Ok, ok, I know it's only been a last week since the last journal I posted, but I've got some stuff I wanna get down before I forget about it.
___________________________________________________________________________
BORING STUFF.

I attended a meeting at the district 60 administration building for a curriculum-based discussion for all of the art teachers in the district. I expected it to be fairly formal, with probably one central speaker and a couple opinions thrown out here or there. I was completely mistaken. There was one woman, who was obviously in charge, that stood out from the rest. Her name was Bonnie and she wore a bright yellow suit jacket over a navy blue sun dress, and tall yellow pumps. She had frizzy blond hair and this huge, artificial smile that she kept plastered on at all times.. She reminded me of Chrissy from Three's Company (for those of you who've seen it.) My first impressions of her were good, she welcomed me into the meeting and personally introduced me to the few people I did not know in the room, but as the meeting progressed, my opinion of her as a person became a totally separate thing from my opinion of her ability to do the job she was given. It became obvious to me that she knew almost nothing about art as a subject, and I don't think she takes it as seriously as she should, given her position. It was evident that a few of the teachers from the district were the ones who really ran the show. Jennifer Anderson-Doerr, the art teacher from Centennial and Susan Foster from Roncalli did most of the speaking. Eventually they moved on to the topic of the lack of funds for the arts (which I won't get into, that's a tirade waiting to happen.) Susan proposed the idea of hiring a grant-writer as a way to gain much-needed funds for the art department, and also suggested that Jennifer Anderson-Doerr would be a good one for the job. The other teachers definitely took to the idea, but Bonnie did not seem too interested. She rapidly changed the subject, and when they brought it back around to that topic, she refrained from commenting, but rather nodded tersely like someone who obviously disagrees but would rather not say anything because they think their opinion would not sit well with the room's other inhabitants.
I'm sure it wouldn't have.

I just think that she's a horrible candidate for the job, and Brian, the art teacher at South High School disclosed to me a few things about her that kind of put me into perspective;
She was a vocals instructor in a district 70 school for two years before taking a long, long break due to an apparent mental lapse (surprise!), and also that she knows absolutely nothing about art, visual art in particular. She doesn't even know the four basic shapes.
He thinks she was given the job because she was someone who wouldn't question the district... A "yes ma'am, no sir" type of gal if you will.

Anyway, I'm just pretty disgusted with the district. Makes me reconsider teaching here.
And onto happier things!



___________________________________________________________________________
FUN STUFF.

I took a small vacation this last Friday and Saturday. Was amazing.
At about 4pm on Friday ~Remembrance02, *buildingsforbrains, Corry and I all piled in the car with a couple days worth of clothing and basic supplies and headed up for Denver. The reason for this being that one of mine and Ashley's absolute... favorite (that term is an understatement) bands was coming to Englewood, Denver. I doubt you've heard of them They're a Japanese hard rock band called Dir en Grey.
This was the second time we've seen them, and they're just... ah.
Anyway o.o

So yeah we hit some snow driving up there. Was gorgeous.


So anyway after about a three hour drive, we got there a few hours early, so we found a fairly nice Chinese restaurant to eat at (by fairly nice I mean this was like the Chinese version of Olive Garden. Cloth napkins and all.)
Then waited in line in the freezing cold for the remaining hour outside the Gothic Theater with a ton of other people.
Needless to say, the concert was fucking. amazing.
It nearly reduced me to a screaming, melting puddle of fangirl muck.
Yeah. Nearly.
We ended up about 4 feet away from the speakers... so... we were deaf for a few days after, and Ashley and I were mute.
Just amazing stuff.

Afterward, at about 11:30 we went and checked into the hotel that we had picked about 15 minutes drive away. I think we were all pretty surprised at the room they gave us. Corry and I went in to get a room while Ashley and Mike stayed in the car, and we told the clerk just the standard 2-bed room. I mean we were only going to be there for a night, and Ashley and I would share a bed while the other two got to fight over who got the remaining one
I don't know if this guy made a mistake or if he just thought I was hot or what (LOL. -_-) He undercharged us, and we ended up with a huge suite-like getup. Unless the La Quinta has changed the way they do business,....
Anyway yeah, living room with desk, comfy chairs, in-wall T.V. and big couch that turns into a bed, counter with sink, coffee pot (gourmet coffee included.), microwave and whatnot... the bathroom was huge. The bedroom had two beds, a T.V., a massive dresser, and the beds were just... ohmygod. Let me just say I didn't want to sleep in my own bed afterward.
We hung around for a bit, ordered pizza and whatnot, and finally went to bed around 1am.
Next morning I woke up at about 7am, woke Ashley up, went into the bathroom to make myself halfway presentable, woke Corry up... ATTEMPTED to wake Michael up... but yeah, with limited success. Went down to the lobby, ate breakfast, decided to go swimming.
The pool(which is shaped like an ovary.) is apparently kept at 81 degrees o__O Warm.
The hot tub on the other hand... well it had an out of order sign next to it, but the bubbles were going, so we're thinking "Oh, what could be wrong?"
Stupid.
Jumped in. Heater doesn't work. You could put an ICECUBE in that water and it wouldn't melt.
Anyway, swam for a few hours (and yes, we took my Nikon in the pool... >_> ) went back up, showered, checked out, decided to go to aquarium
Then went to A&W at about 3, ate, drove home.
Went and bought a tree, decorated for Christmas
Buseh buseh.

P.S.: Apologies to those of you who watch my scraps, too. I bet you're getting more spam than you can handle