back in (cyber) town

Hi, um, I don’t know if you remember me? My name is Willow and I used to hang out here a lot? Heh heh, yeah I know it’s been a while, but it’s just that I’ve been out of town (meaning off the Internet) for a while. It’s not that I don’t like it here, I totally do! In fact I hope to be spending a lot more time here in the near future getting reacquainted with the place, catching up with the regulars- you know. I wanna get back in my zone.
The last couple weeks of school were pretty rough- Halloween plus rain-induced indoor recesses made for cranky kids and cranky teachers. Whoever invented indoor recess is a jerk and I hate him. Guess where the kids go during indoor recess? My classroom! Which means I can’t zone out at my desk eating carrots and reading UHX because there is too much screaming and block-throwing. Send them out in the rain, that’s what I say! A little drizzle never hurt anyone. (Though I don’t know if you can call the Pineapple Express storm that’s been tearing through this town drizzle. Whatever.) All I’m saying is that in Denver recess was always outside- often in huge snowstorms. We all bundled up in snowpants and parkas and trudged around the schoolyard while our nose-hair froze and sealed our nostrils shut. That’s what recess is all about! Being miserable OUTSIDE, not making your teachers miserable inside.
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Man, I can’t believe that of all the teacher-y things I wanted to complain about on my blog I decided on indoor recess. Weird.
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In other news my kitty is nice and snuggly and nice. Really nice. It’s strange to come home in the evening and have this warm, living thing greet me at the door all purring and cute. I pick him up and I can feel his little ribs and his little skull when I pet him. There is an animal living in my home! A domesticated beast curled up on my couch RIGHT NOW! It sorta blows my mind. Pets are good. I recommend that people get pets.
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As I type this I have two space heaters blowing directly on me but I am still cold. The boiler in my building is on the fritz, which basically means that any time I want heat I have to call my property manager who lives off site to come over and reset the boiler. It’s a jacked up system, considering sometimes I get home late at night or wake up early in the morning and am cold and can’t get ahold of her. I don’t understand why she doesn’t get the boiler fixed. This has been going on for two months now! She can’t enjoy getting phone calls at all hours about the same damn issue. I think she’s getting annoyed with me, and I don’t blame her. But damn! Fix the boiler! Josh looked up tenants rights for me and said that inconsistent heat is grounds for me to withhold my rent. I don’t want to go into all of that because I like my apartment and the owners of the building and even my property manager, but honestly it’s ridiculous. I don’t want to wear a coat and hat in my own home! What should I do? I called the lady today and left a message about turning on the heat and mentioned that I’d been looking into tenants rights, and would “love to talk to her about my findings.” Which sounds so passive-aggressive and I hate it! I sort of blurted it out and now I feel embarrassed. How do people deal with these things?
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I have a regular week at school starting tomorrow, and then I have not kids for the whole week of Thanksgiving! Monday and Tuesday are planning days and then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are straight up vacay days. Then I have three full weeks of school and then two weeks off for winter break. I’m soooooo looking forward to these breaks. Right now I don’t feel like Willow that often. I feel like Ms Teacher Lady and Ms Grumpy Blob. I’m hoping that time away from my class will restore some of my personality. A trip to Denver will surely help a lot. I miss those friends keenly.
Other people I miss right this second:
* Allison Halter
* Tom D (who warned me against turning Perfect Heart into a cat blog)
* Sweet Lu
* Dublin homies
Wow, blogging is fun- I should do it more often!