also thyroid cancer awareness month (why September?).  Gena Lee Nolin is doing a great job on Facebook, constantly posting info via her Thyroid Sexy page/link/thingy.  She isn't focused on thyca, but she does have tons of info out there on Hashimoto's, diet, meds, and other things related to life with/without a thyroid.

It's officially Labor Day Weekend, and I can hear the 2011-2012 school year breathing down my neck, rapidly approaching to turn my world upside down again.

But I will squeeze as much as I can out of the next 72 hours or so!  I'm in NH hanging out with Sis after a few days roaming around northern NH and ME with Mr. Wonderful.  We went up the Mount Washington Auto Road--never done that before!  I think I really do have an irrational fear of heights sometimes, but the drive and views were breathtaking.  I  had a death grip on anything I could hold on to--it was a little unnerving with no guard rails.  We were even up higher than a helicopter flying over the valley below.  We couldn't see much at the top since we were in the clouds, but it was so cool to finally go up there.  Don't know why I haven't done it until now.... we also scoped out used book stores, outlets and remote roads thru tiny towns.  Saw lots of flood damage from Irene too.  So quality time with Mr. W, and a couple of days with Sis at the lake...pretty good way to end Summer 2011.

Energy level dipped again after a couple of great weeks, but it's manageable.  I'm still getting in my almost daily workouts, and my blood pressure is hovering in the 110/teens over 60s--is that too low now?  Maybe that's contributing to why I'm tired.  But the exercising has now turned into something I miss if I don't do it for a few days.  During our rambles through Maine, we stayed at a Comfort Inn.  Last night I had baked stuffed sole for dinner, not a bad option until I saw it was swimming (drowning actually) in Hollandaise sauce. Tasted great, but not exactly as healthy as I thought.   This morning, I actually woke up before Mr. W, and with the image in my mind of the stick of butter that was probably in the sauce, I got up and went to the little fitness center in the hotel, got my ass on the treadmill and walked for 35 minutes.  I WAS ON A FREAKING TREADMILL BEFORE I ATE BREAKFAST, BEFORE 8am.  So not me!  But it felt really good....and I'm a little proud of myself.  When Sis saw me after a few weeks of not seeing me, she noticed right off that my face had thinned out.  Both she and Mr. W told me that I had been looking "puffy".  When I look at pictures from the end of the school year, ugh.  Yes, puffy is a really good word to describe it.  I just wish someone had told me when I had crossed into the puffy zone. At least I can feel some of my clothes getting looser.  I'll walk tomorrow too.  I have a playlist on my iPod for walking, and if I keep up with the music for the whole time, I can work up quite a sweat.  The hills around here will make it harder but will burn more calories so I can indulge in some Phu Jee's Chinese food and ice cream, though not necessarily together.

I haven't been writing much either since I spent most of August fixing up my condo for rental, and I am now happily relieved to say I have a friend renting it, and all of our stuff is out of there, with the exception of a piano.  I have to figure out how to get rid of a piano.  I also spent a week in RI with Mr. Wonderful's family (or almost a week) and had great time at a beautiful house on the water.   I went in to school to work some more on my office too, and have done some prep work at home to get ready for my classes. I have the first 6 weeks or so mapped out, and have a pretty good idea how the rest of the year will go.  At least I think I do--it will probably come undone by day 3!

Off to bed.  Happy Labor Day Weekend, and don't forget to check your neck and thyca.org!