today, i told my 4th graders to make a balanced, healthy meal using ingredients that i gave them.

here is what one group wrote:

-cereal, raisins, sugar (hmm...without the sugar it's not bad.)

-bread, ham, mayo, tomato, lettuce (nothing out of the ordinary)

-crackers, cool whip, salt (WHAT?!?!  ahahahah...i don't even know what to think about this one)

btw...they are driving me crazy!  but tomorrow is a new day.  i hope it's better.

so there's this HUGE spider living in the corner of my room...it made a web near the ceiling.  so i don't know if i should kill it cuz it hasn't moved in the past 3 days and i know that they're harmless.  and there are a lot of bugs that fly into my room in general (cuz there are holes in the screen door!) so i think the spider eats a lot of those bugs...right?  haha...i feel really hippy saying this.  "i'm going to cohabitate (is that even a word?) with a spider so it can catch the other bugs that come into my room."  haha..am i being completely dumb?  should i just kill it?  or...you know, release it back outside?

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i think my mom killed it...cuz it's gone, web and all!

life has changed A LOT in the past week and a half.  since i finished grad school apps back in december, i've pretty much been playing/doing whatever i want, waiting for grad school to start.  well, it's started and it's been INTENSE.  i wake up every day around 5:45 (the earlier the better) so that i can make it out the door around 6:45 (again the earlier the better) to beat the traffic to ucla.  my commute time varies, but it always takes around an hour.    i was so lucky last year...i could WALK to work.  it was a 3 minute drive to the school that i worked at, or an 8 minute walk.  i was SOOO LUCKY.  even the 15-20 min walk to tolman was fine compared to this hour-long commute.  it's okay though, i'm getting used to it. 

we had orientation all last week and it was the most draining orientation i've ever had.  who does orientation for 4 days straight?!  it was mostly icebreakers/getting to know you activities and meeting LOTS of people.  i think that part is the most draining for me.  having high energy and trying to find something in common.

we have soooo much reading to do.  after the first day, only two classes had assigned reading and it was totally doable.  now, all the classes have assigned reading and it's crazy!  my attention span has gotten really short.  last night, i couldn't sit for more than 15 minutes to read an article.  i had to keep getting up, going to the bathroom, getting water, etc...  SIGH.  again, something that i have to get used to.

my team is made up of 11 girls and 6 are asian...which we all noticed.  the first day, all the asians sat together to eat lunch.  hahah..it was kinda funny.  one of the girls asked the people on our team if we wanted to eat together and only the asians had lingered.  everyone else had bolted.  haha.  interesting.

anyways..i have to go get ready to work on a group presentation.  SIGH.  it's beginning.  the madness.

my sleep pattern has been crazy since last week.  i think my body has been trying to get as much sleep as possible in an attempt to ward off sickness.  everyone around me has been sick...co-workers, friends, kids...so i've been taking emergen-c, airborne, echinacea, etc...and i think it's been working because i haven't gotten sick yet.  anyways, so i've been sleeping a lot these days.  sleeping really early and waking up pretty late. 

yesterday, i came home from work and i was super tired, so i had dinner, watched some tv, and then went into my bed around 8pm.  i was really cold for some reason, so i just stayed there for a while.  i guess i fell asleep cuz i woke up around 11 or 12 maybe because joann was typing.  and then i woke up again at 3am cuz my back hurt so badly.  i tried changing positions, turning my pillow, and sleeping on the floor but nothing worked.

so, i've been up for the past two and a half hours watching random clips on the computer.  my back doesn't hurt so much anymore.  but i don't remember the last time i got a full night of restful sleep and woke up feeling refreshed.  it makes me sad because i feel like i'm sleeping a lot these days, but my sleep doesn't feel productive.  these days i wake up with back and neck pain and i feel so old.  i'm 22!  what's going on?

i'm seriously considering buying one of those tempur-pedic mattress pads.  supposedly they help.  also, stronger abs are supposed to contribute to a stronger back.  i'm working on that too.  now that spring is coming, that means my allergies are probably going to come back.  i've enjoyed allergy-less nights for the past 3 months or so.  i'm not looking forward to waking up to a stuffed nose and itchy, watery eyes. 

what a debbie downer entry.  haha.  anyways, maybe i'll try to go back to sleep for a couple of hours.  and maybe i'll take a trip to the mattress store on ashby tomorrow.  good thing i got my tax refund back.  =)