melaniethinks

Well I have to say that it has been a good week

Good news #1
I was hired at Immaculate Conception Elementary School. I will be teaching first grade. I am terribly excited. This morning I signed my contract and saw my classroom. The classroom is small but my class size is going to be small too. The room is also bare. I went to Knowledge Tree today to start buying and pricing things I will need for the room. I also spoke with the other first grade teacher and was relieved to find out that she wants to plan with me every week. This is an extremely useful thing for all teachers but is pretty much a necessity for a first year teacher. I was afraid that I was going to end up teaching in a school where the other teachers kept me out the loop or closed themselves off to me.

Good news #2
I am going to Disney World!!! I have never been before. My vacation is going to begin in Disney World and end at Patrick's family reunion in Gulf Shores. The relaxation will begin on July 31st and last until August 9th.

Check it out

Has anyone ever seen a changing station in a men's bathroom? Patrick had a picture of a sign for a men's bathroom which alerted the user that there is a changing station in the bathroom. I have never seen this before but then again I have never seen a sign notifying women that there is a changing station in the woman's bathroom. I just can't picture a baby being changed in the filth of a men's room but it would be horribly sexists to only have changing stations in the women's restroom.

Today I went to the Stax museum in Memphis. It was quite moving. I have been listening to Otis Redding, Staples, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T. and the Mg's on you tube for most of the evening.I plan on going to the library tomorrow to check out some CD's.

Before going to the museum I was not aware that Stax was one of the few integrated businesses of the time. The NAACP was constantly checking on the label's business policies because they were very concerned that the African American's were not being given their fair share. It was also depressing to learn that the label crumbled after Martin Luther King's death because race became such an issue in the city and for the first time in the label's history.

The museum is located in one of the poorest area of the city. I made a wrong turn attempting to find the parking lot and ended up on a street with mostly boarded up houses and witnessing a very shady transaction. The neighborhood looks almost identical to the way it appears in the museum movies and pictures. The only difference now is the paint is more chipped, houses have boarded windows and some of the cars that drive by our from the 80's and 90's. It was
eerie how little the aesthetics changed.

The museum displayed many artifacts such as clothing, instruments records and Issac Hayes's caddy. Talk about pimped out! The Cadillac had a gold plated bumper, fender and windshield wipers. The back seat had a wet bar and there was a 10 inch black and white TV attached to the floor in the front of the car. The floor of the car was covered in fur along with the interior of each door. It was a sight. The museum also tried explaining the label's place in time and how the label did some reacting and shaping of the times.

I have been in a music slump. I wanted to learn some more about "soul music". It is a genre I have never really explored. So far I am liking it. I like how the music is intensely, passionate and energetic yet soothing and relaxing.

The sky is gray but what a beautiful day it is. The semester is over!!! These 8 week semesters are starting to catch up with me. No school until July!! However, now it is time to take a million Praxis tests. 3 tests will cost a grand total of $310.00. I hate ets with a passion.

I joined Kappa Delta Pi which is the education honor society. My chapter is Omega-Omega. Joining allows me to have a place to publish research and find educational resources and materials. I also get to wear something special over my robes when I graduate and put the honor society on my vitae. I did not walk when I graduated UNO so the robes are a little too exciting to me. I find it strange how much I used to loathe ceremonies and now I am completely taken by rites of passages. Patrick and I are starting to plan our wedding and I am loving every second of it! I am also very excited about graduating CBU. I think I used to hate rites of passages and ceremonies because I was not proud nor did I care too much about the things the ceremonies were attached to. I did not care much for high school so I did not go to prom. By the time I graduated UNO I was not even passionate about my major. I just graduated in sociology because it made sense with the amount of credits I had accumulated. However, I am very excited about teaching and becoming a reading specialist further down the line. So I want to do all those little foolish things like walk across the stage and be a part of the honor society. I love Patrick and want to partake in a ceremony with him because I am proud and feel honored and fortunate to have what we have. These are all new feelings to me.

This is my second home. It is a coffee shop in Memphis called Otherlands. One of the reasons I love it so much is because they have a gigantic deck surrounded by foliage. The coffee is good too.








Even when you are inside the coffee shop it feels like you are outside because there is a lot of natural light and plants all around. This is the place where I get the majority of my school work done.

So I was watching a video clip this morning that makes me smile when I wake up and had the urge to put it on live journal. I think all of Johnathan and Mellisa's hilarious and bizarre videos made me want to post one.


Happy Mornings - For more funny movies, click here

This weekend was the best. I was lucky enough to have a birthday around the same time as Hayley's wedding. This means that my birthday was more special by thousands of degrees. The entire weekend was so memorable and fun. Friday night was "adult bingo" which met all of my expectations. Karaoke was pretty fantastic.



Before Hayley's wedding there was a fabulous brunch at the Windsor Court. This is the view from the balcony on the 23rd floor.

After the Windsor court Johnny, Patrick and I popped into the Casino. Then we went home and got ready. The wedding was at The Columns hotel so we decided to get some Margaritas at Superior Grill before the wedding began. The wedding ceremony took place outside and the reception was inside the hotel. It was absolutely gorgeous.




Then the wedding took over the Mayfair





After the Mayfair Patrick, Prachi, Randy and myself went out to meet some other friends to celebrate my birthday. We got home around six A.M. I am sorry I kept everyone out so long but I had a really good time.

The next day Thrace had a crawfish boil at his dad's house. Rob broiled the craw-daddies and they were excellent. Apparently while we were in New Orleans Memphis received about four inches of snow. When we got home there was still a little snow on our lawn so I made a baby snowman...



which I now keep in my freezer.