ONE LINER ALERT!!! ONE LINER ALERT!!!

To Err is Human
To Arr is Pirate.

Thank you and good night folks! Please tip your waitress on your way out.

AAARRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

It is time for a pirate joke! It is Thursday and I've had a hell of a week. Enjoy!!

A pirate walks into a bar wearing a paper towel on his head. He sits down at the bar and orders some dirty rum.

The bartender asks, "Why are you wearing a paper towel?"

"Arrr..." says the pirate. "I've got a bounty on me head!"

Have a great day and an even greater weekend!!!!! Thanks for stopping by!

Tuesday.......mmmmmm Awesome!!

Happy Tuesday to you!!! Just for you today:





You are welcome! Thanks for tuning in and have a great day!!! You are appreciated! :)

aren't kids just great...

Some random pictures for you today on the theme of children. If you don't laugh at these, I am sorry for your sense of humor lacking-ness. :)

A Good Saturday

Hi! Lots of sleep and a quiet morning watching Craig Ferguson programs from this week, a pot of coffee, and the late morning sun shining into my house makes for a great start to a good Saturday. I have no plans today and am not going to commit to anything but what ever I decide to do at the last minute.

Here's your funny of the day. Back to the Pirate Jokes. Enjoy!!!

This is a "Pirate Keyboard":



And here's your Pirate Joke for the day:

Two Pirates on a ship, one says "Yarrr!"
The other says "I was just thinkin' the same thing matey"

Thank you for checking in and have a great day!!!!!!!!!!

The wonders of google...

I've been working too much. I need a vacation. I was at a conference the last couple days, got back at 2pm, had a board meeting which lasted until 4:30, then tried to get caught up on work until 6:45. Came home, changed clothes, unpacked, cooked a quick supper, watching olympics from last night. Major headache. But tomorrow is Saturday. AHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Here's your dose of humor for the day:

YAYYYYYY Tuesday!!

It's Tuesday today! My favorite day! Whoooop Whoooop!! :) So, since it's such an awesome day, here is something humorous for you. Of course, it's a pirate joke.

A pirate was standing on the crow's nest and then he slipped and fell. He fell through the first floor, then he fell through the second floor, then he fell through the third floor and hit the bottom floor of the ship!

The first mate comes up to him and asks "Are ye all right matey?"

The pirate replies, "Arrr, yes... I've been through hardship before!"

You're welcome. Have a fantastic day and thanks for reading today!

Still Sick...

Well, I'm still sick. But I tell you what. I've decided to start a new cold medicine. It's called "Irish Tea". If you know me, you know what I'm talkin about.

In a bit I'm gonna neti pot my sinuses, have another cup of tea, and mosey my way off to bed. I have lots of junk to do tomorrow.

When I was a kid, I was sick a lot of the time -upper respiratory stuff, tonsillitis, etc. My mom used to make me hot tea with blackberry brandy. AND feed me sudafed. AND tylenol. AND sometimes even Nyquil. Good times. Nah, just kidding, it wasn't THAT bad or irresponsible, but I was fed blackberry brandy. But not a lot. I drank more beer on my own here and there than my mother suped up my tea.

So when I have hot tea with a hit of alcohol in it, it's kinda nostalgic and I feel nice and warm. Makes me sleepy -not only cuz I'm getting smashed, but also cuz it makes me feel like I'm being taken care of...even though I'm just here to take care of myself.

Did I do anything dumb today?? not sure. I didn't do much. I finished off a box of kleenex though and have another one half gone. Hooray for me!

My House: In Infirmary

Ugh. My cold medicine kept me up last night. I tried to go to bed at 9:30 last night and fell asleep for a little while, then woke up and was up off and on all night long. I hate being sick. I am supposed to go to Perham today for my dad's birthday celebration and to help put wood in the basement, but I think I'm going to stay here. If it wasn't a 5-6 hour round trip, I'd go for sure, but all that time in the car with my head feeling like a balloon and me feeling woozy from cold medicine that keeps me from hacking up a lung in crazy exclamations of coughing is not good. I just went to Deer River to get my license tabs (more on that in a bit) and that was only a 20mn drive and I was never so happy to just get home and sit in my chair with a cup of tea, kleenex box, and glass of water and just zone out. So, I'm sad, but safety and health first. Plus, I wouldn't want to spread this around to my family either!

Now for my license tabs. Have I told you how much they cost this year??? $338.25. Holy cannolis!!!! That's damn near my car payment!! What a crock -thanks Pawlenty for no "tax increases"...it just means that other taxes increase. Do people understand that?? State revenue has to come from somewhere and stupid people believe reduced taxes mean more money in their pocket, but it really means two things: You're gonna get hit somewhere else -inevitably, and state revenue is reduced so there is less money, more deficit, and more cuts to programs we've all become accustomed to lately. -Like education. Ok, no more ranting.

So yeah, my license tabs expired in January of this year. For a few days now (or more if that "10day after the due month" rule is bunk), I've been driving around in an unlicensed car. I've been breakin the law, breakin the law, breakin the law...as Beavis would try to sing. So needless to say, I've been a MODEL driver. No speeding, no "chances", no nothing to draw attention to myself on the road because I didn't want to get stopped with expired tabs. I have a scanner, I know how THAT comes over the radio and I know how the cops cite that. HAHA. I was lucky that the license bureau in Deer River had Saturday hours because no one else around here does, so I ran over there quick before noon to pick them up. They are pretty red "11" stickers. I like them and can't wait to put them on later when I clean off the spot on my plates. How goofy is that? :)

That's what I like to call one of my best procrastination examples of all time. I've also been putting off many other things: going to the chiropractor, getting my presentation finished for Tuesday, some other stuff for work, making time to deliver Christmas presents to Andy's family, buying a neti pot (which would help my clogged sinuses immensely!!), etc, etc, etc. Oh yeah, I need to get my hair colored too. Oh well! Someday I will accomplish all of these things. :)

thanks for tuning in! Here's your pirate joke of the day:
what's a pirate's favorite fast food restaurant?
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrby's!!!
:-)

And There She Went A-Ranting

Well, my dear blog reader, the last post was quite a rant, was it not? It's true. I had quite a bit to say, I used profanity quite a bit in it, and I really let my opinions fly out of my mouth without apology.

Oh well. You all will have to learn to deal with it. :-)

I've decided that I'm far too serious on this thing. I need to lighten up and inject some humor.

So that's my goal. Whether it's just sharing the stupid things I find myself doing some days (you would be amazed at the things I get myself into sometimes) -or things that just seem to happen to me, or sharing some humorous story...or injecting a pirate joke here and there for good measure, whatever it will be I promise will be interesting. At the very least.

Who wants to read a boring blog full of bitching and moaning?? Not me! :-)

The thing is...I'm so clutzy, say dumb things, think dumb things (or rather, fail to think "smart" things), and just basically put up with myself every day that stuff that is actually funny to normal people is more or less just another day in the life of Angela. But, I will try to sift that stuff out and share my humiliations and interesting tidbits that occur in my life now and then.

And Here She Goes Again...

What is wrong with people? I mean, really. Today in the news, there were two articles dealing with high school personnel who were fired, errr, I mean, put on "administrative leave" (sorry union, don't send Guido after me for that slip up) because of allegations involving students. One was about coaches who were fired (I'm just gonna say it like it is, folks) because of a felony charge against them stemming from an overnight girls basketball trip right after Christmas (they were two men coaching girls basketball). A FELONY??? c'mon. The fact that they both resigned immediately after being put on administrative leave is quite a tell. Whether they are guilty or innocent, resigning means that whatever is going on is serious enough to be damaging to the both of them, even if they are completely innocent, and their union said "sorry, can't really help you here...your best course of action would probably be to resign".

The second one is a female science teacher who was put on administrative leave because of allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student and recently decided to resign while the district was in the process of investigating that allegation -or maybe they were done investigating...not sure, and this one did not involve law enforcement...yet. She either decided to hell with this place, or she too was encouraged to get out while she could.

Can you imagine? I really can't imagine. What I always have the most difficult time imagining is the inappropriate relationship thing with a student. Wow. I don't care IF you are close in age to the kids you are teaching or blah blah blah. The position you took as a teacher or coach carries with it some expectations of decorum. You do not fraternize with students outside of school -or INSIDE the school for that matter. Ever. If a student keeps hanging around afterschool or whatever, tell them to stop it. If you are somewhere and some show up, leave. I can't tell you how many times I just "went home" while I was living in the land of nothing and was at someones house or just hanging out somewhere enjoying an adult beverage. If a student's PARENT showed up, I often just "went home". Yeah, they spoiled my fun. Yeah, that pissed off my friends who sometimes didn't get it. But shit. You cannot fraternize with students. At all. I went to TWO high school graduation parties my entire teaching career and that was during my LAST year of teaching and it was a 15mn hello, congrats, good bye. And these male coaches are extreme dumbasses. I hope they learned a valuable lesson. We may never know what happened because the accusers are 17years old and thus protected under minor laws, but still.

School districts are liable for stuff like this. I sure hope that on this overnight girls basketball trip there were adult females chaperoning too -although I've learned in the world of education that doesn't matter sometimes because another thing that gets these people into trouble is that they have no sense of professionalism or sense of, for lack of better term, self-respect when it comes to how they conduct themselves. You do not drink ANY alcohol what so ever when you are in charge of or chaperoning students. Ever. You do not "spend time with" members of the opposite (or same, if that's your persuasion) sex when you are in charge of or chaperoning students. Ever. You do not do ANYTHING illegal. You do not speed, you do not ignore the "this van stops at every railroad track" on the school vehicle, you do not make personal calls or spend your time doing personal things. You are at work. Work, people. Not vacation, not fun times, not let loose times.

Now. I have seen a coworker of mine get involved with a student. I was VERY young, like I think my first or second year of teaching and I did not want to get into that fiasco, but I did voice my opinions to my administrators. This co-worker was encouraged to resign at the end of the school year, which they did and started a personal business out of their home. I could NOT believe this person and holy cow, the student that was the "involvee"??? Wow. Not someone to write home about. But I've seen this happen. I know HOW it happens. I know what happens AFTER. I know what it does to the entire faculty and community. It.Is.Not.Good. So for God's sake, if you are in charge of children/adolescents, keep your fricken distance and act like the adult the state thought was good enough to license.

It really makes me sad that this happens. I really, really does because I think it's completely senseless. I don't care what other industries do. I don't care if the manager at McDonald's is sleeping with all his employees or doing bong hits all night in his office. -well I kinda do cuz that's just not right and it's likely a case of manipulation or something worse. But I really care that the "industry" of education has this problem. And you know, these aren't always "bad" people. They are often people who made an honest to God, STUPID mistake. Now the dude in Buffalo, MN who was caught sending nasty explicit notes to students, that's gross and that was NOT a mistake and I question the guy's "goodness" as a person anyway. But still. It pisses me off.

I think it pisses me off because I'm proud of my work and I know I'm in the right field and when people screw up like this or people are just predatory and gross about stuff like this...it pisses me off because they are tearing down my chosen profession. They are perpetuating the public's ignorance that teachers are stupid, money-grubbing, unfair, lazy, uncouth, and just in it for 3 things: June, July & August. That pisses me off. A lot. I'm not teaching anymore, but I'm still a teacher, Goddamnit. I still take offense to that and feel, actually...a bit betrayed by a comrade. And from my side of the world now, the ivory tower of administration? This kind of shit is a pain in the ASS. Holy God. I cannot even BEGIN to describe what a royal pain the ass this kind of stuff is. That pisses me off too.

I don't like having to tell adults they are doing a shitty job or that they need to get their act together. I don't like telling adults to stop their infighting and get along with each other. But, oftentimes, on several days actually, that is my job. Not in so many words...but in "constructive" and "positive" words. And let me tell you, when something pisses you off to no end and it's the same old thing over and over and over even though you've been beating your head against the wall for this faculty member or going above and beyond to assist them and they STILL act like an idiot...being constructive and positive is HARD and takes all of your energy. You are zapped.

So educators, anyone who works with children and adolescents -and our vulnerable populations as well, GROW THE FUCK UP and quit acting like retards.

Sorry Sarah Palin. Yep, I said it--retard. Gonna chastise me??? Then you need to build a time machine and go back in time and change your answer of agreement and your support to Rush Limbaugh when he called liberals retards. He calls A LOT of people retards. Yet you fancy him still. Huh. I've said it before and I'll say it again. You are not a true advocate for people with disabilities. So maybe you too, should GROW THE FUCK UP and quit acting like a retard. You should also know, people with cognitive deficits are not "retards"; people who are able bodied, able minded, and who HAVE cognitive blessings but who act like they have no brains and talk out of their ass with the sweet stench of hypocrisy are retards. Get it right and stick to a belief no matter which side of the line uses derogatory slang.

Whew. Time for a diet rootbeer.

Meeting Goals

Today I'm gonna talk about goals. When I was a kid, I don't know if I knew what goals were. Not really. I knew what my teachers thought were goals -and I knew what the President said fitness goals were supposed to be. Geez, I hated that physical fitness crap we had to do each year. That was dumb. I could do tons of situps, but when it came to running, I SUCKED. No one saw how many situps you did, but EVERYONE could see how slow you were at running. That in itself sucked. So I thought goals were stupid and made abstractly. I didn't have "goals", I had dreams or hopes of things to happen in the future.

So then I grew up and went to college and was able to work with a great group of people who not only taught me leadership and tolerance, but also taught me the importance of self-development and setting goals for oneself. I finally "got it". Still, my goals were mostly abstract.

When I started working at Norman County East, I found something to ambition towards. I decided I wanted to be a special education director. I was about 27yrs old when I figured this out and at that same age, I made a flexible 5yr plan and 10 yr plan. I started taking a graduate level class and the next year, I entered my masters program in ed administration, thinking to myself that I'd like to have my masters by the time I'm 30. My goal for special ed director's license was age 35-ish. My goal for landing a full directorship job was 40years old.

So, let's see how I've been doing. I got my masters in 2004. I was actually 31-1/2. I had my special ed director's license in 2008. I was 35.

I'm not 36 (almost 37) and I've got a specialist degree and an administration job. I have about 3 more years to get that director's job.

You know what?? I realized today finally, that if I stay here and things go alright and nothing strange or majorly crazy happens, I WILL be a director by the time I'm 40. Let me tell you the story.

My boss has been telling me for months that he is hoping I'll stick around for a long time here because he retires in 2 years. So next year 2010-2011 and the next 2011-2012 until he's done. He "expects" me to take over his spot. And I say expects not like figures I'll do that or just takes for granted that I will want that, he EXPECTS me to...he is deliberately counting on me to "take over"! I had been blowing that off all fall because I didn't believe him nor wanted to really invest a lot of time thinking about it because I wasn't sure I even wanted to stay here. -and it felt a little "dad-ish" to me for him to believe that...cuz really, who is he to tell me what to do! LOL His master plan is this: 2010-2011 I be offered an assistant director contract for the cooperative; 2011-2012 I be offered a director contract for the cooperative; and then when he's retired and living the easy breezy life (his words! LOL), 2012-2013 I be offered a director contract for the cooperative AND Grand Rapids (his district). The whole kit-n-kaboodle.

So today I was visiting with the superintendent who is the board chairperson and "in charge" of contracts/negotiations of the cooperative and he has similar ideas. When I was driving home it hit me -Holy God....I am going to be a REAL full director before or at the age of 40. I will turn 40 during the 2012-2013 school year. In three years. Wow. That completely snuck up on me. How often does that happen??

I think this goes to show how hard work, dedication, and being a good person pays off -and how it does so behind the scenes. I've been just trucking away dealing with this and that...I had a crazy fall and honestly my dear blog reader, I don't remember much of November. Or half of October for that matter...or the first few weeks of December. However, during this time my performance and my personality, I've been told, sealed my future with this place and convinced my board to offer me a contract for next year. That's a nice feeling. After Christmas, January was crazy, but still not as crazy as the fall, but I've noticed in myself that I've been making much more decisions and taking more "chances" I never would have been comfortable with in even November. All of a sudden I've grown and all of a sudden, I've realized the pay off and realize that I'm on the right track -I always was. Still, it feels like I've stumbled into a gift, an unexpected fortune.

Now, this all could go down the toilet depending on what this board offers me in an assistant director contract. They assure me it will be a "substantial increase" from my coordinator's contract...but MY idea of "substantial increase" and theirs is likely very different. So if it's not my idea, or close to it...then I'm doing some serious job searching elsewhere for a position with compensation that reflects the job more appropriately. That will push my timeline back a bit, but I'm much more flexible about that than I am fair compensation. However, I have faith that things will work out well here.

But wow. I'm on a path here: I WILL be a director, likely BEFORE I'm 40. That kicks ass.