Chain Smoking Neighbor

The chick that lives below me is a chain smoker... up until last Friday she just smoked cigarettes... but on Friday night when I arrived home early (before bar time). I walked into the building to the smell of pot... I thought maybe I was just really out of it but as I enter into my apt... which is above hers, with shared vents I was bombarded with the certain odor of marijuana. Lovely. What is really funny about it is... she and whoever she was with got silent when I got home and didn't talk for a long time... like a half hour... I think they were scared... Muuuuahaha...!! But being the nice neighbor I am... I didn't really care and was exhausted and drunkish... so, I was about to pass out anyway.

Now tonight she is standing on the front step... outside this time smoking cigs... which is annoying.... but again... I just shut the window. Hopefully, when I have friends over again at 3 or 4am... she won't come up and pound on my door and scream like crazy.... like last time. It was actually comical as she apologized to me a few days later.... but imagine dealing with Brazilian guys, that just yell at her and say... 'she just needs a good f##k' and to go away. Again... funny.

Alright... I have some work to do... and later some international phone calls to make via skype!! Yay.

Sleeping In

I can never get enough sleep on week days... its like pulling teeth to get out of bed. I push the snooze button and struggle imensely.
On weekends... at least the last two Saturdays.... I cannot sleep. This week I woke up at 6am and couldn't go back to sleep. :( Which is annoying as I wanted to sleep in... but nooooooooo. So, I guess I'll go walk around Lake Calhoun now... and get some exercise before it gets really busy over there.

Domestic Violence

I watched Dr. Phil today. It is about a husband who stalks his wife.
He holds hostage of this woman... mental, monetary and physical hostage.
It is crazy. He taps phone lines, reads her email, threatens her, follows her, ETC ETC ETC.

I worked in DV. I do not understand why people stay in these situations. Most DV advocates say that you cannot change a person until they are ready. You could tell them to leave 1 million times but until they are ready nothing you say or do will change. I cannot imagine how low this woman's self-esteem maybe that she just takes this shit and doesn't leave.

DV happens in so may forms and is not just physical. Victims must know that it is not their fault and that they deserve better and they can get out. There is a better life. If they are here illegally they can go to the police, they can get legal help to protect their children and regain control of life.

Life

The week was almost over... I do not have any big plans for the weekend. I have to write all aspects of a curriculm unit for my class.... that's about it. Oh... and teach Spanish on Sunday which means I cannot drink too much Saturday night... which is fine at my local Saturday Latin night spot is closed this Saturday.

I am getting excited... less than 3 weeks until SD.

Virginia Tech Shooting

Another school shooting. What is wrong with people? I do not understand how and why someone could do this. Nothing is worth killing so many innocent people. An individual would have to be entirely mentally unstable to do this. As everyone else is, I'm interested to find out the motive of this situation. Though the initial shooting seemed to have a domestic focus, I wonder if the later shooting was at a planned, premeditated location. I hear that most the deaths happened in a 1st German class. Which is scary. As a teacher... anything that has to do with violence in the schools scares me. Also, another thought... schools should have doors that lock on the inside. Most doors can only be lock via keys on the outside. Though this may not have much influence, it could save lives in the future.

Please pray and think positive thoughts for the people in the Virginia Tech Community and their families.

My life is so... BLAH!

Procrastination filled weekend... I had good intentions... but yeah... nothing has happened yet in the studying/doing projects/lesson plans department yet.

I am however going to R's birthday party... that is promised to be very interesting. Imagine a whole bunch of angry women that are still in love with him in the same room. I think L and I will be the only ones that have never hooked up with him before... hopefully some hot new Brazilians I have ever seen before show up...

Alright... back to doing nothing.... my damn ipod froze... so, I'm listening to music on my compu and ponder life, men and friendship as usual.

Chaucito! Mando besos a todos.

I PASSSSSSSED....

On March 3rd, I took the PRAXIS II Test which is required to be a Spanish teacher. It went ok... but was a really weird situation and everyone else that was testing had already failed several times. It was half oral and half written... for the oral part I had to speak into a tape recorder which is fine... but the problem was 3 other people answering the same exact question at the same exaxt time into their tape recorders. The questions were open ended, narratives, restatements, arguments, etc... and we had 2-3 mins to record our answers for each questions. There was no going back... just time to talk....
After getting a little thrown off on the first question... because I am SOOOOO easily distracted... and I could hear everyone around me saying things that I was about to say, or should have said, etc....I decided that I was going to pass this test and I didn't care who I took down in the process. So, my strategy for the rest of the oral test was to cover my ears and speak loudly.... yeah, I may have caused others to fail... but I got my results in the mail today and I passed on my first try. YAY!!!

Update

Let's see... I'm utterly exhausted... I haven't felt this run down in a while. I have been sleeping for almost 3 days straight... I wake up for a few hours... and then go back to sleep... I feel like I am just weighed down by this virus... not fun.

I did make to my families Easter festivities for less than two hours today. Had a little food... chatted with a some cousins and aunts then left.

At the moment, I am waiting for a calll about the show tonight... hopefully my friend forgot or died or something so I don't have to go... but I have never known him to pass up a party. Especially since I agreed to pay cover. AND I don't care how sick I am if there are dominicans (which there will be)... I am going.

I called my friend yesterday in DR... she started her pasantia... in La Vega last Monday... shit is tough... they moved from their apt., her husband doesn't have a job. There is something about the people in DR... at least the people that I know. They seem to have so little, have have many hardships, or constant hardships but yet they take each day as it is and seem to be happy and can enjoy things that people in my country cannot. They enjoy the little things in life; food, music, dominoes, rum... etc... and they get thru. it... So, when I think I have it rough and want to complain I need to reflect and realize that I am just being dramatic once again.

Sick, Sadness and Procrastination

I'm sick with the flu or something wonderful. I has been coming on slowly since last Monday but didn't hit until late Thursday night... when I tried to go so sleep after dancing until 2:30am... I just keep coughing myself awake... then I spent the majority of Friday sleeping on my futon or feeling sorry for myself... and I woke up almost without a voice.

I'm sad because I talked to a friend in the DR last night and he told me that his wife had a problem during her pregnancy last week and their baby was born alive (only 20-21 weeks) and later died. My friend is trying to be strong and logical about it... thinking about it as a doctor (which he is)... what should have been done that wasn't and what can they change so the next baby makes it thru. the pregnancy. This is tragic... very sad and to make it worse I already gave them a baby gift.... what an idiot. I should have waited until it was born. I told him that they will learn from this experience and need to be strong and go forward... Sometimes it sucks to be soo far away from people that you care about as you can't just reach out and give them a hug when they need it.

Procrastinating... as you all know I'm an expert at this... I am actually not procrastinating at the moment. Working on some stuff for my online class.... but I really should be working on a lesson I need to present to my colleagues on Tuesday evening... as, I am going out tomorrow night and have family stuff during the day.... oh well.... if need be...I'll be sick Monday...

I'm going out tonight... I'm going the non-Latin route... as of the moment... Though things may change. I went out to 1st Ave Thursday night with R and some of his friends.... I had a great time.... and a group of Mexicana's want to hangout with me again soon... because I am so cool... and I am more Latina than them... ;)

Sick and Procrastination

I'm sick... it's good I am pretty much not working this week... only 1-3 hours a day.

I need to study and getting working on stuff for grad school... but as usual I am not doing that... just avoiding it and getting overwhelmed thinking about it... I sure am crazy... but at least I can admit it.

We are preparing our Spanish classes for the end of the year show/presentation/recital.... mine are doing well... but most of the 1st graders (especially the ninos) think they are tooooo cool to sing. Though singing really isn't my preferred method of teaching, it is really the only thing that works (read: is aloud) for the show. Only a few more weeks. On a good note, at my private lessons at the really wealthy families house the two youngest girls are begging their mom to have me come at least once more each week. Tonight, when my time with the 3rd grader was ending she said to me...'how 'bout we make the lesson longer tonight.... can you stay until 10?'... I say no...'tengo q ir a mi casa' and she said...'pllllllease... how about until 9pm then'.... nice, right?!

Ok... must go do something that is not important at all...

This is what I will be going after eating a nice Easter feast.....

Xtreme at Karma, next Sunday night.....