sorry if you hate this sort of thing, but I'd like to point out I'm never, almost never here. Add me on facebook, Betsy Norris in Phx. (My picture is currently Laverne :)

I've been doing this meme since 2003, but I skipped last year. Here's a link to 2006 meme, with links to previous years, if you really care.


1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before?
worked a full time job, written a grant-ish proposal and had it funded

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I have no idea, I don't think I made any.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
my sis-in-law. <3 ella

4. Did anyone close to you die?
My Great Aunt Martha, was not close to me but was a really neat lady that I loved to visit on her farm when I was a kid

5. What countries did you visit?
zilch, no other states either, I don't think. omg.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?
a house :X

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
the day I got my job

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
finding my job, starting school with less than a week to move and prepare!

9. What was your biggest failure?
getting sick

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
same old, same old

11. What was the best thing you bought?
dolls ;)

14. Where did most of your money go?
moving, bills, same old little comforts.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
teaching, new books for my kids, dolls ;)

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?
---

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder? happier
Older or wiser? wiser
Thinner or fatter? :I
Richer or poorer? I don't know.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Taking care of Betsy. (again)

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
blaming myself. (again) obsessing about keeping a job that wasn't right

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
with Ella and her 'rents

22. Did you fall in love in 2008?
all over again. (again)

23. How many one-night stands?
same nightstands

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Pushing Daisies

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
the people who made my first year of teaching suck

26. What was the best book you read?
Kiki Strike, Extras, ...i guess I do not read grown up books anymore.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I need to start a club for people who just aren't music-listeners. (still)

28. What did you want and get?
a new job. dolls. :)

29. What did you want and not get?
somewhere permanent to live

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Secret Life of Bees

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was teaching. Kids threw markers. 29

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
not worrying so much about leaving my crappy job

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?
eclectic marm

34. What kept you sane?
mimi, books, funny coworkers, and of course omar

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

bleh

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
hope

37. Who did you miss?
I'm sick of thinking about it.(still)

38. Who was the best new person you met?

All my coworkers and most of my students!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008:
sequence

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"sail away, sail away, sail away" =P

Just when I felt like making a whiny, aimless post about how teaching sucks away every last bit of my energy, my huzbin arrives home with burritos! Score for you!

...

I wonder how many hundred breaks I'll spend in bed if I truly am going to be a career educator. I am so sick of it. So boring. Even with Harry Potter audiobooks, and the entire series of Spaced. Even with browsing black friday deals online (none for me but a veritable goldmine for the boy). I got my flu shot, damn it! This should not happen!
Thankfully we found a rogue Advair and I'm just snorting as much Zicam as I need to to get enough air.
SO MUCH WORK NOT DONE!
Am I the crappiest teacher ever? I don't remember waiting a month or longer to get tests back, but it's possible I did. Of course, I didn't have many teachers who were new-ish. But even still.
Now I have novel packets which seemed like a good idea before when I didn't have to grade them, but now they're just riding around in my car. Oh yes, I have a new donors choose proposal, which I know might seem excessive, but I am still trying to fill my small bookshelf! Next semester we're going to have a competition to see which class can read the most words per student.
So please give or repost this as you see fit. If you take the time to read the proposal, you can have some insight into what a difference the new books have made to my kids already:

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=230741

For what we have, by giving to others who might lose what they have.
via heavenscalyx, please give if you can and repost this link to help a family keep their home.

Read and give here: help a family.

At some point in my life it was always 7 p.m. and I was exhausted and that was when we'd be deciding if we had any chance of going out at all.
Lately it has always been 9 p.m. and I have no muster to up to shower and work that's not done. Therefore I choose doing nothing until it is time for Harry Potter audio book at around 11.

I don't get how this happens, but it does.

frogbooooooooooootsvalentine.

3-ish more months until 30.

I am not sleeping, I am just not.
sigh.

Hello lj, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again.


...


I can't sleep.



...


like, since forever.


---

ETA: it's too fucking hot for November, period, desert withstanding! I don't care.

Entered polling place: 2:50
Exited polling place: 3:10

That was a false start, I had to walk back to the car to get a utility bill. There was no line. Some people who voted in South Phoenix (coworkers) got there at 6 and were in line for two hours.

Location: North Phoenix, AZ (Washington HS)


I'm too lazy to take a picture of my "I voted" sticker, from the Phoenix Realtors Association.

We saw a stray dog during a dust storm last weekend, who was very sweet and confused and in distress. Then this morning I saw a cat that looked very much like MiMi who had been hit by a car on the on-ramp to the freeway. I narrowly avoided hitting this animal and was very upset and had no idea what I should do.
Now that I'm thinking more clearly, I've entered numbers into my phone that I can call to report injured animals. It was scary because I couldn't have pulled over at that time, and I am not desensitized to dealing with those situations at all. So I decided to make a donation to the humane society in honor of the kitty. I chose the humane society and not a no kill shelter, because no matter how much we hate euthanasia, it is a reality here in AZ where we have the nation's second largest animal shelter, with hundreds of dogs and cats coming in per day.
I'm asking you to take a moment to look up your local animal control and humane society numbers and put them in your cell phone, so if you are faced with this type of situation you have a choice to help an animal in distress. The numbers for Maricopa County are:
http://www.maricopa.gov/Pets/FAQs.aspx

Animal control (report injured or dead animals within Phoenix)
602 506 7387
AZ Humane society: injured animals: 602 997 7585
DPS: live animals on freeways: 602 223 2000

Where I post the link for donating goodies to my classroom! This time it is a big old batch of shiny new YA lit to tempt those little angels into reading more. :) I got the other books funded in record time through people forwarding the info to their people, so please don't feel like you can't help if you can't give cash! Thanks so much. I can't believe it's time to go back to school tomorrow. Yikes!

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=218679

Thanks for reading,
Betsy

The Bard in the Hood"

I'm raising money to buy a class set of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream to teach to my 8th graders in my Title 1 school. Any amount appreciated! You can donate through this awesome website and they'll ship me the books when all the money is raised. Thanks so much for your interest and support.

I'm so like anti lj lately. it's like totally over.
Actually I'm just like bitter because like no one here like cares about my dollies.
BUT I BET YOU'D CARE IF I GOT A FULL TIME TEACHING JOB?! I BET YOU'D CARE IF TODAY WAS MY FIRST DAY! I BET YOU'D CARE IF I WAS HIRED LAST TUESDAY!??? What about then, suckers??????

Also, the condo is ready and we are moving in LIKE TOMORROW.

It's good to be back with less privileged kids again.

HOW many Chipolte burritos will it take to get us back to a place where we can cook again?

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks! Copy the text below, erase my answers, then use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things.. nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial.. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Betsy
4 LETTER WORD: boob
BOY NAME: Brandon
GIRL NAME: Bea
OCCUPATION: barrista
A COLOUR: Brown
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Boots, of course
BEVERAGE: beer
FOOD: blintz
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: bathtub
PLACE: Bosnia
REASON FOR BEING LATE: botched botox
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: BOTHERATION!

Srsly. All I want to do until August.

uh.

the anxiety dreams have started.

Tessa is my shadow self, INTJ. She avoids company, hisses often, gets bossed around, hides in the unused room, and does not like cuddling by humans under any circumstances. She will rough house with Zeke and she has a complicated relationship with MiMi that is rather s/m.
She has gorgeous round yellow-amber eyes, a white "locket", and is the softest cat you've ever felt, IF you can get your hands on her. She has never had her claws trimmed, I can't imagine.
I love her pure and chaste from afar.



When they're all together, it's newsworthy:

I'm being forced off my internet homestead! No, not geocities or angelfire, but my old version of My Yahoo with the purple circles! I've had that damn page for well nigh 10 years, and they're like "this version of my yahoo will shut down in 6 days. Don't worry, we've already moved your page to the new my yahoo." Well, I tried the new my yahoo and it sucks!
Bastards. If it weren't for the vast proliferation of crap that come to that email account, I'd move over permanently to igoogle with the sun rising and setting in the header. It's better than the real damn Arizona sun.

Really. Anyway. Maybe I'll just turn into one of those nihilists who sets their home page to nothing.

That's all I care about anymore.
In case any of you are not on flickr, and are dying to meet my dolls, that's what I'm going to do! I've been having a great time making clothes for them and trying to sort of learn to sew. Here are my girls in dresses I made for them. Omar and I are also working on a Blythe database site that a big project, but he's using it as an excuse to learn a new programming language.

Garnet, my first doll, is something of a diva.



Clever Leigh is kind of sweet and shy.



And Alonza (Allons y!) is quirky.



doll blog.

and on top of everything, nobody will believe me that Voldemort is back.