1. Since I never made it known here on the blog, I figured now is as good a time as any to say that I signed the resignation papers at work almost two weeks ago now, so as of summer, I will officially be unemployed.
The funny thing is, I thought I’d be panicky and anxious and kept up at night worrying whether or not I’d done the right thing, but I’ve felt nothing but calm ever since. Guess that’s my sign that I’ve done the right thing, eh?
(And to say that I CANNOT WAIT would be the biggest understatement ever. I am literally counting down the days left until summer vacation…only 48 (work days) to go!)
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2. Here is a random fact for you–thanks to Matt’s work, I am starting to become an official “small animal photographer.” It all started when they wanted to hire someone relatively inexpensive to do some new photos for their product bags, and now I’ve literally got hundreds of images (that I’ve taken) on my computer of guinea pigs and chinchillas.
Oh, the places you’ll go, eh?
P. S. It’s too bad I didn’t take a video of one of our photo sessions early on in the process–watching two grown men furiously chase down a guinea pig while I sat there hugely pregnant with Raven trying to get a good shot while getting low to the ground is an event never to be forgotten.
3. I have a doctor’s appointment next week, and while I was super hopeful after my last session with him (when he told me I could go off the Prednisone steroid and that I might be able to start tapering off the Methotrexate medication after this March appointment), I’m no longer feeling so optimistic. Since going off gluten (more or less) back in December, I’d noticed drastic improvements in my skin to the point that it had *almost* fully healed…except for a small patch on my back that’s about the size of a silver dollar. Well, that patch hasn’t really gotten better, and in fact, it might even currently be worse than it was when he looked at it 3 months ago.
Goodbye, chances of being medication-free in a few weeks… (but who knows? Maybe he’ll surprise me at the appointment…)
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4. My students take their high-stakes end-of-year Common Core writing test next week, and I flip-flop between being super confident that they’re going to do awesome and then totally convinced that most are going to fail. Based on their written responses on the poetry test they took today, things are not looking good.
Luckily, the writing portion of the test seems to be graded *slightly* easier than how I grade, so at least they’ll have that going for them.
So stressful. (At least I won’t be around next year when they’re starting merit-based pay, where teachers’ salaries are tied to student test scores…)
5. Although I’m mostly used to eating gluten-free by now, I do sometimes miss the old carb favorites–cookies, bread, pizza–so I’ve tried branching out and actually trying out baking recipes using gluten-free recipes in the past week or two. You know what I’ve discovered? Gluten-free baking can be GROSS—apparently the way I’m doing it, everything that was once stellar and delicious and amazing is now just barely edible (and sometimes not even that, like the chocolate chip cookie recipe I tried).
Looks like if I have to stay with this gluten-free thing forever that I’d better start reading up on the science of how to make GF goods that are actually GOOD (because seriously, I might be ruined on cookie dough forever now after that last batch I made, and THAT’S saying something…). Anyone know any good hints?
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