emily (and hobbes!)

Many of you have already heard (or seen on facebook) that there is a new man in my life. His name is Hobbes and he is the love of my life. In fact, he is currently playing with a piece of plastic he managed to get out of the trash can and I must go stop him because mummy doesn't want Hobbesy to choke.

Ok, now he is safe on my lap where he belongs and he will be assisting me with my blog entry- which is looong overdue.

Considering I haven't updated this blog since before I moved to NYC I will not be posting about eeeverything that's happened in the past three months because I frankly can't remember it all/I could go on for days! I will provide some recent life-highlights for you though! First of all, Cait and I went to the opera last weekend! It was very fun and we felt cultured. I also went to see a performance at Juilliard because my friend from Maine works there and can get me free tickets to student shows. It was a very sophisticated weekend until Sunday when I did nothing but eat brunch with Cait and watch Sex and the City while lesson planning.

Speaking of the kiddos. I took my first sick day this week because I have laryngitis! I started losing my voice Sunday and now a week later it still isn't back to normal. Wednesday was the day I had to miss because I literally couldn't speak and my class is not capable of being managed without verbal warnings! I was very nervous about leaving them with a sub for the day because I knew that it was going to be a mess- and it turns out I was very right! The next day when I came to school my vice principal came into my room and said, "Ooooh your kids were baaaad yesterday!" he didn't give me any specific details besides saying the the sub left and vowed never to return at the end of the day. Then my janitor, Dino, stopped by to inform me that the kids had completely trashed the room but that he tried to fix it up for me. And finally, when I opened up my desk drawer I found a note written to me by the three kids I designated as "helpers" to the sub. The note was a play by play of what was going on in the room, and I couldn't help but laugh because they made it sound like a war zone. Here is a funny exerpt: "Destiney is locking kids in the closet and the sub just used the B.S word and threatened to strangle someone. Things are bad in here." Anyway, it's nice to know that they are more under control when I'm in the room!

Even though I had a rough start with the class, we are starting to feel more like a "community" now. The kids are getting more comfortable with me and know my boundaries and I am getting more comfortable with them and with my role in the room. It took many many phone calls home, several parent meetings, and at least a hundred dollars worth of bribes in the form of pizza, M&Ms, dollar store prizes etc but I finally feel like I have some of those tricky kids reigned in! I will probably regret writing this on Monday when it turns out I've jinxed myself and all hell breaks loose but for now I'm feeling ok about things!

This is getting long but I have to mention that I went to see Phantom of the Opera today and during Masquerade the only voice I heard singing was Claire's! I miss you all! Come visit soon!

Hobbesy says goodbye! (meow)