Monday, July 30, 2007
short on cash, and then someone goes and spends 300 bucks at walmart
so i’ve been monitoring my bank accounts recently cuz i haven’t been getting a paycheck, and i need enough money to pay august and september’s mortage before my first paycheck comes in on october 1. i finally figured out i have exactly the right amount of money to cover those expenses, but nothing else. so i can live in my house. yup. and that’s pretty much all i do. live in my house.
as a result, i have been extremely vigilant about not spending any money at all, so i’ve pretty much been sitting at home online, practicing the piano, watching tv, cooking myself meals by throwing together things from the pantry (that’s been interesting...), going to the library, and now, going to the gym every day to coach volleyball. every once in a while i will treat myself to dinner at in-n-out. yup, that’s right, i’ll spend a whole $2 on myself! yeah… my summer existence has been pretty sad, but that’s not the point of this story.
today, when my new BofA debit card came, i activated it and then put it into my wallet, right next to the hole where my american express card used to be. wtf?!?! where was my amex card? and so i looked all over my purse and didn’t find it. and then i just decided to log onto my account online and see if anyone had used my card recently…
wouldn’t you know, someone went on a shopping spree in walmart and spent $314! i know it definitely wasn’t me, because, remember, i haven’t been spending any money at all. then this person went and filled up their car at a gas station i have never been to, and they must have driven all over town because then the next day they gassed up again in riverside.
dude…
thankfully american express is really really good and they reversed all of those charges, so i don’t have to pay anything. even though the charges were made on july 9 and 10 and i didn’t even know my card was missing till today. and i’m actually just really glad i caught it…
-sigh-
sad thing is, that’s the activity for my day today. =/
Friday, July 13, 2007
coaching the yellowjackets
so on monday colton offered me a job teaching math at the high school. and on tuesday, they called me back and asked me to coach their varsity volleyball team. i had said i was interested, and i wanted to do jv or the freshman team, or be the assistant coach, or something like that.
but no, they offered me the head coach position! of varsity! they want me to be in charge of the program cuz i’m staff!!!
so now i’m head coach!!!
it’s amazing!! when i first thought about not going back to grove, i couldn’t imagine it.... and i was dreading going to another school… and then as i was trying to find a place that i would be happy at, i visited colton hs and told my mom that if i got hired there to teach math and one class of volleyball, it would be the ideal “upgrade” from my then-current position at grove. it would be a wayyyy bigger school, yes, but i would get the chance to know some students on a more personal level because of being more involved. i could also potentially teach less classes and have less prep-work, instead of teaching 4 different math classes, a physics, an elective, and doing counseling/mentoring during lunch, all while planning and fundraising for a winterim. and so i while on the phone with my mom, i realized that changing schools could give me the opportunity to teach the same class of math four or five times a day and the opportunity to be involved with the volleyball team. and if i could be teaching algebra 2, then it would be all students who chose to be in that class, instead of teaching one that was required for graduation. less stress, more time, and more pay all rolled into one =)
and so when i got offered the job on monday, i accepted, but that was it… just teaching math. coolio.
then when they called me back on tuesday, i was a little bit apprehensive about taking the job, since it’s a big responsibility, but it is definitely a positive. and i accepted again.
now, if they could only assign me to teach algebra 2, i will have the “ideal” job that i described to my mom.
God has definitely been blessing me!
Monday, July 09, 2007
and four days after my interview...
i received a phone call this morning from the human resources dept of the colton joint unified school district. on mr. coke’s recommendation, they offered me a position teaching math at colton high school. and i accepted.
so this will be my new place of work starting august 22.
i don’t know my assignment yet (i’m -hoping- for algebra 2!), and the rest of the details (salary, benefits, etc) will be worked out when i go to HR to sign the contract on thursday, but i’ve accepted the job and that’s where i know i’ll be at.
apparently i’ll be a yellowjacket!
Thursday, July 05, 2007
happy fourth of july!
ahhh… the national holiday in which people blow up things. using the excuse of reminiscing about “bombs bursting in air.” =) and even non-patriotic people go swimming, barbecue-ing, and watching fireworks.
i celebrated accordingly, with marlene and mana.
here’s us swimming
and the bombs bursting in air over the hollywood bowl, to the music of john philip sousa
and i love the way they lit up the bowl in this pic:
i hope your celebration was fun as well! and that you enjoyed your fireworks =)
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
oh the joys of homeowning aka i learned to replace a water heater!
so on sunday i heard some rattling up in the roof. no, not some, A LOT! except i didn’t know it was coming from the attic, i thought it was outside for the longest time. then i finally went upstairs and i heard the noise from the hot water heater closet, which was apparently right under the fan in the attic that was rattling. i turned off the water main just to make sure the water heater wasn’t the one making all the noise, and when i turned it back on, i think something in the 15-year-old heater broke, cuz it started leaking at that moment and wouldn’t stop!
i ended up mopping up gallons and gallons of water out of the hot water closet and thinking that after some time it would eventually stop, but it just kept on getting worse and worse and worse. and apparently even when i turned off the water main it would still drip into the heater, so every so often i had to empty it out or else it would spill out onto the floor again.
yeah.
the joys of homeowning.
so on monday morning i emptied out the bucket and then called some plumbers and got a ton of quotes around $1000 for installation! i did -not- like that option… the only one that was gonna be anywhere lower (around $500) wouldn’t be available till next week! sheesh!!
thankfully i have very knowledgeable (and strong) friends cuz they told me all i needed to know to replace it and hook it up. actually, gary helped alot, and chad did all the gruntwork, and felcar climbed into my attic to check out the fan, and he and chris helped me move the piano into the house. (ok, so the piano is totally unrelated to the rest of the story, but they still helped. and now i have a piano! =P)
anyways, the end story is that we replaced it ourselves and hooked it up and it’s all working so beautifully and all for the cost of the water heater, and that’s it.
and now i know how to replace a water heater =) i’m learning a ton…
Sunday, July 01, 2007
learning tagalog
here’s a simple kid’s song that’s bilingual and translates itself from english to tagalog. i still haven’t learned it yet! but hopefully using the song i’ll remember those verbs =)
one day, isang araw;
i saw, nakakita;
one bird, isang ibon;
flying, lumilipad.i shoot, binaril ko;
i pick, pinulot ko;
i cook, niluto ko;
i eat, kinain ko.
i like it! a kid’s song about hunting birds and eating them! those wacky filipinos =)