Old Trusty Isn't So Trusty

Remember how I said I was grateful for a car that gets me around?  Well, Saul (my generally trusty car), decided to call it quits on me yesterday morning.

As I was turning the corner the engine stopped and all the lights came on.  I pulled off the road but wasn't able to get it started again.

Luckily, another 6th grade teacher was just down the road and she came to pick me up.

Anthony picked me up from work and we went to look at my car...it was super dead.  We took the battery to Auto Zone to get it charged and checked.  They could charge it but the machine that does the checking wasn't working.  Ugh.

Anthony spent 3 hours under my car, on the side of the road in 27 degree weather, trying to get things to work.  It didn't work.  I was postive I was going to have to be rushed to the emergency room to have my toes amputated due to the hypothermia that I obviously had.  No, I'm not being one bit dramatic.  I don't think I've been that cold in a long time.

My car is still sitting in a parking lot.  I hope we can get it figured out because rental cars are expensive and I have lots to do this weekend.

Ugh.  Cars.

Ash J. is an Idiot: Story # 2975

My name is Ash J., I'm an idiot and I need a lot more sleep.  This is my story.

Parent-Teacher Conferences are today and tomorrow.  I had one early morning conference today.  My plan was to go to bed no later than 10 last night because I knew I had to get to school by 7:45 to set up and get ready for my 8am conference.

This sleeping plan did not happen.

I got out of school late last night, 8:40 to be exact.  My friend Gabriel had called during class and left a message about wanting to start making my wedding invitations.  I called him back and we made a plan to meet at his house at 9.  I revised my sleeping plan to 10:30.

Gabriel and I talked about colors and fonts and graphics for an hour and a half...I revised my sleeping plan again...11pm, no later!

I arrived home at 10:40 to my roommate asking me to watch Glee with her...I never turn down Glee.  Revision # 3: 11:40pm.

While watching, Anthony texted me to see if I was still awake.  Yeppers, I certainly was though I was fading fast.  He needed to come pick up his tools from when he fixed my blasted deadbolt for the second time!  (Remember when it broke the first time?  Yeah, he fixed it then.  We had just started dating.  I knew he was a keeper.  Then it broke again recently.  And he fixed it again.  I'm glad he'll be around for a long time.  A lot of my stuff breaks.)  I stayed awake until he came. 

I finally got to bed (without washing my face or brushing my teeth.  Yep, I'm disgusting when I'm super tired.) at about midnight.  Ugh. 

Five hours later, I'm awake.  Seven hours later I'm filling up my gas tank.  Here's where the I'm an idiot part comes in.  I drove away without putting my gas cap on or closing the door thing (does that have a name?)  I lost my gas cap...the new one I just bought because my check engine light kept coming on.  Ugh.  Back to Auto Zone.

Milestones

Saul the Saturn hit a big one...

All these 9s made me happy to see.

P.S. Santa

If you can find it in your budget this year, I'd also like a car with 4 wheel drive and wind shield wipers that work. I think this would work:

Saul the Saturn is hating this snow and ice.

I Now Drive an INVISIBLE Mobile Library

I don't understand when or how it happend but obviously my car is invisible. I defy death while driving EVERYDAY! Not my fault though, I'm just driving around and out of no where there's a huge car in front of me.

I have to slam on my brakes, swerve into oncoming traffic, and say swears under my breath all the while Mr. I-own-a-huge-truck-so-common-driving-curtosy-does-not-apply-to-me is chewing on his Slim Jim and listening to his favorite hill-billy comedian ('Git 'er done!')

AAARRGGHH! All I'm saying is please watch out for gold Saturns. We don't take up much room, we're fuel efficient and we are not equipped with off-roading abilities. That's all. Please don't pull in front of me from a complete stop 5 seconds before I get to where you are. My breaks can't take it any more and my horn isn't fierce enough to make a difference. I think I'll install a profanity machine into my horn...one with a mean, scary, huge man voice. And it will be very creative in it's choice of profane words. Then you'll think twice about cutting in front of me next time.

Saul, Julie and Keoko

I had an appointment to get Saul's oil changed today. (Saul is my car's name. It's an old man name and I think my car is creeping to old man status pretty quickly so it fits him nicely) This oil change was supposed to happen 2 months and 1000 miles ago...oops! I've been a little preoccupied lately, anyway, I got up in plenty of time, took a shower, barely got ready but still ended up leaving late. How does this happen? When I was in high school I was impeccable at being on time to EVERYTHING. In this last 6 months to a year I've become horrible at being on time. Maybe my late-for-everything-friends finally rubbed off on me. Ugh.

Looking for a job...

is very possibly the worst experience in the world. I got an email from a principal yesterday wanting to set up an interview. Sure sounds great. I email back saying any time is great. She emails me "How about 10am on Friday?" I again say sure sounds great. She emails me back later saying wait that doesn't work, "How about in between 2:20 and 3pm?" I email back "Does 2:30 work?" Still no response. I'm showing up at 2:30. End of story. On another note, I heard from a professor that an elementary in Salt Lake was looking for a 1st grade teacher and wanted a Westminster grad. The professor said to call the principal, mention that I graduated from Westminster, was interested in the job and that the professor had told me about it. Easy enough. I tried to talk to the principal but I had to get through Maggie, the secretary. I think Maggie secretly wants to be a bouncer at a club and I'm not wearing a short enough skirt or slipping her a 20. So I just faxed my resume like Maggie said. We'll see what happens.

Book # 8: When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

The first thing I noticed about this book was how similar it was to A Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi. This story is told from two perspectives--Sun-hee and Tae-yul. Sun-hee and Tae-yul are sister and brother. They alternate as narrators of separate chapters, and many times they both provide individual views of the same events. The book follows their experiences living in Korea as it is occupied by Japan during WWII. The novel provides accurate information about the war. Some chapters were dry and boring and I found myself skipping over a lot while I was completely engrossed by other chapters. I don't think I would give this book to anyone younger than 5th grade primarily because the level is pretty high and it would probably become quite discouraging for younger readers. Also, the content may be a bit controversial for some students. I'm giving this book 3 stars. If you're really interested in this subject, this is a good book, but there are better ones out there.

"You burn the paper but not the words. You silence the words but not the thoughts. You kill the thoughts only if you kill the man. And you will find that his thoughts rise again in the minds of others--twice as strong as before!" (p. 106)

"How could an alphabet--letters that didn't even mean anything by themselves--be important? But it was important. Our stories, our names, our alphabet. Even Uncle's newspaper. it was all about words. If words weren't important, they wouldn't try so hard to take them away." (p. 107)