I'm Your Mr. Goodbar

"In the royal galley of divine Love, there is no galley slave: all rowers are volunteers..."

WEEK 1: It has been one heck of a week at work. The whole transitioning from teacher to teacher is finally over. The kids are juss trying to adapt to someone new, new personality, new set of rules etc. Its been a little rough on them but I think they're getting the hang of it. For the kids I work with they need routine, otherwise if they dont get it then its all over for them. THough its been challenging, dealing with the small behavior problems, and errthang else. For the most part I like the new teacher they hired. We seem to get along real well, she's easy to work with and asks for input. Ive been putting in a lot of extra time at work juss trying to make sure she's got the hang of errthang. Im juss glad all this madness is finally over and I can have someone permanent to work with.

CARE: At work they're implementating this new behavior rewards program. Its called C.A.R.E. courteous, aware, responsible, eager are wha the letters stand for. Challenging the students to be courteous to others inside and outside the classroom, aware of their surroundings of whas going on, responsible for their actions, and eager/willing to learn. The program was made to try and eliminate behavior problems and reward students for doing well. Each time a student is caught doing something that shows 'c.a.r.e.' they receive this card. The student will put their name and number on it then give it to their teacher. The teacher will then drop the card into a raffle and each week a student's name is called from upper and primary grades. When a studetns name is called they receive a prize from a raffle. On a bigger scale, once a month the students who have no 'minor or major' behavior problems get to participate in fun friday. A once a month activity day where those who have been doing well will get to participate in using new PE equipment. Those who cannot participate will go to a classroom on a lesson using good manners. It should be interesting to see how the children will respond. They seem excited though, which is good!

TWO INTVWS: The two intervews I had the past few days went well. The first one at the rectory I think went pretty well. Karen's a pretty down to earth person, knows wha she wants done but gives you the resources and the tools to help you. The city of cypress one was real interesting. The pay sucks, actually the whole job seems crappy, but Im juss curious to see if I'll get hired. Not to sound boastful but for the experience Ive had working in recreation and after skool programs, Im sooo worth more then $8 something an hour, thas for sure. The city of cypress was only going to start me off at $8 something maxing out at $10 something. I left making more then $10 at stanton! The position is for a rec leader to take over a pre skool program, I'd implement lesson plans and actually teach the program twice a week. I did pretty well answering all their questions. The only thing I regret is not bringing w/me some of the pictures I had taken over the summer from fern street. Turning a summer a program from nothing into sometthing and making a unforgettable summer for those kids. We'll see what happens, Im hoping I get at least one of the two.

TRAFFIC SKOOL: One thing for sure traffic skool sucks! I almost died in there, spending 8 hrs. sitting in one chair listening ot one person talk throughout the whole day! Not my wway of spending a saturday morning/afternoon thas fo sure. Note to self, be more aware of your surroundings when drivng and learn to take your time. Its not worth going back to traffic skool again! However, I must admit the instructor I had was pretty funny. He's a improv comedian that teaches traffic skool as well as subsitutes in the LAUSD on the weekdays. He made the class funny, which helped out a lot. There were so many times where I was falling asleep but woke up before he noticed me. My eyes felt like bags this morning, Thank God its over now!

IN LIVING COLOR: Remember that show in living color? ha Thas when you know youre from the 90's! That show was classic, it would always come on channel 11 on sun. evening at like 9pm. Sometimes I couldnt watch it cuz I'd have to go bed cuz of skool the next day. Man thas ol skool where you had all the comedians come from there. The wayans brothers, jamie foxx, jim carrey etc. Then you had the fly girls who wore the funkiest coustumes, that you knew were from the 90's. Geez, thas when you know you're old is when you can remember the early 90's. ha

BJS NITE: Thursday nite was crazy, walking from holy fam to bjs was quite the adventure thas for sure. Yeah it was a little far to walk, but it was cool, something different. A way to enjoy the different creation God has made. So it was joanne, mel, and I doing this whole exercise thing, praying and well some wha singing. No one believed it at first but we did it alright. Then that nite was I thikn exactly wha I needed after a long week. The evening ended different then I had anticipated ha but thas alright, I was cool the next day. Nothing like a good happy hour and good company after a tiring week.

A TOUR: I took my thurs. nite class on a tour of the church, showing them exactly whas inside a a catholic church. It was pretty interesting, to see somem of their reaction. It was a great way to help them and me appreciate the richness of our catholic faith. We went from the holy water all the way to blessed sacrament. Explained the signifiance and importance of the blessed sacrament. It was nice cuz they wanted a closer look of the tabernacle. So we walked up to stand right in front of it, and they were like whoaa. They were real entrigued by the whole story of the priest who doubted the true presence of Jesus in the eucharist.

Okay here's something I read that was real interesting...

LEARNED: It's ironic how protective we are of ourselves when the one thing we seem to collaboratively seek out is a gateway to sensitivity. Love is learned. You can't just leap into the heart of another person until you realize the brutal reality behind human nature. In rawness, our actions are highly motivated by our loyalty to the only person trully guaranteed to stick around...ourself...Is it wrong to simply love the things we take ownership over? We love our family because they're ours, we love our significant others because they're there, but once those ties are severed, are we still willing to do the things we once promised we would? Loyalty is an art form. The less we know about someone, the easier it is to respect them, and in the end, it's that dehumanizing quality that sets apart the people we hold high from the people we don't mind pushing aside. Perhaps that's why it gets so easy to hate ourselves sometimes. Eventually, there comes a point in our lives where it isn't okay to just sit back and let human nature guide our actions. True love comes with letting go of ideal expectations and being okay with those vulnerabilities you grow to be aware of. It comes with learning what you have to do to control the negative things you organically are. Love is faith...and faith is a process.

PAST IT: That game I was talking about on my phone I have? The one that I've become real obsessed with? Well I finally passed the game today at traffic skool ha Well during the luncch break I ended up passing it. However, I want to go to more stages but I have to dload the real version of the game or something like that. Its suppose to be on the nokia website, but being my phone isnt really out in the states yet, it's pretty impossible to find. Kawawa me, now I have to go through the old stages and pass them all again. THough its not as fun as completing it like you did the first time.

ROUGH NITES: I had the roughest nite trying to sleep. I woke up this morning really tempted to juss skip out on traffic skool this morning. I had one of those sleep paralysis nites, where Im stuck to my bed and I cant move or speak. Its pretty crazy and yet scary at the same time. After finally being able to get up, I walk into my living room and I trip out. I felt like there was some guy in my living room resting his face in his hands. I literally jumped and it startled me ha it must've been something I ate that had me trippin out last nite. So finally I get back to bed, and start praying the rosary cuz prior to that it felt like I was having some bizzare dreams. Finally I fall asleep waking up to the sound of my alarm at 615am. Man its dark outside taht early in the morning!


back to back meetings today crazy day

"In his arms he fell..."im done, im out God bless!