Tuesday, April 28, 2009

45 Minutes?

Yeah, I don't think so. In my search for a teaching job, I decided to apply to New York City, as the Bronx is right next to Westchester, and Westchester teaching jobs are frighteningly competitive. Everything is done on line these days, and you complete one application for all schools in the NYC school system. The website claims that the application will take approximately 45 minutes to an hour to complete. Hmmmm......

Now, I don't consider myself a particular nitwit, but apparently time in my world is extremely different than that of the NYC public school system. I especially enjoy the fact that once you submit your application, you can go back and change some sections, but not the 2 essays. (Yeah - 2 essays. I must say, there is definitely something surreal about being 39 and writing job application essays meant for 22 year olds) Thus, being the somewhat neurotic soul that I am, I felt the need to re-read (and also make The Professor re-read) said essays about eleventy million times, hunting for typos and unfortunate grammatical mishaps.

This morning, however, after spending a frightening amount of time on the thing (again, slightly more than the 45 minute estimate) I pushed the "submit" button and finally sent it on its merry way. Godspeed, job application, I wish you well.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Headache of the Day

Being a grown-up can be really great, but sometimes it is really hard. Like when your brain is already overworked from teaching flute lessons and trying to write job applications, and your six year-old calls out from the other room (expecting an actual answer, mind you), "I wonder where time goes after it's gone?"

Monday, April 20, 2009

Creativity, But Not My Own

I've always been incurably nosy, and one of the things that always fascinates me is the way people choose to spend their time, both in work and leisure. I'm forever intrigued by people that have a passion for something, whether it be knitting, writing, kite flying, or whatever. The passion is what I find wonderful. When they start talking about their favorite subject, their eyes light up, and it's abundantly clear that they love whatever it is they're discussing.

Thus, I love trolling the web for people's blogs; not only does it allow me to peek into someone's life, but the authors usually write about whatever their passion happens to be. I came across this one recently; it's about book and magazine covers, and is really neat. It's an interesting window into a subject I know almost nothing about, but as an avid reader, I am grateful that someone else does.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

One Down

Well, I have two essays to write for the NYC teaching application, one of which is finished (mostly). This means, for those of you playing at home, that I still have one more to go. There's definitely something surreal about being 39 years old and writing essays on job applications again. That being said, here is what I've been doing instead of actually writing essay #2:



Don't you judge me.

Friday, April 17, 2009

And Just in Time for Spring

Actually, the way this spring is going, they may actually come in handy. My mother's birthday was waaaaay back in January, and as I couldn't figure out what a good present would be, I asked her if she would like me to knit her something. She had seen the Endpaper Mitts I finished during Miss Serious' illness, and decided she would like a pair:


Now if I could just remember to bring them to her, she could enjoy them as well!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

And Now For Something Completely Different

I for some reason decided this week (hmm...can you say procrastinating? As in, not wanting to write job application essays? No, no, that can't be it...) that because I uncluttered and got rid of about 700 bags of junk, I needed a new hobby to help fill up those all-too-temporarily empty spaces:

The internet is an insidious and evil thing; there are way too many interesting sites of people's videos and galleries of things they've made, all designed to make us start buying art supplies we don't really need to make cards we also don't really need.

Especially since I seem to be unable to not only send out a birthday card on time, but the e-version rarely gets sent on time either. Obviously, any reasonable person would decide that the cure for this deficiency is to actually make the cards that won't get sent out on time. Obviously.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Still Alive

No, I am neither dead nor trapped under something heavy - I've just filled my brain with too many items, and something will invariably lose out; in this case, it's the blog. The kids have just finished their spring vacation, so a few brain cells have become available.

Even though I've been silent (at least here...) we've been busy. During the break, the kids and I hopped to and fro, desperately trying to pretend that it is actually spring, even though the weather keeps trying to talk us out of that crazy delusion. We went to the LI Children's Museum with cousins, and had a really wonderful time (no good pictures for the blog, I'm afraid); we went to the orchid show at the New York Botanical Gardens, which could not have been more stunning:

the kids hunted for Easter eggs:

and just generally enjoyed themselves. I've been subbing a lot, which is great, and have been working on my resume, which is less than great. I don't think anyone enjoys the job-hunting process (maybe there are some sadistic souls out there who do, but I am certainly not one of them), but it's one of those necessary evils, I suppose. I've applied for a couple of things already, and it's still a bit early for postings. We'll see.

Now that everyone is back in their routine, I hope to get back into mine, such as it is. Now if spring would just try a little harder....