Year #2...

So, here I am. Halfway through my second year in Boston. Halfway through my second year of cohabitation with my partner. At the beginning of my second year as a preschool teacher. I'm alive, and things are... good. I won't lie. This past year has been hard. I've gone through my fair share of moments where I've screamed "What am I doing here?!" I don't know what made me think that it was going to be easy. I don't know what made me think that I was going to have the time or even the emotional capacity to write about my first year year! Let me tell you, between being the sole teacher of a classroom full of 10 three to five year olds, maintaining a 3 floored house and yard, managing 4 pets (including a hyperactive plott hound, a blind aggressive dog, a schizophrenic cat and an old sick cat) while attempting to keep a healthy balanced relationship....I'm lucky I've managed to keep my basic needs met.

It has been a roller-coaster ride of a year, but I guess I shouldn't expect any less from Saturn. My relationship has been tested, but we are still here. I'm sure N. has wanted to throw me out on my ass on more than one occasion, and I've thrown my fair share of wine glasses (one of the rooms upstairs has the dent to prove it... come to think of it, there's a dent in the bedroom wall from where I threw one of my paintings. What can I say? I'm a ...thrower.). All in all though, we have come out of this first year alive...bruised and looking like a hot mess, but alive nonetheless. She's my lobster.

 

As for my first year as a preschool teacher.... it sure as hell was an experience. There were days when I was so happy doing what I do that I was a giddy cartwheeling fool. Now, other days? I wanted to quit and toss children from a cliff. Most of the days were of the less violent kind. I learned so much, mostly the hard way. It's been one month of my second year so far. I have 14 kids now, but also gained a co-teacher. I love my job. Honestly, the only downside to my job is that I make peanuts. I work long hours, take my work home with me, work in the evening and sometimes the weekends, and I get paid flippin' peanuts. But, (and I know I'm not supposed to begin a sentence with "but," but wtf is this? English class?) I would much rather be taking home a crappy salary and waking up every morning absolutely loving my job, than making a crap-load of money and being completely miserable. I know, reality is that this situation will have to change soon, especially if we plan on having kids anytime in the near future. I'm working on figuring out a way to make more money without sacrificing my sanity. I'll let you know when I've come up with my master plan. In the meantime, we are clipping coupons, canceling our cable, and walking around with a flashlight (kidding, but we totally should because this electric bill is effin' ridiculous. I'm just sayin'.)

The house is coming along slowly. We've pretty much finished the entire first floor, and made a reasonable improvement to our outdoor space. It feels like there's always something else to do though, because we are crazy and we watch wayyyy too much HGTV. N. is actually going through an "I wanna build stuff out of pallets" phase.  I, however have gotten it in my head that the wall between the kitchen and dining room MUST go. I just need a sledgehammer. N. is not too keen on this idea. She's also not happy about my new obsession with building a chicken coop in our backyard. I should probably add the pregnant stray cat that now resides in our spare room to this list of "shit she's not happy about." Her name is Charlie. She's a calico and shes got extra toes. How can you not love a cat with muppet paws? So yea, she showed up on our porch one day and now she's knocked up. What else was I supposed to do? N. is secretly excited about fostering a bunch of muppet kitties. I've also caught her baby-talking and singing to the cat. O_o

I'm going to end this post here but I can see that I'm trying to catch up and cram all sorts of stuff into one post. N. also just got home from work. I stayed home today so she's being all cave-woman like "Where's my dinner? ROAR!"  I promise promise promise that I'm officially back. Stay tuned.


Before I go, I will leave you all with an amazing drink recipe. My best friend visited a while ago and she's currently obsessed with spicy/cool drink combinations, like cucumber habanero, etc. So, I've created a drink in her honor:

Muddle 4 slices of cucumber with a few mint leaves, 1 tbs of simple syrup and a tiny piece of either habanero or thai chili pepper. Add one tbs of fresh lime juice, 2 tbs of ginger ale or club soda if you don't like ginger flavor. I love it and actually use ginger beer because the flavor is stronger. 1/4 cup of Veev Acai Liquor (look it up, it's amazing) and 1/8 cup vodka (because I'm an alcoholic and 30% alcohol just isn't enough for me). If you don't have any Veev on hand just use vodka. Pour all into a martini shaker. Shake and pour over ice. Garnish with a cucumber slice and a sprig of mint. Enjoy!

Namaste bitches!