Last Day of Test Scoring
Feb. 8th, 2004 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebRobin tells me I have avid readers. Hi, Sally, Tam, and Mosch! My apologies for not updating for over a week.
So, I've kicked out the first loser in the priority competition. Wednesday was my last day to score teacher certification exam essay questions. Probably.
It was a nice day. The problem was a good one, with the easier bits first, the more complicated bits later, so only rarely did I have to re-calculate everything to evaluate the whole problem. And it was one of the states where most people actually make passing scores, so there was plenty of internal "woo hoo!" and "you go!" instead of "oh no!" and "ouch, what happened to your brain?"
Lunch was great, as always. Even without the spicy seafood bisque, which I wouldn't like, there was still the great chef salad, with actual dark green lettuce, and which I loaded with mostly turkey and some ham, mostly swiss and some cheddar, ranch dressing. Then the usual fabulous dessert, this time a choice between chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. I chose the oatmeal. Not exactly healthy, especially since I chose another oatmeal cookie instead of a white roll, but I could have made worse decisions.
Lunch conversation was great. People talked about cruises. Over half the nine people there had been on cruises. I learned that cruises of the Caribbean from Houston are quite affordable for Austinites. The money actually covers quite a bit: food, lodging, and all kinds of activities. You pay an extra tip at the end, and you can pay for things like island tours, but those are cheaper if you book them yourself. And since you sleep on the boat, there are no additional hotel expenses. And if there's a hurricane or something, they just take you someplace else cool. I had gotten the impression that they slipped in lots of other fees once you got on board.
Someone said they have all kinds of things you wouldn't think of on board. Like a morgue. You could have three or four people die on a cruise and not even know it unless they had been assigned to your dinner table. Someone said that once there was a terrorist threat that if the ship landed on one of the islands they would blow it up. As you might guess, the powers that be chose to skip that island, announcing that the waters were too "choppy."
Since most of the regulars were there, I went ahead and announced that it was probably my last day to work there. People asked why--it's nice to feel wanted. I explained that my math wasn't up to par. "No, no, if you weren't good, we wouldn't invite you back." That I was getting very busy lately. And that the pay just wasn't keeping up. And in fact, they kept us for only 4.75 hours which means $57. And to get that I took a vacation day at a job where I now earn about $128 per day. So, I can no longer really tell myself that I'm "cashing in" a vacation day like in the olden days when I worked an extra hour scoring, vacationing from a job where I earned only $80 per day.
Since I'm still carless, I had to get creative on the commute. Robin dropped me off on his way to work. I sat outside reading my last Elizabeth George book, Playing for Ashes. She's an excellent writer, but I'm feeling jerked around, like when I was watching "Twin Peaks" on TV. In this book, suddenly Lynley had no social skills, and Helen was a complete ditz with almost no redeeming qualities. On the other hand, Havers actually made a friend! And Lynley got to see her new place. Hah! But then of course other characters were in situations where they could not make any good decisions; no matter what they did, people got horribly, horribly hurt. Bleh, I've had it with her! It's like Lemony Snickett's children's "unfortunate series of events" books, only not pretending to be exaggerating. Robin says he still wants to read more. I'm hoping he reads me all the good bits and tells me the plots.
Since the place is only about three miles from home, I decided to walk it. Did you know there is such a thing as no-pedestrian signs? I walked under a bridge, and there two of them were, with pictures of guys walking, and the red circle and slash mark through them. Well, okay, but it's too late. I'm already there. I'm supposed to stop walking and, uh, hitch a ride? After that there was a nice bridge with a separate sidewalk on each side. Unfortunately, at the low point of the bridge, the water was two inches deep after all the rain that morning. Well, it was an adventure. And I got in my exercise for the day. And then I threw my muddy pants in the laundry with some other lights.
Tuesday is my big presentation. I'm almost ready. I could be ready in time. I just have to make sure that this relief that it's still possible doesn't keep me from being motivated enough to actually do what I need to do.
So, I've kicked out the first loser in the priority competition. Wednesday was my last day to score teacher certification exam essay questions. Probably.
It was a nice day. The problem was a good one, with the easier bits first, the more complicated bits later, so only rarely did I have to re-calculate everything to evaluate the whole problem. And it was one of the states where most people actually make passing scores, so there was plenty of internal "woo hoo!" and "you go!" instead of "oh no!" and "ouch, what happened to your brain?"
Lunch was great, as always. Even without the spicy seafood bisque, which I wouldn't like, there was still the great chef salad, with actual dark green lettuce, and which I loaded with mostly turkey and some ham, mostly swiss and some cheddar, ranch dressing. Then the usual fabulous dessert, this time a choice between chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. I chose the oatmeal. Not exactly healthy, especially since I chose another oatmeal cookie instead of a white roll, but I could have made worse decisions.
Lunch conversation was great. People talked about cruises. Over half the nine people there had been on cruises. I learned that cruises of the Caribbean from Houston are quite affordable for Austinites. The money actually covers quite a bit: food, lodging, and all kinds of activities. You pay an extra tip at the end, and you can pay for things like island tours, but those are cheaper if you book them yourself. And since you sleep on the boat, there are no additional hotel expenses. And if there's a hurricane or something, they just take you someplace else cool. I had gotten the impression that they slipped in lots of other fees once you got on board.
Someone said they have all kinds of things you wouldn't think of on board. Like a morgue. You could have three or four people die on a cruise and not even know it unless they had been assigned to your dinner table. Someone said that once there was a terrorist threat that if the ship landed on one of the islands they would blow it up. As you might guess, the powers that be chose to skip that island, announcing that the waters were too "choppy."
Since most of the regulars were there, I went ahead and announced that it was probably my last day to work there. People asked why--it's nice to feel wanted. I explained that my math wasn't up to par. "No, no, if you weren't good, we wouldn't invite you back." That I was getting very busy lately. And that the pay just wasn't keeping up. And in fact, they kept us for only 4.75 hours which means $57. And to get that I took a vacation day at a job where I now earn about $128 per day. So, I can no longer really tell myself that I'm "cashing in" a vacation day like in the olden days when I worked an extra hour scoring, vacationing from a job where I earned only $80 per day.
Since I'm still carless, I had to get creative on the commute. Robin dropped me off on his way to work. I sat outside reading my last Elizabeth George book, Playing for Ashes. She's an excellent writer, but I'm feeling jerked around, like when I was watching "Twin Peaks" on TV. In this book, suddenly Lynley had no social skills, and Helen was a complete ditz with almost no redeeming qualities. On the other hand, Havers actually made a friend! And Lynley got to see her new place. Hah! But then of course other characters were in situations where they could not make any good decisions; no matter what they did, people got horribly, horribly hurt. Bleh, I've had it with her! It's like Lemony Snickett's children's "unfortunate series of events" books, only not pretending to be exaggerating. Robin says he still wants to read more. I'm hoping he reads me all the good bits and tells me the plots.
Since the place is only about three miles from home, I decided to walk it. Did you know there is such a thing as no-pedestrian signs? I walked under a bridge, and there two of them were, with pictures of guys walking, and the red circle and slash mark through them. Well, okay, but it's too late. I'm already there. I'm supposed to stop walking and, uh, hitch a ride? After that there was a nice bridge with a separate sidewalk on each side. Unfortunately, at the low point of the bridge, the water was two inches deep after all the rain that morning. Well, it was an adventure. And I got in my exercise for the day. And then I threw my muddy pants in the laundry with some other lights.
Tuesday is my big presentation. I'm almost ready. I could be ready in time. I just have to make sure that this relief that it's still possible doesn't keep me from being motivated enough to actually do what I need to do.