Oct 31

pick-up artist

The following is an actual conversation I had with a male high school student on Wednesday.

me: "Hey, I'm Miss Bassett. I'm your sub today..."

boy: "How'd you get your name?"

me: *puzzled look* "What?"

boy: "Are you married?"

me: "No."

boy: "Oh, I just wanted to see how you got your last name, like if you're married. Do you have a boyfriend?"

me: "No, do your work."

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Sydney

Oct 23

I just got home from my first full day subbing at the high school. And let me tell you, it was a full day indeed! Initially high school was my first choice out of all the schools to sub at, mainly because they seem, for the most part, self-sufficient. My thoughts on high school students has changed a bit after actually having contact with them.

First period I was set to sub in a chemistry class. The teacher was actually there when I got there, she told them their assignment and I was basically just there to make sure they don't kill each other or cheat. The class was pretty small, and there was one football player who thought he was way too cool to be quiet or actually do his work. I just want to tell this kid, hey, it's going to end one day. You're not going to be popular in a year and then what are you going to do. But I refrained. He'll find out soon enough.

Second period I was again in the chemistry class but this time we met up with the class next day for Mole Day activities. I vaguely remember this from my time at MHS, but I was reminded today that a mole is 6.02 X 10^23. So to celebrate this magical number the classes did balloon races - popping them at the end, threw 23 pennies in a cup, and had a relay race where they had to carry a spoon in their mouth and transfer a bean from person to person via said spoon. I'm not sure what the point of all this was but it was fun and I got to be the official picture taker.

Then I had a two hour break where I came home and watched America's Next Top Model. Rae definitely shouldn't have been the one to go by the way.

I came back to school at 12:30 where I was assigned an hour duty at SAC. For those of you not familiar with Monahans' disciplinary practices, this is where the bad kids go. The kids who can't handle regular school. So for an hour I sat in a room with about 7 backs towards me, as the kids sat in little cubbies (cells) "doing work". I'm pretty sure the most work that got done in there was me reading a few pages in Ender's Game. These kids are seriously pretty scary. The first kid raised his hand to ask a question and as I'm walking over to him I just picture myself getting shanked. Luckily, no bloodshed occurred.

Sixth period I was assigned girls P.E. I got to the gym and there were no instructions whatsoever. There were a few balls lying in the corner so I decided we were playing four square. Only five girls were in the class and I couldn't believe it when they said they didn't know what four square was! Did you grow up in America? I quickly explained the rules, and quickly dominated all of them. This ended up being my favorite class, the girls were really fun and they kinda got into playing the game. It made me remember how much I missed four square.

Next I was on to a freshman English class. They were all working on research papers in the library so I pretty much just sat there and then went around talking to them a little about their papers. The assignment is a biography of a famous author and they all think their author is "soo boring" or "sooo hard". They have people like Edgar Allen Poe and Ernest Hemmingway. You kids are delusional. The only one who was cool was J.K. Rowling, but one girl said she wished she could do her paper on Stephanie Meyer. Gag.

Final period of the day was another English class and I was warned this one was bad. Turned out they really weren't. Their assignment was to practice making note cards for research papers, and they thought this was the hardest thing in the world. Because, you know, writing down the title, author and year published is really challenging.

Anyway, after a day in high school I've made a few observations. High school kids dress sloppy. It might just be because it was a Friday, but every kid there was wearing a sweat shirt of some kind. I'm not anti-sweat shirt in any way, but when you walk up to a big mass of people and their all wearing sweats it looks kinda sloppy. On the same note, high school in real life is nothing like high school on TV. I watch plenty of high school shows, Glee, 90210, Gossip Girl (Jenny's still in high school...), and those kids are a world apart from any of the kids I saw today. Those kids definitely dress a lot better than any of the ones I saw today, but more than that their lives just seem more interesting, more glamourous. Chalk that up to good writing and the fact that most of those actors are 20+. And finally, high school never changes. It just doesn't. The teachers are the same, the posters in the class room are the same and the students are the same. New faces every year, but still the same.

halloween candy

I love you and I hate you at the very same time.

sub standard

This morning around 8 as I was lying comfortably in my bed I got the phone call I knew would eventually come. I quickly tried to make sure my voice didn't sound too manly, and answered. I'm finally officially a substitute teacher.

I subbed today for a fourth grade class since their teacher got sick (in class!!). I was nervous at first because I didn't really want to do kids younger than fifth and especially not for my first time ever in the classroom, but really it didn't end up mattering much. The class I had was a bit of a rowdy one, and they definitely tried to pull the whole, it's a sub, so we're going to make up rules thing. But I put the smack down on them. Well, I wrote some names down and even made two boys pull cards. I kind of surprised myself at how in charge I was. Several times I had a little bit of a mom tone, "What did I just say???" "I'm not going to ask you again!" It was definitely a bit freaky hearing those things come from my mouth. I didn't do a whole lot of teaching, they spend a lot of time outside of the classroom with computers and PE and lunch. That was a good two hours I had by myself. And the time in class we watched a video (more about that in a later post) and they did some worksheets. One kid told me I was a cool sub, which kind of makes me nervous. The cool subs were always the ones that let you get away with more than you were supposed to.. the ones the teachers don't like. Oh well.

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Sydney

Oct 11

ingrid

Let me just confess that the only reason I'm writing this is because I don't feel like sleeping and Leslie told me she was about to blog and I'd like to maintain my sizable lead.

You may have noticed that in my playlist I have a lot of Ingrid Michaelson songs. I think that's partly because I went to her concert last week at the House of Blues in Dallas. It was a really fun concert and one of the best parts was that about a week before the show Mindy called me and said, I figured out who she was and I actually like her music! She was willing to go to a concert with me because she knew I liked her, even though she thought she didn't like the music. That's a good friend!

Here we are in our cool concert outfits. Everyone knows you have to dress cooler than normal life when you go to a concert.

Ingrid & the gang singing "You & I" (Please ignore the blinding bald head in the corner)

We decided that this was the second best concert we've seen together. Matt Wertz is #1. Ingrid was funny and entertaining, plus her songs are just plain beautiful.

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Sydney

Oct 11

cd swap 2009

It never fails that while I'm working at Habanero's the subject of music comes up. Usually it starts out because someone wants to change what station the XM is on. Most of the people I work with like the country station, I prefer the Blend, and sometimes we listen to 70s on 7. In any case, there's always someone who doesn't like the music. One day a few weeks ago I was talking to my friends Bristen & Steph about the music they like. Bristen likes Texas Country and Steph likes hip hop, and I like music that's actually good ;-) We each think what we like is best - thus the cd swap 2009 was born. We are each making each other a cd of our favorite songs and we have promised to listen to every song the whole way through. I'm excited because I like getting new music and sharing my taste with others. I just made mine and it's a bit melancholy because it's grey outside, but it's still going to be the best. Here's my playlist...

1. Toxic - Yael Naim

2. Die Alone - Ingrid Michaelson

3. Breakeven - The Script

4. Winter Song - Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson

5. She Is Love - Parachute

6. Maybe - Ingrid Michaelson

7. Love - Matt White

8. Orange Sky - Alexi Murdoch

9. The Sophomore - Ben Rector

10. Crossroads - Bone Thugs N Harmony

11. Golden Train - Justin Nozuka

12. The Chain - Ingrid Michaelson

13. Merry Happy - Kate Nash

14. Live Your Life - T.I. feat. Rihanna

15. First Love - The Maccabees

16. City of Black & White - Mat Kearney

17. Gone - Matt Nathanson

18. Everything's Right - Matt Wertz

19. They Weren't There - Missy Higgins

20. Samson - Regina Spektor

21. Hello Seattle - Owl City

What are some of y'alls favorite songs right now?

fair play

Last weekend my old college roommates and I had a little mini-reunion in DFW. I had never been to the Texas State Fair before so we decided it would be a fun thing to do Sunday afternoon. I had absolutely no idea what to expect other than lots of fried food and I was not disappointed. Here are some pictures of our fun time...

Apparently Big Tex is a BIG DEAL. I feel like I'm less of a Texan for never knowing this.

Ruth & Mindy doing a little Mary Poppins dance.

It wouldn't be a fair without some fried food...

I, being the healthy person that I am, opted for corn slathered in butter.

We finished the day with a really Pirates of the Caribbean diving show. It looked a lot more impressive on paper.

Overall, it was a really fun weekend - we ate bad food, laughed a lot, did a shout out for MTV tr3s, test drove Chevy's, and enjoyed the free massage chairs a little too much. I think we would all say that when it comes to roommates we were incredibly blessed to spend the last 3 years together with relatively smooth sailing and it's fun to get to see each of them again.

MRS.A 4 life!

1, 2, 3, 4

I'm really not sure how this happened, and it definitely wasn't in my plan anywhere, but I now have four jobs. Well, I have three and applied for a fourth today. But I'm pretty sure I'm a shoe-in, so let's just say I have four jobs. The main reason this is good news is because when I get older and have children I can say, "when I was your age I worked four jobs...". Even though hour wise I don't work that much during the week. Here's a run-down of all my employments..

Howard's Drive Inn

I started working here in high school and still work there occasionally. My grandma owns it so I pretty much grew up there. Basically I just take orders from people and gossip with my coworkers.

Habanero's

My dad owns this restaurant, but I didn't start working here until a few months ago. I think my official title is hostess, even though sometimes I do wait tables. I kinda wish I was a waitress cause you can make more money, but sometimes I still get nervous so I just take the money at the cash register. Not rocket science, but I enjoy it.

Monahans-Wickett-Pyote ISD Substitute Teacher

Technically I haven't started this job either, but I am on the list of people to call when teachers are sick or out of town. I put down 5-12 grade because those little ones scare me. I'll definitely keep you posted on how this goes.

Midland College ESL Substitute Teacher

Again, I haven't started this either, in fact, I just applied today. I've been volunteering in the ESL classrooms and today my teacher Peggy asked if I wanted to apply to be a sub for times when she's out of town or sick. She said usually she feels uncomfortable with subs because sometimes the students don't respond well to strangers but since I've already established myself in the classroom it will hopefully go better. She also mentioned it would look good on a resume. So today after class I found the HR department and filled out my application.

manna

About a month or so ago I began the exciting task of fundraising for my year in China. ELIC has been really great providing resources and training for this endeavor, and one of the things they provided was a book called Funding Your Ministry by Scott Morton. I highly recommend the book for anyone who has to raise support for any type of ministry. It's full of helpful information and Morton writes in a way that is both biblical and practical. Well anyway, at one point he writes about praying for your donors and even praying for people to give without asking. He gives examples from his own life, where he just prayed people would give and sure enough the checks came in. I remember reading that and thinking, man it sure would make my life a whole lot easier if people just gave and I didn't have to do anything. Kinda like manna falling from heaven or something. But really I thought, he probably prays a lot more than me and he's even written a book so that kind of stuff only happens to people who are super spiritual - it won't happen to me. Honestly, my whole perspective on fundraising was a lot like pulling teeth. Necessary, but not enjoyable. People don't just give, you have to coax them.

Today I came home for work and my mail was piled neatly on a table in my room. There was a small envelope addressed to me with a return address from one of my high school teachers. Intrigued, I opened it up to find a check and a brief note, saying she ran into Christie at the grocery store and somehow it came up that I was going to China to teach next year. Turns out her own daughter is in Honduras with a missions organization, and she wanted to contribute to my financial need. I was completely shocked and overwhelmed! This is such a sweet reminder of the how the Lord's faithfulness and provision are not dependent on me at all. Guess you don't have to be super spiritual or write a book for the Lord to work.

blog-off

Some of you may have already heard, but for the rest of my faithful followers I have a pretty big announcement to make. October is officially blog-off month. At least in my calendar.

This past week, I made a trek across Texas and while I was in College Station visiting friends Leslie Jordan tried to call me out for not blogging. Excuse me? She has a blog and writes even less frequently than I do. I don't think so. And so the blog-off began. We aren't sure of the rules and regulations or even what the winner gets, other than bragging rights, but we're both in it to win it. She already has one post up, so after this we'll be even, and pretty soon I'll be taking the lead. So keep checking back to read all my exciting posts, and you can check out Leslie's blog here.

May the best (or most frequent) blogger win!

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Sydney

the vault

About Me

I'm a recent college grad living at home, trying to figure out what's next.

welcome

pick-up artist

pt. 2

halloween candy

sub standard

ingrid

cd swap 2009

fair play

1, 2, 3, 4

manna

blog-off

the vault

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