Month: July 2004

This week has been so great. I have actually been able to do just what I wanted and when. Oh, I did the mundane things like pay bills, wash clothes, and dishes. But no workshops and Trey and Amanda are settled into Bancker.
Monday, Trey and Amanda came over and ate with us and visited. Wednesday, Halie and I went to the movies.
Thursday, I went to Sedina’s.
Tomorrow, Halie will come and spend the night. I even got to fight with “city hall” a few times this week. Did I win’ Of course not!
It is so great that Trey and Amanda are comfortable with the house. I was worried especially about Amanda. But I think the quietness is giving them a little peace for right now. Just hope they don’t get bored. Now if it will just back off on the raining.
Last Thursday, I did get to take a special day also. I took a young girl (Junior in High School) to the movies. Her name is Challi. She was in the first class that I taught here at Henry. She is one of those students that you never let go of and that you want to keep in touch with forever. We went to see “Harry Potter”. Since David has Mary, I lost my companion for the “Harry Potter” movies. I hope Challi will fill that void.

Halie and I had a wonderful day together on Wednesday. I picked her up at 11:00. Then we ate at Burger King. While we were eating she asked if she could call Aunt Olga and visit her. I called and she was happy to see us. So we left to go to the movie first. It was “Garfield”. We enjoyed it. (David could not believe that we went.) But it was good for children. At 3:30 we went to Aunt Olga and visited. We had a great visit and I know she loved it.

Today, I went to Sedina to work on David’s books. I am putting the finishing touches on the books. I plan to begin Trey’s week from Saturday at the special creative memory workshop.

Tomorrow at around 1:00, I will pick up Halie then we will come back here. I have several things planned. Steve will not be here, because of a special golf tournament. So I hope that we can do all kind of fun things. I got some ideas from Sedina. My boys do not have to worry about giving me grandchildren. I have one already in Halie.

Last night, we watched the movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” It is a movie that everyone should watch. But it was a hard movie to watch. It brought back too many bad memories of my young adult years. I do not understand how anyone could have gone through the Vietnam Era and still believe war is the answer for our problems. The big controversy over Michael Moore is stupid when you watch the movie. Even his making fun of the president was not where you should focus. Watch the soldiers, the Iraqi people, the parents and think. This is what is wrong with war. There may be a time and place where there is no other choice. But you must try every available avenue first before you travel down the road to war. Of course, this will not be an quickly won war. It should never have started without more time devoted to thinking about it along with diplomacy. The war in Afghanistan should have been completed first!

Today I will begin my journal of my thoughts. I am ending a part of my life and beginning another. I feel that is could be great, but I am not sure of the outcome. My son has hoped that I would write this. I don’t know if it is what I want to do or not. I will be trying to do it and hope that is will help in some way.
School has become very negative, and I do not know if I want to be there. I have discuss the problem with my friends in school. They have boosted my mood, but it will be me that must work through it. I hope that things will work out and I that I will be able to hang in and do the job that I am hired for despite all that is happening around me. I do realize that I should stay focused on what is important and avoid the petty people that are there. I do know that it will take a lot of strength for me not to speak when I feel things are wrong. I have to work with all these ladies whether I like them or not. I will have to make my Ramke side stay down and maybe this outlet will help get it out and keep me level. As Enya says “Only Time”. That should be in my mind always as I go along 🙁

I write this with a great big sigh of relief. Yesterday was the last and very stressful day. I woke up and hated the thought of even getting up. But it wa inevitable. Getting up was not the worse thing. It was as if every way I turned I was being challenged to get out of the house. I couldn’t decide what to wear. I wanted to dress down, but they were all going to eat. I knew I had to work cleaning, so what to choose. I chose something different, but was not really happy I chose it later. Before I left, I could not find my stupid keys. After searching forever, I grab my second sets of keys and walked out. Knowing that somewhere they were hiding. I even left Fred’s door open so that I could have a way to get in.
I had wanted to be there early so that I could get the paper work over before the meeting, but this appeared not to be the case. It seemed like my entire morning was cursed. True of it all, I was too damn tired and kept making mistakes. Thus causing me to do things over and over again.
We had our end of the year meeting and Mrs. Moss had a great deal of difficulty saying goodbye to the teachers that are leaving. I began going through my purse to keep from concentrating on what she was saying, because I was of course, crying myself. Later a teacher commented on how she wished she had had her purse to dig in! I was surprised that anyone noticed. After the meeting we then had our retirement party: Mr. Elwood, the janitor, Mr. Don, our favorite bus driver, Mrs. Judy Hasemann ( one of my best friends) , and Mrs. Beverly Suire, the lady I am replacing. Again with the tears….It was most distressing. However we all made it through the situation. I finally was allowed to return to my room to continue cleaning my mess. Everyone was becoming anxious, because they wanted to go eat out. (at the Riverfront) Time was passing and teachers were having trouble getting finished. Thank god, my paperwork was finished so I was not holding every one up. Finally, at 12:30 everyone was through and Ms. Moss told us we could all leave. I looked at my room and thought hmmmh. Do I want to continue or leave. I decided that I was too tired to continue so I started out the door. After I got in my car, I then began to think about going to eat. With my gas tank on almost empty, not feeling well, I decided nope not this time either. So I guess they say, Claudia is becoming an old fogey. She never comes to the parties anymore. My problem is that I really do not like all the people and with the tension in the school. Sitting in a restaurant with them was not very interesting. Then I preceded to go home and put myself to bed. This is the second time this month that I have done that. I fell asleep and slept on and off the entire night. I guess you know you are getting old when the late night studying makes you into a person that has to have extra sleep. So am I glad this year is over…I say this with great gusto YES! I still have to go clean, but at least I do not have anyone looking over my shoulder or rushing me. I will work at my own pace and do it right. 😀

Well it is the third day of vacation and I am asking where is the vacation. I have been working every day at school. Took a morning off to run around Abbeville and see people you can not see during the school year. Then met Trey over at Bancker. I am ready for fun. But i still have too much to do. Did not think i could collect so much junk. What is bad is the stuff that is not junk, but I really can’t keep. I plan to give it to the new k teacher and I hope she appreciates it.
Hopefully tomorrow, I will be through with my room. I think I should, but it seems to never get finished.
Better leave now before i become depressing to myself.

As you can tell, my choice of music when I am thinking or playing with hobbies is the same. Enya. I do miss her when I am away.
I can finally say I had a vacation. It was fun, but exhausting. Not because of the trip, but because of the company. I attended the trip with Steve’s big boss and wife. They are REPUBLICANS. Need I say more. My “keep your mouth shut” attitude did wear me out. Other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the fringe benefits.
A beautfiul hotel down in the middle of Galvestion. The Trenton House. Luxury that surpasses any Holiday Inn or dare I say Hilton. It was a remodeled historical hotel. Of course, it had the touch of history, but it was not like Nottoway where you actually felt like it was a trip back in time. It was just pretty and a little yuppie.
The best thing about the trip was the ability to take pictures and visit the pyramids. Now that I know more about them, then I would love to go back and visit the ones we did not get to go to. We went to the Rainforest one. It was an actual rainforest inside a giant greenhouse. The concept was very educational. I would love to have brought some young students through it. They would have been overwhelmed I am afraid though. I will try to convince my own children to try to work it into their lives.
We did visit an IMAX theater. It was a 3d movie of the ocean. I was not sure if it was computer generated or not. It appeared to be very realistic in a way. It was interesting, but I think it was geared for the children. It was actually a lesson in disguise. (It also was an environmental show.) Surprises me that the wife was so gung ho it. As much as she condemns the liberals, she was very pro environment. Guess it was the teacher in her.
I also pulled my usual stunt of trying to do something I am getting too old to do or do not dress appropriately for doing. I was taking lots of pictures (in fact, as I write I am downloading them…30 minutes) While doing it I was trying to get down where I could actually be close to the animal I was trying to take. Of course, I lost balance and fell on my knees. No I did not fall on the animal…which my oldest son was afraid that I had. It was embarrassing enough..but I would have been mortified if I had hurt the animals in any way. Until another day. 😉

Today began quietly. The day became more exciting as it progressed. At 7:30am I took Fred out. As I was standing there on the patio, I spied a strange looking cloud. The weather was very calm where I was and this cloud though big did not appear at first to be much. It was southeast of us and I think it was still over the marsh area. After a while I could not believe what I was seeing. It was a funnel cloud that was forming before my eyes. I kept thinking to myself…you are being very stupid standing here, but it was not moving fast at all. Finally, I came to my senses and said “GRAB YOUR CAMERA”. So in I ran thinking it will probably disappear before you get back. Of course, it took forever to find the stupid camera because I was not thinking very clearly. With camera in hand and hurrying quite a bit, I finally was outside. Much to my surprise the cloud was still there. After several pictures, I realized it would be a good idea if I called Dina. I was aware it was not coming in our direction. Therefore, I ran in and called her. She was able to see it while I was talking to her and it was breaking up. She seemed to think it was closer to Angie, so I told her it would not hurt to call them also. By the time I returned it was breaking up, but it still was eerie looking. Dina had told me they sometimes they reform in that type of cloud. Finally, it began raining and the cloud lost it’s dangerous appearance.
Well, I could have stayed watching all morning, but I had planned to see Harry Potter, Prisoner of Azalcan (sp’). So at 11:30, Challi arrived and we were off. It was a great visit with her. We both enjoyed the movie. We even went to Barnes and Noble and I got her a special book. I sure hope we can get together again before school starts.
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: none, just silence

Since no one seems to be reading my board, I am thinking of just writing my journal on Wilbur’s website. If there is anyone out there that is reading please comment. Then I will write to you. hehehe :'(