look around, leaves are brown...

For the first time in many years, I am embracing the change of seasons. Typically, autumn has been a huge source of anxiety for me, probably because of returning to school after summer break paired with the unavoidable return of the cold. I am not particularly fond of winter, mainly because it is so cold and I find snow to be especially obnoxious. But this year I am trying to be more optimistic. I'm getting excited about seasonal recipes. I'm anticipating the holiday seasons (Halloween, Thanks Giving, Christmas, etc), and I'm trying to find ways to be excited about these annual events in order to distract me from the lack of warmth. I'm am looking forward to being able to stay warm under my blankets and not having to get up for work every morning. As the days go by, it's also fun to gradually reincorporate my sweater collection into my daily wardrobe.

I have a new found optimistic view on life. I've been unemployed for a month and it has proven to be the best unexpected change in recent years. Virtually everyone I've talked to has commented and agreed with that. Emma* had commented about her old job that there were certain aspects that she could not improve or change, and it basically came down to having to accept the faults and just work around it. I think that was a big problem at my job as well. Every workplace has its issues, but I feel I was aboard a sinking ship. It was supposed to be a school, but it wound up being a business. There was a lack of accountability all around. Some teachers did outstanding lessons and tried an eclectic approach to best help their students learn. At the same time, other teachers do basically nothing above the bare minimum, refusing the modify their teaching habits or explore new methods. It was very discouraging to see such inconsistency being overlooked, and even ignored. Its just unfair. Some people break the rules and are not reprimanded, there is no follow-through regarding consequences for some people, but others are constantly ostracized for challenging the issues they are presented with. It has become a very unsupportive environment. People who work there can be categorized into 3 groups: 1. Loyal to the company because they've been there for so long, 2. Waiting for something better to come along, or 3. Lack substantial skills needed to be a public school teacher. It's sad because at the end of the day, the people who are most greatly affected by these teachers are the students...students who are already at an incredible disadvantage because of their special needs, and aren't receiving the education they deserve. I'm not trying to bash the school, a lot of this has to do with their inability to offer a pay competitive with public school salaries (generally about $10-15,000 less), so they aren't able to be as particular about who they hire. Even in this economy, their applicants are lackluster. The people at the top need to be held accountable for their actions. It's a commonality for the director to flat out lie or at best, offer partial information regarding changes in the company, which leaves the staff with many unanswered questions and thus rumors begin to spread. While employed there, I felt as though the staff was considered to be stupid and unworthy of getting the full story or information. I'm glad I'm done with that aspect of my life. I can only go up from where I'm at. I look forward to all of the exciting changes my future holds.

*You'll notice I've updated my links with my very good friend, Emma's blog. She's much more interesting and informative than she gives herself credit for. Even if you don't know her, it's a solid read ;)

autumn divers

I'm a really big fan of seasonal recipes and cooking the fruits and vegetables that are locally grown, and readily available. I'm a huge pomegranate and cranberry fanatic. I found the most delicious pomegranate green tea, buried in with my stuff from work (which i've yet to unpack). It's made by The Republic of Tea and is totally worth the money. It has a really beautiful smell and the pomegranate adds just enough sweetness that it's delicious without adding anything to it. I've also been eating apples and dried cranberries like its my job, they are an excellent accent to almost anything i've been eating. I'm excited because Thanks Giving is coming up, and this will be the first year that Billy and I will have our own kitchen to cook in for the holiday. We're not going to change our family plans on the actual day, but we've been throwing around the idea of having some of our friends come over for a pre-thanks giving feast. His friends celebrate "Friendsgiving" every year with a pot-luck feast, which was fun, but I'd really like to cook up a meal and invite people to come and relax while I do my thing. We shall see about that. I'm very excited to start baking with apples and pumpkins, as I just melt from the scent of nutmeg and cinnamon. I definitely love the warmer weather better, but the autumn holiday season is such a good excuse to get together and cook and most importantly, eat! Plus, I get to wear all of my sweaters.

I'm really happy to be back in school. I was thinking earlier about how I have no idea where I went wrong with school. I'm not sure when or why exactly I fell so far behind, but ultimately I'm not losing sleep over this and frankly, I'm happy. Billy and I are wonderful, we're always laughing and having fun. Yes, we have our hiccups, but nothing that's set us back at all. I always comment on how it doesn't seem like most other couples have nearly as much fun as we do. I think thats incredibly important in a relationship. We take care of the serious stuff, all of our responsibilities, we talk about stuff that we need to, but we still joke and play around most of the time. If you can't have fun with someone, how the hell are you going to be able to do anything else with that person?