Here we go again

Last year, I lost power on October 30th and didn’t get it back til Nov. 2nd. My boyfriend’s mother didn’t get it back until over a week later. We were cold, frustrated and poor (students don’t generally get paid sick days from their various jobs). 

This year, I’m at my grandpa’s and he has a fireplace but no gas stove. I have chicken (cooked) in the fridge and bread for maybe some sandwiches. I cooked up all the shrimp we had and made shrimp cocktail. I have some ramen soup (and a camp stove!). So I feel more prepared. I have a flashlight close to my bed. I have lots of knitting and I’ve charged all my devices. 

Lights keep flickering. I don’t “need” power so I try not to be upset when it goes out but it’s very frustrating. 

This is my recently finished Pogona. I loved knitting it, I may knit another. I have several projects in my head for this inevitable knitting time I have. I just started some pink socks.

Anyways, everyone stay safe, buckle up (figureatively please don’t get in a car right now!!!) and get ready for the storm!

Must get better for yarn

Still sick. I felt better monday and went to work… Then my mistake was not going to bed early and not drinking enough water/tea that day. I felt awful again by mid-day tuesday. Then, wednesday morning woke up with a fever and no voice. Went to the doctors, was told not to talk and not to work for a while. I am now armed with medication, both for the cold (antibiotics) and my allergies which are apparently making it worse.

I’m home again today for the second day in a row, and my plan is to stay up and active until about 1pm then try for a nap. Between now and then, I plan on drinking two teapots full of tea. Luckily I like tea.

I have been knitting – a lot. This Pogona I just started this weekend. It’s for a christmas present.

I think I might finish it tomorrow at this rate. I just washed my sweater I’m going to wear to Rhinebeck (no, I didn’t knit it just for rhinebeck but it needed a wash). I have to be better by Saturday and unless my voice magically comes back and I feel 100% I’m not going to work tomorrow. I need to think about what I’m going to dress my good friend Mullica in (whose coming with me but has not knitted a sweater yet), and wash that as well.

I’m thinking of baking some muffins for the morning breakfast on saturday. I’m basically sick of pumpkin. Any suggestions?

Sicksicksick

I went to work yesterday and I didn’t feel 100%. I left a bit weird and then during the day (what a day…) I noticed a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes and stuffy ears. Nothing that is a good sign. 

This is the view out of my window, and today, me and knitting and this view will be spending a lot of time together. I don’t normally get to sit in my room during daylight hours and today I’m taking advantage of it by watching the walking dead!

This is my scrappy hitchhiker! I love this pattern.

Now, for something completely different:

I moved in with my grandpa. (He’s doing a favor for me, not me for him, I had nowhere to live, and very suddenly)

He’s allegric to gluten (like, gets hives). I’m lactose intolerant (by varying degrees but generally stay away from cheese and milk. Yogurt and I are best friends, I’ve never had any problems with “real” yogurt).

Together, we cannot eat about 95% of my favorite things. Lucky for me, he’s very outgoing in the food department. I have plans for both Thai and Indian curries as well as some butternut squash, carrot and sweet potato soup that I think he will like.

Our meals normally center around a slow cooker. Thank god, I found one shortly after I moved in – it has been a life saver. I work teaching until 4pm, then go to the health center and work three or four more hours, so I’m rarely home before 7pm.  Even though prepping the dinner the night before is hard on me after coming home late already, it’s better than not having any dinner at all the next night!

Tonight: Beef stew.

Where to go from here?

Today, I found out I was not accepted in to Teach for America. I’m conflicted about it – my type-A, planning personality is now concerned about what I’m going to do next year. It seems I’m back where I started, unsure of what I’m doing in the summer (just like I was for this summer). I have trouble with the concept of “it will work out” and always have.

But I’ve also read a lot of negative commentary on the TFA – commentary that really resounds with me. Stuff about how the TFA program is set up for only a two year commitment – and should teaching be a career? Something that you come back to every year to show the students you are trying to teach consistency?

What stressed me the most I think was the fact that TFA apparently has contracts with school districts so in some cases, veteran teachers may be out of the job because of a TFAer. In my experience, this has not happened but I could see how it could (but don’t believe everything you read on the internet). I don’t think a first year teacher who has signed up for the experience would ever be a better teacher than even one who has taught a few years.

So here I am, back to no plans, substitute teaching and still contemplating what I’d like to do with my next ten years – my years as I see it to do whatever the f- I want – move, travel, pay off loans (not that I want to do that), and figure it out. 30s are the new 20s, right? Right.

(I’ll keep updating – going to apply for teacher residency programs, teaching abroad in Spain, etc. I do want to teach, somewhere full time, one day. Just not in Connecticut)

Careers (Or how I learned to stop worrying and accept my fate)

I really had great plans for this blog. It’s my grown-up blog, my blog about my actually real, honest to goodness, out of school on my own life.

That didn’t work out – at first, honestly because I wasn’t putting the time into it. I wasn’t following other bloggers, commenting, connecting, posting consistently about my two loves, knitting, and baking, as well as enough personal things to keep it somewhat grounded. Then, I just didn’t have any time. I was a substitute teacher and I worked as a tutor after school – which altogether made me entirely brain dead by Thursday (yet, still worked Friday…).

So, then summer hit. I thought I’d finally be able to pull myself together, find a “real” job to match my “real” grownup life. Still no such luck. Over the summer (and currently), I worked at a university health center doing research. Part-time, grant funded (go recession funds!). This is also not my real life – at least not how I thought it’d be. I worked there, and a summer camp located at a school which was fun but sadly, didn’t lead to more job opportunities there.

I know what I want to do. I straddle the two worlds, actually of my “ideal” career – research (I work in Health Info Tech research) and education (I’m substitute teacher!). My anthropology degree qualifies me to do research, and I now understand better the nuances of institutional research but there really aren’t any jobs in connecticut. There just aren’t. I’ve started look in Washington D.C. as well as the Bay Area of California. A lot of applications no bites yet.

I’m in stage 2 of 4 for the Teach for America application. I’ve read a lot of things both for and against the program and while I understand both sides, I believe for me, it’d be the best thing – work in a school in a low income community, possible learn more Spanish, and get my certification while getting my student loans paid off. I have the degree to work in research but not the credentials to work in education research. I will find out a week from now if I get into the “final day interview” and then I will find out where I possibly would be placed by November 15th. Wish me luck!