Spring Break... Here I Come

Finally, it seemed like it would never arrive, but alas, Spring Break '08 is here!!! 

This has been a really tough year, because I didn't REALLY want to teach again this year. I finished my Principal License Program in Dec. '06 and was ready for the next step last spring, but my mother-in-law became very sick. I didn't want to make a career change with such uncertainty in the future, so I decided I would spend one more year with the GT kids. Unfortunately, she passed away in May and last summer was CRAZY cleaning up her place and trying to get things in order... I'll post about that at some other point. 

Anyway, for Winter Break, Honey and I went to Mazatlan to visit his dad and dad's girlfriend. We are REALLY lucky!!! They purchased a house on the beach there 3 years ago, so we always have this great place in Mexico to go whenever we want. So, it was kind of like a vacation, but we were still dealing with a lot of stuff from his mom, so we spent most of that week just trying to catch up on sleep and reconnect with one another. 

So now Spring Break is here... The best part is that I really have nothing planned. We have a second playoff game on my co-ed team, the Monkeys are playing their next to last game of the season, I have a couple of lunch dates with girlfriends planned, and I want to get in some spring skiing, but other than that, it's going to be 10 glorious days of just doing whatever I feel like!

Two Wrongs...

Okay, well actually it's more like 10 wrongs. My good friend Qween B already blogged about the terrible refereeing we had a few weeks ago in a game, but for me, it's much worse than just the one game. As Qween B said, the next night, in our co-ed game, the refs were crap! THEN I went to a Rocky Mountain Rage game on Friday, and the refs there were terrible! THEN, this past Saturday, the same horrible woman as the week before was the ref for our Monkey game. 

What's up??? Have all the refs decided they are GOD and untouchable??? Are they just going to make stupid calls, no calls, and throw games just because they can, and no one can say/do anything about it??? I think it has really gotten out of hand, at least in Colorado, and more so in the last few months. There are always stupid calls, or things I personally like to protest, but these folks are really out of control. 

As GKL stated, I have a tendency to exhibit Tourettes type symptoms on the ice towards refs and occasionally players or coaches, but truly, I have to be provoked. The problem is that if I get too out of hand, then my coach, aka Chin Beaver, doesn't let me play. He thinks my head isn't in the game, and I need to sit on the bench, which can provoke further displays of Tourettes type symptoms, then all hell can break loose. 

Really, it's all about truth, justice and well... what's fair. I don't like the idea that all that I work for, or other players for that matter can come down to two (or three) people who have serious control issues. 

Cheaters

Today in class, I caught 6 of my boys cheating on a pretty meaningless homework assignment. They were supposed to be typing their Latin America Outlines, and being the highly bright and intelligent boys they are, they decided that one of them would type the outline, and then they would just change the name on the top and print new copies with the names changed, and turn it in for a grade. 

Being the observant teacher that I am, they were easily busted. My principal and I decided we would tag-team the disciplinary procedure after lunch. It was great!!! 4 of them were bawling profusely, which was perfect. They felt remorse and will probably never spend another day in the principal's office again, in their entire life. 

However, there were 2 who just sat there and acted as if we were just wasting their time. This concerns me, because they really didn't see a problem with having someone else do their work for them, and still be able to get the credit. I see frequent visits to the principal's office in their future. 

This is what I hate about group projects (even though this was an individual assignment). There is always one person who does all of the work (usually me) and then the rest of the group gets to skate by and still get credit. I remember when I was getting my Master's Degree. I had finally had enough of that crap and I told the professor about this girl in my group who hadn't done anything for a particular project we had been working on. She failed the class and eventually dropped out of the program. I see this as a good thing because she probably wasn't going to make through anyway, so in a way, I was just saving her money in the long run. 

That's what I told the mom of the boys who had done all of the typing for this assignment. He needed to tell the other boys NO and make them do their own work. It will only benefit them in the end. 

Wrestlemania

One of the girls on my hockey team has this side gig... professional wrestler!!! My friend QweenB and I have seen her wrestle twice now, but this past Sunday night was by far the best. There was a group of us from our team who decided to go check it out. There are so many best parts about this: 

1. It's in the back room of this cheesy bar in Golden. 

2. Amy... aka Little Woodie, is the only girl who wrestles in this show, so she always gets some looser guy to go up against. 

3. It's total family night... there are kids from 2-16 and they are all into it... there was this little girl about 10 heckling this wrestler, and he retorted with some comment about her training bra  and then continued on with his rant.  (I think in my professional life, I'm supposed to report this to Social Services, but it seemed all in good fun at the time.) 

4. The heckling... one of the girls in our group commented, "This is great. You get to yell out all of the things you always wanted to say, but just couldn't." I'm pretty outspoken anyway, so for me this wasn't as big of a deal, I just got to say it a lot louder. And much to my husband's chagrin, I was caught on video yelling many unpleasantries at the looser taking advantage of Little Woodie. Funny how he was able to pick my voice up right off that video. 

5. Every time I go watch her, I'm reminded of how my brother used to practice his latest WWF moves on me when I was younger. He's 10 years older than me, about a foot taller and at that time, probably a good 75 lbs heavier. The pain of having my arm twisted behind my back, the gasping for air as he would drop me over his knee, the body slams... All the while saying, "What's wrong with you? Don't be a wuss! This will toughen you up! Someday, you'll thank me!" No Thanks!!! Not what I call a good time. But, Little Woodie seems to really enjoy it, so more power to her. I think I'll just keep taking my aggression out on the ice. 

The next match is April 13th and I'm already trying to round up some more folks to come join us. It's like a bad train wreck. You just can't stop watching. 

Here It Is...

Okay... I've been trying to start this blog for about a year now... but this time last year, my life kind of went topsy-turvy and now, time has flown by. I have several friends who Blog (See:Two Minutes... and QweenB) and enjoy reading what they have to say, as well as the other people's Blogs they read, and so now that things are settling a bit, I think I'm finally ready. 

In January, I set up a Blog account for my students for our unit on tolerance. We were reading Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, and I wanted them to be able to post their thoughts and views about what were studying. Many of my students have really gotten into this study, but the ones I was hoping would be affected, ended up not reading the last set of books I chose. They said they were tired of reading depressing books, and wanted something that was not so heavy. See, I have 20 boys and 7 girls in my class. 5 of the 7 girls are MEAN!!! They pick on and bully the other 2 girls, only because the other 2 girls are REALLY smart and truly belong in my class. I wanted these 5 girls to see what effect they were having on the others. I think they were starting to make the connection, and decided they didn't like what they saw. 

I was not bullied when I was in school. Actually, I think was a bully. I have an older brother who used to beat the crap out of me on a daily basis, and my older sister broke my nose when I was 15, so I'm sure I took it out on some of the kids at school. Now don't get me wrong... I'm pretty short and have been small most of my life. But as the name of my Blog suggests, I can pack quite a punch. The name "Bug O' Death" was given to me most affectionately by one of my teammates on my hockey team, as I was nailing some poor unexpected girl into the boards, and stealing the puck. 

So I know it sounds like I'm talking out of both sides of my ass... I don't want the girls in my class to be bullies, yet I'm pretty much a bully, especially on the ice, but I'm older and know fully well the consequences of my actions... usually 2 minutes in the box:)