Poolside reflections

I didn't think I'd be able to get any kind of WiFi signal here at the pool, but lo and behold ... I must be stealing internet from a nearby condominium. Bwahaha.

Anyway, my summer has officially started and my first school year is over. Not only did it get increasingly better as the year went on, but I actually started enjoying myself. There will most definitely be a second year of teaching. I am very worried about doing everything to the best of my ability, and at the beginning of the year, with no experience, I think I let my anal retentiveness get in the way of my passion for relationships. The best part of the year was getting to know the KIDS, and at first all I was worried about was doing everything by the book, the way college had taught me. Something in that equation (thankfully) worked out, but there are definitely a few things I will try again next year and some I will completely scrap. I've learned a lot (way more than my college tuition ever taught me) and am looking forward to my second year being much improved (but not before I have a mega-decompression session for the first month of summer break!).

Things that have changed since I wrote in here last:

-I have a horse. She used to race on the racetrack (not Derby-level, but same type of racing) and I've been working on retraining her since December. It's been one of the biggest pleasures in my after-school time, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

-I took in a stray cat, got her spayed, and then one day later found a week-old baby kitten that I bottle-fed and is now 2 months old and does laps around the apartment just for the sheer joy of being alive. The cat, who we loosely named Fancypants, loves the kitten and made my life a LOT easier by licking him and cleaning him when he was a baby. The kitten, whom Adam named Ninja, provides hours of entertainment with his ADD spazoid behavior. I was never really a "cat person" but these stinking animals have grown on me. I'm such a softie.

Other than those animal additions, not a whole lot has changed. I'm enjoying my summer, training for another long-distance race in the fall, and not thinking about school one tiny bit.

I don't know how I'll be at updating this thing from now on, but since I have more time to do it now I might be marginally better at it ... just don't hold your breath.