Bring On The Day.

I have had many times in my life that I have walked away from saying, "If I can live through that, I can live through anything." It never fails that shortly after this time has ended and I am steady on my feet again something else comes along that requires as much, if not more, strength as I have in my power.

Today was my first day at my new school. I woke up an hour and half after I planned on (thankfully I was planning on being there SUPER early), but this meant that I did not have time to shower--helloooo baby powder and extra deodorant. I then couldn't find my make-up bag so I went to make all of my first impressions looking rather homely, if I do say so myself.

I came to campus to find out that my schedule had been changed (the one class that I literally had planned from Day 1 to Day 90 was of course the one that got scratched), I could not make any of the necessary copies for my "first day" forms, no one was sure if I was going to get textbooks for my new class, and I have ZERO storage space for my classroom's worth of teacher stuff that I brought over from Warriorland to Wildcat Kingdom.

After a three-hour meeting in the morning, I locked myself in the faculty restroom and had myself a really, really long cry (guess it's a good thing I didn't have on make up!) followed by a quick lunch run to Panera for a famous cinnamon roll--calories don't count when you're stressed, right?

Towards the end of the day, one of my assistant principals called me into his office and apologized for the abrupt schedule change and told me to take heart in the fact that he wouldn't have done this to me if he didn't think that I could handle it.

I laughed in my head. This guy doesn't know me. He's never been in my classroom. He has no idea if I'm even a competent teacher. He gave me something because "I could handle it." What a joke.

I have a very large collection of music on iTunes. One of my favorite CDs on there is the "Sweet Home Alabama" soundtrack. It puts all kinds of pep in your step and it's a great listen if you're on the go or need something to jam to in your car. One of my favorite songs on the album is called "Bring On the Day". The singer talks about being on her way no matter what it takes and she's going to survive it come hell or high water.

Story of my life, right?

This semester might be another one of those times that it will take everything in me to survive it, but I will. My kids might not get my highest ranked performance every day, but they'll walk away knowing something. I might not be the gold medalist this go 'round, but Lord knows I'm gonna try.

Maybe my assistant principal was right, after all.


"Watch out world, 'cause here I come and I can't stop 'til I'm done..."

Help a Girl Out...

Okay.

Confession.

I am the kind of girl that will read anything that you put in front of me. That being said, with my limited time,  I like to devote my very, very few leisure hours to things that are worth my time.

That being said, I'm a skeptic to devote an entire weekend to the adventures of Katniss Everdeen.

(via)

I currently have all three books in my possession (Emily, you will be reunited with them eventually...), but I'm not sure if they're worth my time.

Two of my roommates have read them (and I am the ONLY reader in this house) so that should be enough to convince me, but I'm just not sure.

Someone give me a straight answer and back it up with evidence:

Should I, or should I not,  give "The Hunger Games" a shot?

Thank you for your time,
Reba.

January 3, 2012 {dinner with megan and roomie shout-out}

Today, I sped home--as fast as Outer Beltline rush hour traffic would let me--walked in my door, slammed said door, and then yelled to my roommates that "I hate my job."

The statement is not exactly true. I have the world's best students. But, I hate the politics that come along with teaching. I get that I work for the government...but leave me alone and let me do my job. Please and thank you.

Anyhow, I promptly texted one of my best friends, Megan, and begged for dinner out so that I could unload all of my teacher woes on to a fellow teacher and have some sympathy from another of the species. Being the beautiful, kind-hearted friend that she is, she met me a few hours later and let me unload.

When I say "unload" I mean "dump all of my crazy crap onto her lap with lots of gesticulating and sarcasm." Megan's good at taking my sass. She has been for a few years.

I remember the first time I had a conversation with Megan. It was during one of the many classes that we had together at NC State and she had to peer-edit my paper. Megan was the first person in the history of the world to give me legitimate and honest feedback on my writing. Most people just nod and call it a day. Megan bled all over my paper and then some. At first I was flabbergasted that someone didn't think that I was the next great American novelist...but then I realized that she was absolutely right about everything she said and she made me a better writer.

Now, three years later, I'm sure she would still be make me a better writer, but more importantly, she's making me a better person. Just by being there.

Megan and I ate some delicious pasta at Noodles & Co. and talked about life, our students, and our crazy co-workers for the next two hours.

This little piece of my blog is dedicated to my sweet friend who rarely arrives anywhere on time, was born a Yank but is a Southerner at heart, and who is truly a blessing in my life.

I took the liberty of giving Megan some love one night at the PR (a common hang-out for us LTN girls). This is one of my favorite pictures of all time.

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I was just going to give the blog post to Megan and call it a night, but I truly cannot dismiss the godsends that are my roommates.

After I ran into my house this afternoon and declared my unhappiness to all that could hear, I then did a fabulous rendition of "Hell Hath No Fury Like Rebekah" to Ava Michelle and Jamie.

After pacing around the house and huffing loudly to attempt to discharge all of my angst, I decided I needed to bake. Baking takes all of the woes out of life and turns the troubles into edible pieces of heaven.

Cookie Dough Truffles were the cure for this round of sorrows.

Except that I was out of ONE ingredient.

I couldn't run to the store because I had to meet Megan for dinner.

I exhaled even louder to attempt to purge this new misfortune and my roommates were alerted of the new evil in my life.

Jamie promptly arrived at my side with a piece of Godiva. If I couldn't make my own piece of heaven, certainly a piece of mass-manufacteured chocolate would do the trick!

Ava Michelle called Alecia and mentioned my anguish and Alecia stopped at the nearby Food Lion to get me a can of sweetened condensened milk.

When Alecia came home and handed me the small, Eagle Brand can, I let out a yelp and sent up a prayer of thanks for these sweet girls.

We proceeded to dance in the kitchen and tell stories and laugh and then eventually dove into the mouth-watering morsels of butter and chocolate...a girl's two best (culinary) friends.

Note: Kimberly, come home soon :)

January 2, 2012 {the borough}

Since this was my last day to sleep in before going back to school, there was not an alarm set in this house.

Once Milley woke me up, I headed downstairs and grabbed a stack of papers that needed to be graded. I'm happy to report that it's DONE. That's right, done. D-O-N-E. Done. I can't believe it myself. But I was so excited.

About 11 a.m. I asked one of my roomies if she had any plans for the evening, when she said she didn't, I replied that I would love a girls night out to commemorate Christmas Break 2011 and also to celebrate all of this grading being done.

We decided that downtown Raleigh was best and thanks to the ever-so-handy Google, we stumbled upon

The Borough. It had decently priced food and good cocktail list...table for four please!

Ava Michelle, Alecia, Jamie, and I headed downtown and into the quaint little restaurant. We were so pleased to find out that on Monday - Friday most appetizers are 1/2 off!

I had the Boomerang for an appetizer (you say 'spinach and mushrooms' and I come running!) and The Brute Squad for my entree.

They were both incredible.

I could eat the Boomerang with a spoon! If there had been any left after I had finished my chips, I would have! For the small prices, the portions were great!

They put some sort of wonderful spice mix on the french fries. There was not a fry left on the table.

And you'll notice there wasn't any Boomerang left either...

One note about The Brute Squad: it was delicious, but I ordered mine medium rare. I swore it moo-ed a few times as I bit in to it. May I suggest that you order yours "medium" when you go :)

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I don't want to spoil the excitement for anyone, but the bathrooms were out of this world. I loved the signs that designated which was "guys" and which was "gals"--you'll have to visit to see for yourself--but to top it off, this little guy was waiting for us in the soap dispenser.

I was concerned that I had drank my cocktail too fast (The Big Mama, for those of you that were curious--and yes, I'll be getting it again; the perfect blend of sweet and kicker) but thankfully Ava Michelle was my bathroom buddy and she confirmed that yes, indeed, there is a lion in the soap dispenser.

After a very productive day and a lovely dinner out with my roomies, we're all going to curl up on the couch to watch the season premiere of The Bachelor.

It's been the perfect way to send out Christmas 2011!

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You'll notice that I've added a new label to my collection: "restaurant reviews". The idea came up to make a roomie outing a weekly thing to explore this great city that we live in. If you're from the area, come on back every now and again and see what good eats we've stumbled across.

Also, if you have any suggestions as to where we should go, feel free to comment. We'll go and report back!

January 1, 2012

2012 started off a bang...and by "bang" I mean a low-grade fever. Isn't that awesome? I didn't make it to the acorn dropping, as is custom in my state, or to the TV to watch the ball in NYC drop. I was snoozing in the bed when the rest of the Eastern Time Zone was shooting off fireworks, kissing their beloveds, and drinking down some alcohol.

I allowed myself the privelege of sleeping in on the first day of 2012 because it was my second-to-last day to do it before school started back.

If you had walked in to "The Manor" as my house is lovingly called on January 1st, you would have thought that it was a mandated work day...

This is a picture of my dining room table.

I've kind of moved in.

Two boxes of papers to grade and a very long to-do list had me occupied all day January 1st.

It's really hard to complain about my job when you love it so much.

And I get two weeks off at Christmas.

Aren't you jealous?

Happy 2012, everybody :)