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Amber_in_paris
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Name: Amber
Country: United States
Metro: Houston
Gender: Female
Interests: Reading, writing, France, rock climbing, dancing (of any kind), bike riding, libraries, lilacs, pink umbrellas, stuffed animals, real animals, fluffy pillows, not being too hot or too cold in so-called climate controlled buildings, baguette with sweet butter and jam, Earl Grey, Red, and Chocolate teas for breakfast, dark chocolate, baking, watching the food network, a good soccor match, playing the piano occassionally, singing, really big mugs that look like bowls, '50's dresses, traveling, sewing every now and then, oil pastels, riding the metro in Paris, apples, daffodils creeping up through a February snow.
Expertise: France, American literature, reading, and getting stomach viruses in foreign countries
Occupation: Bookseller
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
1/6/2006
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| Happy Thanksgiving. It didn't really feel like Thanksgiving this year. I'm not the only one who thought so. Maybe it was due to the abnormally warm weather. I don't know. Whatever it is, I feel like the holiday season is being forced on me this year more than any other year. Commercials annoy me. Kohls is open at 4am tomorrow morning....what selfish CEO would make his/her employees get up that early? SCROOGE. - By the way, the 1984 version of A Christmas Carol with George C. Scott is really good. - Seriously, I think materialism is killing the holiday spirit. How can you "give the perfect gift" this year, if you gave it last year? (And you know it was the perfect gift because they told you so.) It's depressing. Maybe I've just been watching too much tv lately, much more than in years past, but if tv reflects the average American's view of Christmas, then we're all doomed. It's superfluous, and after a while no one is going to want to keep it up. The only thing that keeps Thanksgiving alive in American culture is football, and the only thing that keeps Christmas alive is presents. One day, neither of those will be enough. I love Christmas, and Thanksgiving too, and I hate to see them trampled on and desecrated by pop culture. Besides, I don't think people really get up at 4am on the day after Thanksgiving to buy Christmas presents for other people. I think they get up to buy things for themselves. | | |
| This just in....breaking news....cool weather arrived in Houston over Tuesday night and has persisted through the afternoon. Finally! After months and months of pretending it was cold outside by drinking hot beverages inside, and just ending up being really hot, reality has caught up to me. | | |
| My work computer's name is Garrett. It is! It says, "Turn off Garrett," next to the little power symbol on the login screen. This teaching job is driving me insane. I don't like 14 year old boys. On the up side, I've never read so much in my life. I just finished an amazing book on education in Japan, and another book about a fifth grade teacher in LA who must be related to Superman for all the things he does with his students. Then there's Romeo and Juliet, Animal Farm, a couple short stories, a couple of Shakespeare's sonnets and several other miscellaneous poets. And most of that has been within the past week. All for research purposes, of course. I guess I feel like I'm staying ahead of the game this way. The more I know the better for us all, right? Or am I reading just to keep my sanity? Or is the incessant reading the thing that is driving me insane? Nah. Has to be one of the other two. | | |
| For those who might need clarification. The two boys I teach are home-schooled, and the "why" of it is a long story. They've been home-schooled for a while and are only two of thirteen children, most of whom are now teenagers. They asked if I would supervise the two boys, especially their language work, but supervising became teaching, and I think one of the girls is going to start coming one or two days a week. It's fun, but I am really tired. Yesterday after work I accidentally ran a red light, dropped a package of sushi that spilled all over the floor in HEB, then went to the doctor and said, "Thank you!" to the nurse right after she gave me an allergy shot.
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| Apparently I'm an eighth grade teacher. I don't know how this happened. One day I was writing business letters and doing grunt work for a campaign; the next I was standing in an office with two of my bosses pre-teen boys, trying to scrub dry erase marker off my hands while teaching them that apostrophes are not used to make plurals. Apparently this will be my job for at least until next summer. I've even developed a trial system of rewards and consequences and planned projects for each of them, and I'm going to have to do my own mock project complete with illustrations as an example of what to do and to give me some idea of how much time to give them to complete those projects. Whew.
On the bright side, it's Monday, and Mondays are my favorite day of the (work) week. Why? Because it's the one day of the week I don't feel exhausted, and so there's a better chance of me enjoying what I do.
Side note: I think I found a church: Christ the King PCA. I wasn't sure it was possible to want to be invovled in a church without feeling guilty or obligated. I must be learning the true Biblical meaning of the word "compelled."
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