Weepy

The other day I was driving home and started to think about what I might say to my students on the last week of school. How do you say goodbye when you don't want to?

wedding in 10 days!

Today I took a mental health day from work. I needed it to run the last minute errands for the wedding. I finally sat down and thought about my vows. I am not sure where to begin? I thought about what I might want to say:

How I knew he was the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with?
What I love most about him?
What are my promises?

Am I suppose to memorize this? Of course in the process of trying to write my vows I got totally distracted by this:

I'm 1 of the 8,800 Pinked Slipped

Sigh..just when I thought things were turning around... I got pink slipped. Okay so it wasn't really news, since I have been working with my school site union on actions since January. I will be waiting anxiously to see if some one is going to bump me out of a job. To add insult to injury, if I get bumped by an administrator/bureaucrat they will still be making their $150000 salary. Jesus, that is enough for three newer teachers that are getting laid off. The madness!
Mike, was offered a job and it might be me looking for a job in a few months. So I can feel blessed by that, but everytime I head down to the district downtown office I can feel the rage boiling up inside me. They spent more money on security than the federal reserve. Why do they need that many police officers, clerks, and high tech badge shit! Okay now I am ranting.

On a lighter note...well more inspirational note...
I went to the protest to disrupt the Board vote to allow the RIF (lay off ) letters. And as we were chatting our No Budget Cut No More...we see a busload of students from CEJ arrive. It was awesome. It was great to see the support the students and community members. I am even in the LA Times.

If you look at the top right, next to the woman with the sunglasses, that is the back of my head. And directly across from me is my colleague who is also getting pinked, Jimenez. Its our 10 second of fame.

For my valentine one week late..

The DIY mania

Even though we are planning for the wedding, it feels like we are falling into a routine. Although there is only two months left to our big day! We invited our wedding party over for a breakfast brunch. It was nice to introduce them to each other instead of meeting for the first time at the rehearsal. We also needed nimble hands to put together our programs. After hours of cutting and cutting and cutting here is our final product:

Mike and I have been going to Michael's every week for their make your own sale 40% to get materials for the wedding. That is how we scored our invitations to about 50 cent each. We also decided to give our lovely flower girl this:

We figured she will be running around like a four year old should and this would be durable. And she can play with it. Fake flowers are tacky? It cost me $4 to put it together and wrap brown ribbon around it.








My final DIY test run is my mason jar idea: Wrapped some brown and pink ribbons around a $1.89 jar. I will fill it with flowers from the whole sale district (picture right next to it). So the total cost for the center piece should be about $15. Plus I have find some votive candles. Question:Should we add our monogram somewhere on the jar or leave it be?

My Birthday

Umemployment and Vacation

Mike and I have been spending 24-7 together for the last few weeks. He got laid-off and we are both getting a little freaked out by the news. It has been a real test for our relationship to have that much together time. It sometimes feels like we are marooned on an island. But its going pretty well, we have a routine and I am keeping myself busy. I am really freaked out about the possibility of going on strike in January. Sigh...who is going to bail us out?