So Can You

Anytime I'm nervous or unsure about doing something "hard" (like getting my Master's), I remind myself of all the dumb people I know who have already done it.  If they could do it, so can you, I tell myself.

Generally, this pep talk works and whatever I was anxious about doesn't turn out to be as hard as I'd thought.  This is NOT the case with student teaching.  I'm struggling hard and all the reminders aren't making me feel any better.. in fact, they're beginning to make me wonder if those dummies (and all those awful teachers) were secretly smarter than I am.

Oh Tuesday..

Status Report

Vacaaaaaaation! This week is midwinter recess and hoolordy, it couldn't have come sooner.  I was feeling like I was JUST making it day to day at school and we had a drama explosion last week, so it's a necessary break for everyone.  I'm in St. Louis for the week, hanging out with Boyfriend and Neko, pretending to do homework (and hopefully meeting up with Stacy!).

In addition to playing the Sims for hours on end, I've been embarking on many baking adventures and doing a lot of vegan research.  Without getting into the reasons that I'm currently vegetarian, I'm the kind of person who worries about feral and stray animals when the weather gets bad, so it's a pretty natural decision.

I've been talking with Jessica a lot lately about her own transition to veganism, and I've decided to make the move slowly; I don't have a dairy allergy like Jess does, so I can afford to take my time.  I've already begun replacing my health and beauty products with cruelty-free, vegan versions (goodbye, $2 shampoo!) and I'm also working on cutting back on dairy.  Last night I made vegan mac & cheese and was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked it (I think Boyfriend even liked it too!); the vegan cheese I've had in the past has been pretty terrible, but this was rich and creamy and melty.

Besides the obvious benefits for animals and the Earth, I'm also hoping that a shift to veganism will help me eat more vegetables.  I'm a regular ol' vegetable hater, so I'm gonna do this the old fashioned way - exposure therapy.  I'm taking on one vegetable at a time, starting with my most hated: broccoli.  (Onions are actually my #1 Most Hated, but I'm just not ready for that yet!)  Does anyone have any foolproof broccoli recipes to convince me of their deliciousness?

In other news - J.Biebs got a hairscut and he still looks like a lesbian.

Aaaand moving on, I'm officially halfway through my first student teaching placement.  After vacation, I'll only have 3 weeks left!  It feels like I just started, in so many different ways - I feel like I haven't gotten the chance to actually teach anything yet, but I hope that's a result of all the learning that I've been doing.  Student teaching is a huge reality check; I've spent three semesters writing lesson plans for the perfect students that I teach in my imagination and it's been a hard adjustment to "real" students.  I really hope that I'm not messing up too terribly in my first placement; I know the second will be better. :]

What've you been up to, Internet?  What's the weather like where you are?

Quarter Life Crisis

I'd be lying if I said that, at less-than-a-month-shy-of-26, this was my first quarter life crisis.  I'm probably on about three or four.  At least.

The Problem: I'm 3 months away from my Master's in education and I don't want to be a teacher.  Or maybe I do, but not today.  Today I just want to do something fun and pretty.  Something that won't leave me feeling totally defeated and drained at the end of the week.  Something that, at the very least, I don't dread.

The Cause: I had my first observation today.  And my supervisor talked down to me and told me I had it All Wrong and that I need to spend the weekend Making It Right.  I'm not saying that I felt awesome about student teaching before this, because I didn't.  But I was making it.  Now I just want to throw in the towel, 2009-style.

The Solution: To be honest, I'm not really sure.  My short-term solution is to eat Doritos and watch last night's Vampire Diaries in bed.  Hopefully I'll wake up tomorrow with my game face on and just do the damn thing.  Or maybe I'll need to eat croutons and watch Easy A in bed.  idk, idk.

Tell me about your impending, current, or past quarter life crisis.  Any advice for those of us in the thick of it?

Stream of Consciousness

I've been a baaaad blogger.  Not sure that I've been a much better teacher.  This has been one of those weeks when everyone is grumpy and out of sorts.  I yelled on Wednesday.  No.  Not yelled.  I YELLED.  Ugh. :(

I got my loan refund check and have been furiously buying more ~teaching~ clothes.  My Crocs arrived on Tuesday but they were way too big.  I ordered a full size smaller, as per the reviews, but it turns out I should have ordered TWO sizes smaller.  They felt pretty comfy, though.  I also bought some fly jewels at F21, boots at Old Navy, cute shirts from Loft, and finally finally finally found good khakis at Target.  I'm easy to please.

Here I am showing off my jewels (and looking skeptical of the second pair of earrings):

Leaf hinged bracelet.

I guess I like leaves..?

I'd return these if F21's return policy weren't so awful. Any takers?

Oh yeah, and I had straight hair for a minute.

Not sure when/why my tshirt became a turtleneck.

Student teaching has turned me into even more of a grandma than I was before: it's my bedtime.  Will finally post my What I Ate tomorrow.  In the meantime, I've gotta get my beauty sleep.

Teacher Shoes

So much for those pictures I said I was going to take.. Monday is a new week. I'll be better.

The hardest part of student teaching so far is the standing-all-day bit.  I wore flats on my first day without taking into account that they didn't have ANY support.  I died.  And then I wore sneakers for the rest of the week.  But sneakers aren't that cute, so I finally gave in to the fact that I'll need Teacher Shoes.  Not tryna be rude, but real Teacher Shoes are fug.  Think clunky Mary Janes and Danskos...

Sorry but no. I'm sure they're comfy as hale, but that sh!t is just not me. Plus I am committed to the idea of being a hot teacher. So I appealed to the Internet for help finding cute shoes with support, please! And like magic: Crocs. Don't get ahead of me - Crocs make plenty of cute shoes and here is the proof:

I bought these - they look like regular flats, yes?
The reviews say they feel like slippers. Sign me up.

Ruffles? I'll take them.

Preppy AND cute!

I love boots! These are next on my list.

Should my Crocs not work out, I got plenty of other great suggestions - Dr. Scholl's (duh), Cole Haan, Clarks, Toms (not so sure about the support in Toms..), Børn, Tory Burch (who knew!). Unfortunately, NONE of these are cheap shoes.. my Crocs were pretty inexpensive so I've got my fingers crossed.

What kind of shoes do you wear to work?

Day 1

Phew. I made it!

My first day of student teaching was pretty good - I don't take over teaching till next Monday - but it was TIRING! I blame my exhaustion on a combination of three things: my anticipation, standing all day, and no lunch. I packed a salad, an apple, and a Larabar, but when lunchtime rolled around, my host teacher pulled out a piece of candy.. and that's it! I felt awkward about spreading out my delicious lunch (and there were only two more periods till the end of school) so I just ate my apple. This of course resulted in a full out BINGE once I got home. Must work on that.

I made overnight oats for breakfast and hoolordy, they were amazing.  I used equal parts oatmeal, vanilla yogurt, and skim milk, and added cinnamon to soak overnight; this morning they were a little too wet for my liking, so I'll adjust the ratio tonight.  Any other overnight oats eaters out there?  What ratio do you use?

I'm pretty excited to start teaching; the kids are SO goofy and funny.  I've got a lot of work to do on my lesson plans, though - I was wayyy too ambitious!  No work tonight - just rest. :)  Tomorrow I'll think about taking some pictures for the Internet.

P.S. Can we please talk about how AMAZING and ADDICTIVE Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Stars are?  Somebody stop me.

P.S.

Tomorrow is NOT ONLY the first day of student teaching, but also the first day of my very own self-proclaimed Change Your Life Challenge! ;) I've been a bump on a log lately and since student teaching will give me a lot more structure, I'm starting a DIET. (Not a crazy no-carbs type of diet.. just a healthier pattern of eating).  I'm pretty excited..?  Will report back.

On a related side note, my Twitter is locked for the next few months - student teaching & job hunting - which is kind of lame, but just request to follow! I promise I'll let you in.. my life isn't THAT top-secret.

TiLT #13

♥ First things first: FINISHING THE SEMESTER! ♥ Mani/pedis ♥ Gala's Ultimate Playgirl Gift Guide (shame she didn't post this a month ago - sooo many additions to my wishlist!) ♥ Lip gloss ♥ My grad friends! ♥ Diet Dr. Pepper ♥ Off-street parking ♥ Wegmans' naturals section ♥ HTC's Droid Incredible (f'real.. it saved my a$$ on my video project) ♥ Obsessing over my Netflix queue (I might be 12 years old) ♥ Reading for pleasure ♥ The knitting project I've been working on since 2008.. when I learned how to knit :oops: ♥ My favorite F+tM song this week ♥ A good night's sleep ♥ Sephora samples ♥ Christmas cards ♥ Starbucks peppermint mocha ♥ Kiss My Face olive oil soap ♥ Compulsive post-semester cleaning & purging ♥ Google Chrome for Mac ♥ Snow ♥ Tomato soup ♥ Twitter conversations ♥ NOT talking on the phone ♥ Catching up on Boardwalk Empire ♥ Warm mist humidifiers ♥ Borrowing books from friends, professors, etc. (it's like the library without fines) ♥ Holiday themed anything ♥ Boyfriend in one week ♥ Being in law school vicariously (ask me about torts!) ♥ Serendipity Peppermint syrup ♥ Christmas tree smell ♥ Tori Amos' "Winter" ♥ Cats (no, not the musical) ♥ Optimism over realism ♥ Throwback jams - Saosin? Cursive? Meiko? Yes, yes, yes! ♥ The Help by Kathryn Stockett ♥ Having health insurance come January 1st ♥ Ryan Reynolds (dibs) ♥

Phew! What a week. And it's only Thursday..! But I've got a wonderful, relaxing day planned: a mani/pedi, catching up with an old friend, and a hairs cut. I never make the time to do these things during the semester. How do you relax?
An unrelated question: are you a spender or a saver? If you're not naturally a saver, how do you make yourself save? If you're a saver, what kinds of things are you willing to splurge on? I spent wayyy too much on Christmas.. time to buckle down again!

TiLT #11

I'm thinking about switching Things I Love Thursday formats.  My favorite is always Honorable Mentions, so next week I'm going to try doing it ENTIRELY as Little Favorites.  Feedback is welcomed & appreciated. ;)

Dove's Lemongrass & Grapefruit scent ♥ I know this one is weird.  But the Lemongrass & Grapefruit flavor smells just like candy and I can't get enough of it.  It goes nicely with Pink Sugar which is good, since the scent is pretty strong (not that I'm sniffing my armpits all day or anything.. :shock: you would too if they smelled like this!).  Also, apparently I am 9 years old.

Ruffles ♥ If my Cyber Monday purchases were any indication, I am completely obsessed with ruffles. Hear me out: they're girly & pretty AND they camouflage "problem areas" like it ain't no thang.  Yes please!

Google Calendar ♥ I have a very special place in my heart for things like planners and notebooks (and office supplies in general), but I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that paper is over. I bought a Moleskine as usual for 2010 but I haven't used it very much, so I'm going to try a combination of Google Calendar and GMail Tasks for 2011. Since my phone is Google-based, I'm pretty sure this will only be a catastrophe and not a disaster. Will report back.

Cookie Monster on SNL ♥ It is my sincerest hope that you've all seen Cookie Monster's YouTube video and liked his FB page.  If you haven't, you now have no excuse.  Macarooner!

Little Things ♥ Clean laundry ♥ Wired magazine ♥ Meager Tuesday (get it? Instead of Fat Tuesday.. ha) ♥ Fresh coffee! ♥ Christmas cards purchased on the cheap ♥ Polyvore ♥ December ♥ Chocolate Peppermint Bark cookies (hands down #1 ultimate best ever most favorite cookies!) ♥ Obsessively tracking my online orders ♥ Mini-book club ♥ Marshall's (/TJ Maxx/Ross/whatever equivalent you've got!) ♥ Christmas presents :D ♥ Making my bed ♥ Wegmans' labeling of vegan items ♥ Twinkle lights & candles ♥ Warm toes ♥

End of Semester

I'm finishing my English credit requirements this semester which means that I have three final research papers and a unit plan to write - oyyy.  I'm the first to admit that I'm not always the most on-top-of-it person; I usually let the big things go until I have to do them, but I don't necessarily see this as the most appropriate way to function.  I had every intention of getting my papers under way in advance this semester, but surprise - it didn't happen.  So I have two and a half weeks until the first of my assignments is due and I'm still on page two (of 20!).  Not great - certainly nothing to celebrate - but it's a start.  Now the question is: how to make myself focus?  How to make myself bang out this paper before I have 24 hours left?

My favorite homework trick is setting a timer - usually just for 30 minutes - and making myself work straight through.  Texts, tweets, emails, phone calls?  Ignored.  I'll deal with it in 30 minutes!  If something crucial pops into my head (and this is obviously when my brain finds everything important), I'll write it down to take care of afterward.  After my 30 minutes are up, I usually take a short break and then re-focus.  I like using this most for reading assignments; no matter how boring something is, I can give it at least 30 minutes.

I recently started reading Leo Babauta's ebook "focus" at the recommendation of a blog friend and I have to say that while it might not be groundbreaking, it certainly is interesting!  Most of Leo's ideas seem to be like that - he's not reinventing the wheel, but he's saying something important, something that most of us seem to have forgotten.  I'd love to be able to give up email like Leo has, but that probably isn't realistic for me right now (if only my professors were on Twitter..!), so I'm using some of his other tips to help me focus on creating - in this case, creating critical analysis and lesson plans. :-?

What about you - are you a last-minute procrastinator or an on-schedule to-do list maker?  How do you keep yourself accountable for your work?  And what are your best focus and motivation tips?

Last Night of Summer

Autumn is hands down my favorite season, but there's something undeniably magical about summer, especially late summer.

Appropriately, someone fell asleep in the sun this afternoon and will be spending her last night of summer not out on the town, but on the couch, applying aloe vera and drinking lots of water. :oops: Hope your school bags are packed & organized and your alarms are set!  Get plenty of beauty sleep tonight, lovelies. ♥

Late August Saturday

A quiet but productive morning spent working...

An afternoon in the sun...

And an evening in with Don Draper and the boys of SCDP...

A restful but constructive weekend in preparation for school beginning on Monday.  How is your weekend going?  Hope you all are having lovely, relaxing weekends, full of sunshine, coffee, and lots of love.

T.G.I.F.

Having spent all day in front of my computer completing required trainings for my New York State teaching certification, I'm shutting down for the evening. I think the backyard, a glass of wine, and my book should do quite nicely.. have a lovely Friday, darlings.

Phew!

Even though I SAID I was going to be spending my last week of summer in a state of relaxed appreciation, that has not happened.  It's been a hectic week over here but I'm kind of loving it.  After a month and a half of absolutely nothing, it's nice to have Important Things To Do.

With classes beginning in less than a week and school beginning two weeks after, I've been scrambling to get things in order so I'll have all my routines down by the time everything gets crazy.  Booking appointments, organizing shelves and desks and binders, running out for last minute supplies, getting myself on a decent sleep schedule, re-connecting with friends, classmates, and colleagues... It's overwhelming!  Shannon at The Simply Luxurious Life wrote a great post about it today; good to know I'm not the only one in this pre-school year madness. :)

As I prepare for the increase in work and therefore pressure, I wonder.. how do you deal with stress?  I'm usually pretty good at it (I've had enough practice), but I have a tell - my house or my room goes to shambles!  If I'm worried about a million other things, the neatness of my living space is the one thing I'll let go. What about you? Does everything carry on while your brain goes wild? Or do you have a secret tell too?

One last thing I have to share - I found this thank you card while out shopping and I had to buy it.  Too cute!

Fall Must-Haves

This morning I woke up to an email from one of my professors: a list of the texts we'll need for fall semester. Nothing snaps you out of summer vacation like a booklist. And although I don't want summer vacation to be over (I have to leave Boyfriend! :cry:), I love autumn the most of all seasons so I'm willing to loosen my grip on summer a bit. Especially if it means back-to-school shopping.. and I've got my eye on a couple things for the fall.

Riding boots. How perfect with skinny jeans and a white v-neck? SO perfect.

A classic cotton blazer. Equally appropriate with jeans or work trousers.

These would be my "splurge" items for the season.  I buy less expensive jeans, t-shirts, and camisoles since those kinds of things are replaced regularly.  T-shirts are the cheapest item in my closet - I usually buy men's v-necks in the big Hane's or Fruit of the Loom six-packs at Target!  They're so much cheaper than women's v-necks, so why not!?  What are you eyeing for the autumn?