a not so cute update

Well it’s been a long time since my last post.  I was either too tired to write or too afraid that someone would find what I wrote and I would get fired.  Ranting about your job does not give one positive recognition in the workplace.  Speaking of positive, I need to check off some more of the words from my words from 2012 and give some new updates.

Hope, Believe, Persevere, Inspire, Growth, Joy, Cherish, and Positive.

Those are the words from my list of 2012 words that I’m going to write about. Some of them are going to be very short in description…and probably sarcastic.

So as the 2011-2012 school year continued (after my last post), I hoped that it would go by more easily than the first half of the school year.  I ended up moving to Vicksburg and living with a fellow teacher.  The commute was sooo much better (this is one of the positive points) however, as many of you know, that didn’t end well either.  I’m not going to post about that here out of respect for my roommate.  She was a great roommate and if you really want to know, I’ll point you to some newspaper articles or tell you.  But I’m not posting about it for the interwebs to find. 

I also hoped that he school year would end more quickly.  It did not, but it did eventually end.

I believed that I would make it through to the end of the school year without killing someone…and look! I’m not in jail! Success!  Although, on the last day of school, storming down the hall with a writing utensil in my hand, I walked into a fellow teacher’s classroom, blinded by furry, and said in a very loud voice, “I’m about to stab a bitch with a pencil!”  Lucky for her, it was a pen in my hand.

So yeah, throughout the trials and tribulations of the school year, I did persevere.  Hopefully, and I believe I did, I inspired a few students to do better and make more of themselves and get the fuck out of that town.  We shall see.

Growth.  I have definitely grown, both professionally and personally.  I learned that Ed and I can handle a lot.  Although difficult and painful, we managed to survive the past 10 months apart (more perseverance!).

I have also grown as a teacher.  I have learned some boundaries, some new methods, and I now know more about what I should and should not do as a teacher. I also realize now how to handle certain non-teaching related, yet school related, situations.  All of which I will not discuss.

Joy.  I was overflowing with joy when the school year finally ended.  On a more positive note, I did really enjoy teaching a few of my students.  Some of them were really great and I will actually remember them, probably forever.  And along with joy, I will cherish good memories that I made with them during my first year teaching in a normal school situation, although that school was anything but normal.

So to stay on a positive note, even though this year was pretty awful, it was a learning experience.  I do believe that I learned a lot and that this experience has better prepared me for future endeavors.

Much more has happened this year, both positive and negative, and even some mixed reviews in there as well, most of it very personal.  This was basically just a gloss over and I will eventually spill everything…….maybe.

To buy or to rent...

So as I’ve posted before, I am moving to Vicksburg, MS and am looking for a place to live.  I had it all sort of worked out where I would live with a friend in Clinton, MS and commute with her husband.  Save on rent, commute time, and money.  However, that took a strange turn and it may or may not work out.  I’m giving it time to see what happens with that situation and then maybe we’ll reevaluate in about a month if all seems well.

I spent a few weeks looking for a place to rent and the options are slim, and expensive.  I could live in a shack, that might blow over in a strong wind and I might get robbed every day, for somewhere in the price range of 650-750$.  OR I could live in a crappy old house or a one bedroom/one bath apartment, for 850-1,500$ a month.  And in this economy, I just don’t see either happening.

I’ve settled, for now (see previous post), on living with my parents in Natchez, MS.  A good one and a half hour commute, one way…door to door.  But with the commute, planning, grading, and my own grad classes, I see this sucking.  A lot.  However, it will save us a lot of money and will allow us to pay off our credit cards much sooner than if I were to rent or buy something.

Now to the buying part.

We are already realizing, remember that previous post, how much this arrangement is going to suck.  So, just for fun, not knowing what my credit looks like or if I can even get a loan for a house, I decided to start looking on zillow.com again.  Just because it’s fun and I like to dream.

We had found this house before, when we first started thinking about buying.

It’s in a great neighborhood, not on a main street, and did I mention it is in a great neighborhood.  After seeing this house, twice, I decided that if and when we buy in Vicksburg, it will have to be in or around this neighborhood.  I mean, people were out walking their dogs, strolling their kids, riding their bikes, and there was even a community Frisbee game on a grassy area in the middle of the neighborhood.  Just made me want to move in and never move again.

The house itself needs a lot of work.  The owner wants 118,000$ for it, but everyone we have talked to says he won’t get it.  It’s a 3/2.  So we could have an office/guestroom and a future kids room, no problem. It’s definitely not move in ready.  It doesn’t even have a washer and dryer hookup.  All of that however could be fixed with the proper loan.  But, it’s an as is sale, meaning, you can’t really get a loan on it. Peeling paint, codes etc.  Sigh.

The nice real estate lady told us about this other house.

It’s 112,000$ and totally move in ready.  It is only a 2/1, but it has a few more square feet than the other house (I haven’t even seen this one in person, but I fell in love with it on zillow).  It’s near the other house, just right up the street really, making it 2-3 blocks closer to the school.  Not that it makes that much of a difference.  But for some reason, I’m in love with this house.  Must. Go. See. It. In. Person.

This is the house that I was thinking about renting for 850$. 

It’s a 2/1 and the lady actually has it on the market to sell for 87,000$  The neighborhood was, meh.  Or what the people in the bizz like to call, transitional.  Meaning it could go either way, up or down.  And in my opinion, that neighborhood was on it’s way doooooown. And according to zillow’s estimate on the mortgage payment, it would be under 400$ a month.  Total ripoff.  I’m sure the hell not going to pay 850$ AND utilities AND mow the grass, when it’s selling for 87,000$.  Fuck that.  It’s falling apart anyway.

So now down to the dirty.

Before we even thought about buying, my credit was really good.  Then our credit cards people’s got mad at us because we were not using our credit cards as much as they would have liked us to.  We were paying them off and using them very sparingly.  So these lovely credit card people decided to cut three of our credit cards off.  Lowering our debt to available credit ratio, putting my credit back in the toilet.  Thanks Assholes!

However, after paying off some more credit cards, I’ve realized that my credit limit on one credit card has been raised from 500 to 2750.  Which gives me much more credit than debt.  So me thinks my credit score may have gone up with that.  So I’ve got to find out exactly what my credit score is and if it’s high enough, see if I can get a loan for a house.

Our idea is that we would take our permanent situation from FL to MS.  Since that is where we won’t to move.  So Ed would rent a room from a co-worker and we could possibly buy a house.  That way we are only rally paying one large amount out and it will be more of an investment than throwing it away to some rich Indian real estate lady and her doctor husband. 

We shall see about all this.  We shall seeeeee…. Stay tuned for updates on my housing woes.

******************************************************************************
Update:

Well that was a bust...let's see what I can figure out now...

Go the Fuck Away

Most of you have heard of the book Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbacj, hilariously narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.  Well, I need to write a sequel called Go the Fuck Away.

Moving back in with your parents at the age of 28 (GASP!) is not easy.  Especially when your political and religious views don’t exactly match.  Let’s just say, could be polar opposite.  At the same time, your food preferences are completely different as well.  Not to mention, every day, one of your parents walks back to where you are and  just stands. In your door way. And looks at you.  I’m trying to decide if this is the look of, “I can’t believe you took out all that loan money to go to that expensive liberal arts college AND THEN got a masters degree and during that time spent four years abroad, and still you come back to live in my house…even AFTER you are married” or, if it’s just a curiousness, like, an animal in a zoo.  Eventually, said parent will say, “what are you doing?”  Well clearly I am ignoring you staying out of your way.  I’m obviously on my computer or my phone or reading a book or watching tv.

This is when I want to say…just go the fuck away.

But alas, they are doing me a favor, letting me live here and save money until we pay off our credit cards and the husband can get a job and move here.  So I can’t exactly be a jackass.  So I try to say something non-descript or general, like, "playing on the computer" or "nothing" or "watching tv."  Every other day, I get spunky and say, “minding my own business,” which just pisses said parent off and leaves me in a bad spot and walking on eggshells.  Not a fun way to live.

Needless to say, the house hunt has continued.  Both to buy and to rent, more on that later.

Decision made…

So…out of four choices….

1)    the house for rent:  850/month, 500 deposit, and probably about 400 in utilities, in town

2)    the apartment:  right under 700/month, 150 deposit, 200ish in utilities, 30 min commute

3)    a friend: 150/month, 45 min commute

4)    home with the parents, 200 in gas, 1 hour 15 min commute

After much calculation and some reasoning/rationalizing with one of my best friends, Alisa, I came to the conclusion that option 1, is out of the question, just too expensive for what we would get and would take all our extra money, defeating the purpose.  Option 2, where more reasonable, still didn’t allow us to save enough to pay off our credit cards within a reasonable amount of time.

So now it’s down to option 3 and 4.

Living with friends is hard…but what’s harder?  Being an adult and living with your parents or living with friends?

I know what living with friends can do, you have to work at it so you don’t ruin your friendship.  Sometimes you have to let some things go even though the bother you.  Or if you get on each other’s nerves, sometimes you just have to let it go. For the sake of the relationship, and the living situation.

My parents would probably just drive me insane.  Plus, the commute is further and did I mention my parents would drive me insane?  I mean, I can always take a break if I need to and come here.  But I think living here would just…drive me insane.

So, it’s option 3!  I’m living with a friend!  Dee, I hope you know how much living with friends changes things!  It’s not going to be a cakewalk!  Although we can walk…and eat cake…

So, by living with my friend Dee…and we’re hoping that this is only 3-4 months…Ed and I will be able to pay of our debt and then we can afford for him to quit his job in Florida and move to Mississippi.

And to clear that up:  We can’t afford to move and only have one income, so Ed is keeping his job in Florida, until we pay off some of our debt (we’re hoping only 3-4 months).  So yes, we will be living apart for a few months.  But by saving money and sacrificing some comforts, we’ll be able to pay off some of our debt and be able to afford more “luxuries” in the future, luxuries like…living together…soooo sad. 

We also hope to build our credit up real high so that if we decide we like teaching in Mississippi, we can possibly buy a house.  Because BUYing a house costs a lot less than renting, I’m talking the difference in 400$ mortgage on a 3/2 house or renting a 2/1 for 900$.  I know there are other costs when buying and if something breaks, we have to fix it.  But we wouldn’t buy until we had the second income and some other things in place, like a new couch, and a new computer, and of course some more serious things like, a down payment, etc.

So even though this is a difficult time, with the health of Ed’s dad deteriorating, we will be living apart, adding more stress.  But we’re trying to think long term benefits, so hopefully all this stress and being apart will pay off in the long run.

Here’s to hoping! (chugs a bottle of wine)

Long over due and yet still nothing to say…

I guess you can say a lot has happened since I last posted and I’ve been super busy. Hence I have not posted.  However, I still have nothing to say, nothing good anyway.

Ed’s dad is still basically the same.  Nothing new, really.  They did make the trip up to their cottage at Lake Okoboji.  Rich seems to be much happier and relaxed there.  He does seem to sleep a little more than before.

I came back to Mississippi to do some professional development and will sign my contract on July 14^th.  I have to be back August first as well for more professional development. Currently I’m looking for a place to live, without any luck.  More on that later.

I started my second masters program this summer. MA in Teaching Foreign Language with a Concentration in Teaching English as a Second or Other Language.  It’s a lot of work already, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen when I start teaching full time.

Ed is still looking and applying for jobs in Mississippi.  He got an interview for a job in Ruston, LA, but that’s really just too far away to commute, especially since we only have one car and the job didn’t pay that well.

Summer is having a girl.  She is super excited about that.  Just what she wanted.

I think that’s all the real updating.

Up in the air...

That seems to describe our lives for the last couple of years.  The most common phrase in our household is, “Let’s wait until  _____.”  You can fill in the blank with phrases like, “we start school,” “we finish school,” “we get there,” “we find out about ____,” and the list goes on and on. 

There are a lot of exciting/emotional things going on right now.  Ed has his job here in FL at FGCU, but I’m still looking.  I have a potential job at a high school a little over an hour away, but it depends on the FL legislature and which way they vote on the class size amendment.  I read an article that they capped classes at the larger number, so I’m still unsure if I have a job here or not.  I continue to apply in this area, but after the “traumatic” experience of the Collier county recruitment fair, I’ve expanded my job search a little further.  How much further? Eh… all 50 states? Sort of.  If they have a German position, I’m applying.  But if not, I’m sticking to the southern states.  The next time we move we’d like to move to a place where we both have job offers and be closer to family.

That being said, I applied for a German position at Vicksburg High School in Vicksburg, MS.  It’s very rare for a German position to come open in MS.  So I jumped at the opportunity to apply.  I wasn’t sure when the ad been posted, so I called the school to get some more info.  Turns out the posting was closing and they wanted to do interviews the very next week.  The nice little lady at human resources told me I could speed up my application (because it is a snail mail only process) by emailing her my resume.  I quickly assured her that I could email her everything they could possibly need to hire me and so I did.  She then forwarded my email directly to the principal.  And that was it.

Ed always tells me to apply and forget about it….and that’s really hard for me to do.  I usually obsess about everything.  I mean, if it’s a job that I really want, I think about it.  Is that not normal?  But I tried my best not to think about it.  We’re getting ready to go to Iowa to visit Ed’s parents, so I did some house cleaning.  I checked my phone and noticed I hat two missed calls and a new voicemail.  One of the missed calls was form mom, so I just figured she left the voicemail, especially since I didn’t recognize the other number.  I’ve been getting a lot of wrong numbers lately.  So I called mom back and chatted for a while.  Afterwards, I did some laundry and thought back to the voicemail.  So I went back to my phone and gave it a listen.

“Hi Ms. Whittington.  This is Jamie Creel, the assistant principal at Vicksburg High School.  We looked over your resume and are very, VERY impressed.  We’d like to get you in here for an interview on May 17^th.  Please give me a call.”

Um…AHH. So I called back immediately and he was on bus duty.  I called back the recommended 15 minutes later and he was in a meeting.  So I called back today and they again said that they wanted me to come in for an interview.  I told them my situation that I was flying to Iowa this Friday and not coming back for over a week and on top of that I live in FL.  I asked if it were possible to do a phone interview and it was confirmed.  Phone interview, May 17^th and 4 p.m. 

I’m super excited.  This is a great opportunity (if I get the job) to stay in an area for a long time, we may be able to finally settle!  But all of this depends on if I get the job, if Ed can get a job in the area, etc.

At the same time, I tend to be a mental cart before horse thinker.  So of course I went to zillow.com and started looking at houses in the area.  I also contacted a friend who lives in Vicksburg and asked about potential areas to or not to live in, in Vicksburg.  Zillow showed some beautiful houses in our price range. 

So all our hopes and dreams are still up in the air.  If I get a job here, we want to move, possibly by a car, get some real furniture, and a host of other things.

If we both get jobs in MS, we have to move, possibly get a car, hopefully get some real furniture, and again, a host of other things. 

Also, when we both get jobs, wherever that might be, we want to move to a house.  Whether we rent or buy, we don’t’ want to share walls any more.  Having neighbors is nice, creates a sense of community, etc., but this whole sharing a wall thing has got to stop.  I’ll save the neighbor rant for another post.

So much going on...

There has been a lot going on in the Burton household lately and I haven't been updating as much as I should (or at all), so I'm going to do a little back tracking to get caught up.

April 26th and 27th, I attended the Collier County Teacher Recruitment Fair.  I had never been to one of these before, so I had no clue what to expect.  I knew from the e-mails sent to us and from registration that there would be an orientation at the beginning, then I would have five interviews throughout the day and at the end there would be a contracts meeting.  I wasn't completely sure what all that meant.

So I go...and like I always do, I got there early, parked, and went in.  There were already a few people there so I signed in, got my schedule (which was the one I had created per instruction), and waited for orientation.  It wasn't long before orientation started and they herded us down to an outside area to bake in the sun while they talked to us about the future of education in Florida and what it meant for us:  no job protection, 50% of our evaluations as teachers would be based on student performance, no job security, no tenure, fewer benefits, no pay for higher degrees, and a slue of other things that made teachings sound completely undesirable.  So I call this the slaughter part of the day...you know...after they herded us down here.

Next we waited for the meat market:  our interviews.  We went into huge room (like a ballroom), where tables were lined 6-7 rows deep and alll the way across, maybe the length of 20-25 tables.  At each table there were four representatives from each school.  Across from each one of them was a chair for an interviewee.

My first interview was mind boggling.  Not because of the actual interview, but because of the setup.  You couldn't hear yourself think in that room.  You sat down at the table, with three other interviewees and interviewed with one person, while the others interviewed with the other people.  The loudness of the room was deafening.  You only had about 20 minutes to interview, so no time to show portfolios or anything like that, which was fine for me, because I didn't bring one.  Before you knew it, your interview was over and then came the hoping part.

At the end of each interview, they either gave you nothing, meaning they weren't interested in you, or they gave you a yellow piece of paper meaning they were interested in you but didn't have a place in their school for you, or they gave you a green piece of paper that means they want you and you are to go to the "contract room" and sign a contract.  You had no time to think about the offer because once you stood up, the offer was rescinded.  Then they walked you, almost held your hand, to the interview room, where you signed a "contract," giving you no time to call your husband/wife/significant other and discuss the potential position.  Also, they've only interviewed the first person (with the earliest time slot for an interview) and offered them a job even though there could be potentially a better candidate in the crowd.

So at the end of day 1, I had one potential job offer (potential because it was a .8 position, and they couldn't "legally" offer me the position until they found the other .2 to make it a full 1).  But day 1 was elementary, so I had my hopes up for day 2.

Day 2:  I didn't think it could get worse than day one, but boy was I wrong.  Same process.  I also learned from day one that you could pick up more interviews, so I manages to up my five interviews to 11! Which meant i interviewed with all nine high schools in Collier county as well as two middle schools.  For my first interview, they told me they had a Science position open, but no German, English, or Art.  Another potential candidate who I met went in and interviewed with the same school, directly after me was told that they only had an English position open.  See a problem?  We were being lied to!  This happened over and over again all day long.  After about the third interview, it was just a little depressing.  I was tired of hearing, "Oh my goodness, you're such a wonderful candidate, with such a diverse background and great experiences.  We would LOVE to have you in our school...but we just don't have a position for you right now."

By interviews 4-7 it was laughable.  I knew exactly what to expect.  One interviewer asked me how my day was going and i asked if they REALLY wanted to know...and of course they said, why yes! So i laid it on them, haha.  Probably not the best thing to do, but, come on.  You can't advertise 400-550 jobs and then not hire ANYONE!  By interviews 8-11, I was just angry.  What was the point of me being there, why did all these people form Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, etc. waste their time and money to come down to Naples, FL to be insulted?  And that's exactly what it was...insulting.

At the end of day two I had three "we like you but don't have  place for you" yellow pieces of paper.  So, everyone with this "golden ticket" as we affectionately named it, got to go and meet with the principles one last time.  Not sure why, because we had already done this all day long.  But, after going around and shaking everyone's hand and telling them that I knew they didn't have a position for me, but it was nice to meet them and learn about their school, one school (that previously told me they had no positions open) called me over and offered me a high school English position.  I kind of smirked, accepted the position, and was taken to the contract room.

I guess it was a "good" experience and definitely eye-opening, but something I would prefer not to have to go through again.  And pending the June 1st outcome of the FL legislation, I will or will not have a job near-ish to where Ed works.

Oh and let's talk about this potential job offer...

The Ugly:
-  I've heard different views of the students.  A principle told me that they come from loving, caring families, are very nice and like to give hugs.  A teacher who once worked there told me that she had a few bones broken while trying to restrain students.
-  One of their students was shot and killed near the school the day of the recruitment fair.

The Bad:
-  To start, it's an HOUR away from FGCU where Ed works.

-  It's a migrant school, so workers who come to work the citrus fields, send their kids to this school.  Nothing wrong with that.

-  It's out in the middle of no where.
-  When we drove out there to see what the school looked like, the only word that came to mind was prison.

The Good:
-  Potentially nice students.
-  Loan forgiveness.
-  They pay you a little more because of the location (maybe a gas/travel supplement) and because the school is in session longer than normal schools because of its migrant status.

Needless to say, we have both started job searches in other states, closer to home and family.