2 years? 2 YEARS!

How can it have been 2 years?  When I started this blog, I did it to keep my writing skills from getting rusty.  I was trying to follow the sage advice of my favorite writer to just write.  He said it didn't matter what I wrote as long as I wrote every day.  I'm sorry, Stephen.  I have failed you and myself (and my 4 readers.)  However, the good thing about writing is that you can start again at any time. 

So, here's what's happened in the last two years.  I found a job.  Yay!  I taught junior and senior English at a small charter school in Pueblo, CO (Go, Scorpions!) for a year.  Yup, you read right.  1 year.  That's all I had before budget cuts forced the board of directors to decide they needed to cut one of the three English teachers at the high school.  If I sound a little bitter, well, I am.  I really enjoyed talking about literature with the kids.  I loved seeing them light up when they realized they were smarter than they thought.  It was fun when I hit on a lesson they actually enjoyed.  These moments made the stuff that really sucked bearable. 

Some of the stuff that sucked was the lack of parent involvement, the parents who only became involved when their child was failing and wanted me to make an exception, the students who really didn't want to be in class and decided that none of the kids should be enjoying their learning time, the ridiculous amount of testing that had to be done to prove that I was doing my job, the mandatory sponsoring of an after-school club when there were no facilities or money to make the club worthwhile, and finally, the complete loss of any semblance of a personal life (of course, this was mostly due to the fact that I was a first-year-teacher and was creating two programs from scratch.) 

However, one really good thing came from my very short stint in public education: I realized that I really don't want to be a teacher.  A tutor, sure, but never a teacher.  It's not worth it.  Too much crap, no respect, and the pay is horrible.  Of course, since I've been unemployed since July, I really miss that horrible pay check.  Thank goodness I have a wonderful brother who allows me to live in his house for the price of my cooking abilities.  (Much respect, Jeremy!)

So, that pretty much brings me up to date.  I now spend my time looking for jobs (again,) crocheting, making memory movies for my grandmother's birthday, and trying to help my brother grow his business enough to be able to employ me.  Once again, I'm going to try to keep up with my blog. So, hopefully, you'll be seeing some of my recent crochet and craft projects soon, and I'll keep you up-to-date on my job prospects (still working on that craft supply store) and perhaps I'll start talking about my reading habits, as well.  Until then...

With love,

The Crocheting Cat Lady