In order to hold myself accountable, here is what I would like to get done today (roughly in this order):

- shower
- buy some grout
- buy a hammer
- browse Kmart for some cheap clothes that don’t look cheap
- perhaps browse Kmart for a doormat
- buy a new goldfish
- mop the kitchen and bathroom
- clean up the big stack of papers on my shelf
- clean up generally
- do exercise
- go to my parents’ place to borrow a reasonably-sized suitcase*
- work out an appropriate art-and-degrees configuration and put some picture hooks in the walls in the study and lounge room*
- go to the doctor for a minor procedure this afternoon (that hopefully won’t leave my arm looking bruised for a fortnight?)
- apply for at least one, preferably two advertised jobs (probably SA Health medical administration ones)
- try to work out what Act I am actually employed under as a Relief Teacher so I know if I can apply for internal government positions or not?
- send some letters to various TAFEs telling them I want to be in their availability pool

*if time permits

Pretty much this is the same as my to-do list for yesterday, except all I achieved yesterday was:
- play Tropico 3
- read
- nap
- look at pictures of funny bags on the internet

- Playing NationStates2 (poorly)
- Getting fat from being at home too much :(
- Resisting the urge to bake for fear of compounding that problem
- Taking antibiotics AGAIN wah
- Waiting to hear back about jobs? At all?? But getting offered some possible highly reputable hourly work via my old mentor teacher which will be great if it happens, and hopefully some casual stuff at my mum’s clinic
- Hoping that my teacher’s registration goes through by Wednesday so I don’t have to do another Mandatory Notification course, laaame
- Cleaning up massively! All my stuff is SO ORGANISED.
- Upgrading to a queen-size bed… with bargains! 50% off on my quilt, two complete sheet sets for $30, 60% off on my quilt cover, 35% off my mattress and free delivery… and $99 bed frame from Ikea to be acquired on Saturday! So many bargains.
- Praising modern medicine. Antibiotics are wonderful!
- Knitting
- WISHING I HAD A JOB

So on Saturday night, there was a halloween party.

Josh and I went as pacman ghosts, constructed with umbrellas and many metres of fabric and with the aid of Josh’s sister Beth. There was sawing, sewing and a lot of string involved.

Tadaa!

We couldn’t see where we were going, but we won people’s choice for best costumes! Cos they were AWESOME.

Hum. So my intention is to move out of home fairly early next year, depending on my employment status/location. It turns out I have three separate human entities expressing interest in moving out with me! Yay options, but… I am going to HURT AT LEAST TWO FEELINGS! :(

This weekend I was not at home from 8am Friday until 11:15pm Sunday. I am tired and my homework is Not Done At All.

Also I am all weird and sick. So I was way stroppy at work today. My bosses were trying to give me work all afternoon and I was like NO!! Too busy!! Leave me alone!! and… they did? Then it got to 4:30pm and I was like… oh. I am quite comfortably almost done? And I was out by 5:01! I need to be a bitch more often! Or be nicer, and not get fired.

Beach!

Oh yeah. Prac finished on Friday!! I am on holidays now!! Yay!

“Holidays” in this case means that I’m going to uni tomorrow and working 9-5 for the rest of this week, and I also have to do the ten assignments that I have due throughout October.

But it doesn’t matter, cos I’m not on prac!! A retrospective? These five weeks were hard, but they also went pretty fast. I didn’t learn as much as I did on last prac, but my goal going into it was “get it over with”. Not particularly idealistic, but realistic and achievable. And achieved! I will miss some of the kids. As I did with last prac. It’s never the kids that stress me out during prac, it’s always just that I’m getting watched and marked. Even when the kids are naughty… they’re kind of okay. So I guess that’s hopeful.

Apparently I pissed people off last night by not following through on my promises to hit the town and get drunk as a celebration :( SORRY? Team Josh/Claire had some arse to kick at Trivial Persuit!! This Sat is possible?

I like Neutral Milk Hotel very much atm.

Hum I wish I was in Friday again.

This weekend was good. There was… weather and markets, and fairly rocky beaches. It was good.

Two more weeks of prac! I got a pleasantly surprising interim report from the Italian teacher on Thursday. Last prac stuffed up my confidence a bit; I ended up getting a Credit-equivalent but there was a lot of angst to get me to that point. So this was a nice thing.

BUT LESSON PLANNING IS STILL HARD. Losing Sundays to work is lame!!

I like weekends. They are too short but that’s the worst thing to be said about most of them. That, and that homework sucks. I kind of refuse to do any uni/school work on Friday nights or Saturdays. It’s nice at the time but then on Sunday by the time I get warmed up, my ability to work calmly in the knowledge that I’m going to get it all done is severely compromised. Like, it’s nearly 7pm and all I’ve done so far is think. But on the upside I got plenty of sleep this morning? And I went to the Show yesterday! There were ponies!

I’m looking forward to getting through my first couple of years of teaching and getting to a point where the teaching/prep/marking that I do is coloured more by an actual concern for pedagogy than by a constant anxiety about my ability to do it right. My granda, who was a principal, told me a few weeks ago that in his opinion a person needs four years of experience before you can tell if they’re going to be a good teacher or not.

I wish I had four years of experience!!!

I went to a basketball game last night! I knew it was a long time since I’d been to a sporting event – I sat in on a social basketball game last August for the first time since probably high school, and got hit in the head by a ball which knocked what minimal enthusiasm for sports I ever had straight out of me – but what actually made me agree to go last night (apart from how the ticket was FREE) was my realisation that in fact I had never been to a real sports event. Ever! I have racked my entire memory but… nope. Never been.

And in light of how much fun I had yesterday, I now know why!!

I mean. When the highlight of your night is seeing a really tall Iranian dude stand up. Well.

Sorry guys.