NYC Public Schools... Survival of the Fittest in the Snow!

snow snow snow

I work for NYC public schools and they literally do not close their schools, EVER. If you live in New York or the Northeast, you know how much snow we have had in the past couple of months and this week has been almost ridiculous.

Every single school district around us was closed... expect New York City.  Major De Blasio thought it was a good idea that we still have school. He's so wonderful!! See this article.

The thing with this is, fine, we have to go to school and fine we have to drive in, but seriously, these kids take public transportation to school, is it really worth their lives to get to school to only have a few people there and then to do nothing at school?!

Seriously!?

Tomorrow we shall see what happens tomorrow but my real question is.....

Is it more important to go to school? Or to be safe in extreme blizzard conditions?

Teaching Kids Not to be Bullies

This is probably the hardest part of my job. I have 5th graders in the South Bronx. They are 10 year olds that travel by taxi, public NYC buses, and NYC subways in the early morning and late at night to get to and from school. They are tough; they are mean; they are not like regular 5th graders. They don't really get to act like children anymore. It could change their life if they act like a child while walking home or taking the bus or subway and someone jumps them.

But how do you teach kids like that in school to stop being an jerk? I had one kid make a comment today to another kid and I had to stop the entire class to talk about how being a bully makes them a loser. Some kids don't know how to defend themselves without being mean and they don't know how to come over and mention it to their teachers because they are embarrassed or uncomfortable doing it.

It kills me how absolutely rude and mean my kids are. I had to stay after school yesterday and talk to a kid and his mom because he was being bullied in the bathroom by a kid in my class and his older brother.

Ugh. It's not fair.

When did kids get so mean?

And now that they have facebook, Instagram, twitter, and text messages and email, it makes it like 100 times worse!

There are so many ways to bully now, it is hard to keep it under control.

Any suggestions? How do you handle it?

Calling All Pregnant First Time Mommies!

Picture

I honestly know so many people that are pregnant right now, especially on their second babies. Unfortunately they are mostly just people I have known that are still my friends on facebook that I haven't seen in a bazillion years.

My point being:

I am 28 going on 29 and none of my friends are pregnant.

So my choices of people to talk to about being pregnant are...... oh slim to NONE.

None of my friends care that I am pregnant. They aren't at that point in their lives; and it is what it is, I can't expect anyone to care or want to know how I am or how the baby is or buy me baby clothes because they are excited; point blank: I am pregnant and I need to find some people to talk to about it who are going through the same thing.

So I am reaching out to bloggers. If you are pregnant or just had a baby, please contact me! Leave me a comment with your blog and email address.

I want to start a weekly Pregnant Mommy post but I need your help! I haven't had too many crazy pregnant things happen to me yet so I am not so good on the morning sickness advice or not sleeping advice.

There aren't too many groups for mommy to be's; its more about the groups of the after the babies are born groups. I just am not ready to join that group yet.

Please reach out to me if you would like to join. I would be happy to share anything that you want to write or any stories that you have experienced so far being pregnant.

Even if you check out The Bump's best mom blogs, they don't have a mommy to be blog. Or even first time mommy blogs. Anything that I could read to relate to it. A lot of the blogs are single moms, pregnant and single, or people who have kids already, etc.etc. I am talking about FIRST baby and haven't had it yet stories! This is a scary time!

Contact me if interested:
Leave a comment below with your email address and blog page!

Prenatal Yoga

Yoga

Ever since becoming pregnant, I haven't had time to exercise or any energy to do it either, or motivation for that matter.

My husband bought us groupons to The Yoga Room in Pelham, NY and I am so very excited to do our classes there. He has even offered to go with me because he knows that I won't go alone. 

We started yesterday and basically we just took a normal yoga class and the yoga instructor had prenatal training so she told me when to modify different poses. It was awesome. I was able to do a lot of the poses and it was nice to actually be doing something athletic instead of working and sitting around. 

I wish it was way nicer out so that I could actually go outside, but winter just sucks to do things outside and exercising; especially while pregnant! Motivation and energy just goes out the window with the darkness at 4:30pm. 

If you are pregnant and haven't tried yoga, you should absolutely do it. It is good for you, good to exercise, and good to get your blood flowing. 

Definitely try it, but make sure you let them know you are pregnant so they can tell you which poses NOT to do. 

Keep in mind: stretching from side to side is NOT a good thing for preggo people. So that pose will definitely be modified. 

Namaste 

Engagement Photo Sneak Peak

This was not one of the ones we picked, but you get the idea :)

Teaching in the South Bronx

This is absolutely true.

Whoever said teaching was an easy job because you got so many vacations, was a complete idiot.

Teaching is not an easy job.

In fact, it is one of the hardest, most stressful, and time consuming jobs I have ever had in my entire life.

Not only do I have to be at work at 7am and don't leave work until 4:45, but then I go home or on the weekend and I write lesson plans, I grade papers, and I have to enter grades in. Or do whatever crazy thing my administration needs me to do.

I have the privilege of teaching 5th grade ELA and Social Studies in the South Bronx. Don't get me wrong; I am completely grateful for getting this teacher job. When people say in the teaching world, the only way you will get a job is if you know someone, and they are ABSOLUTELY 100% correct. I would have never found this school if I hadn't went to college with one of the administrators. I lucked out. That is for sure.

But then step into my classroom and take the crazy children that are in it, and every day I wonder, did I really luck out? Or am I totally insane for trying to teach these kids anything. 

Some of them are incredibly smart; I was even surprised. And sometimes, with the attitudes that come out of these 5th grade kids, I truly forget that they are 9 and 10 years old and are in 5th grade. Their smart ass comments can drive someone completely insane. But then again, in the South Bronx, you have to take it with a grain of salt.

These kids lives are like no other school I have worked at. I am used to the rich white kids in upper Westchester. And if you have never heard of Westchester before, it's a ritzy area that has money. Switch over to the South Bronx, it is like a completely different environment.

I can say my first week starting there was the hardest week of my life. I was newly pregnant and my stress level was on 100. I was fighting for respect with 42 5th graders and they absolutely did not want to give to me. The teacher before me I found out was a straight up evil woman and she would make fun of them in front of the whole class and make them feel bad. I was not about that life. So now trying to win over these kids and get them to listen and stop talking was very, very, verrrry difficult.

At times I was so overwhelmed not knowing the ways of the class, not knowing their names, or their habits, or what we were teaching (which I have to create the whole history curriculum --- no big deal! --- and then time manage correctly so I am not doing work until 8pm at night, and then make sure that when the principal walked in the room these kids weren't going psycho. 

So, you can say I my plate FULL! I never thought it was easy, but in grad school, they don't tell you or teach you these kind of things. No one can prepare you for what you will deal with in the South Bronx. I don't actually think my school or my kids are dangerous, but getting out early on Halloween because its gang initiation day...... that's pretty new to me.

Or kids coming in with strange cuts on their arms or faces... also new to me. 

In my opinion, they are in school for too long. Our charter school hours are way too long and by 9th period at 4:00, these kids are checked out. They are also in a school with high schoolers! I think 5th graders should be still in elementary school - not with seniors who are 18!! It just really changes how they act and making them grow up fast.

On the other side of that, these kids are taking public transportation like city buses and subways to get to the school, all by themselves. They are 9 and 10 years old walking alone early in the morning and at night being with strange people on the buses and subways and at that age, forcing them to be grown up.

These kids needs to know what's happening at all times and they have to worry about getting jumped on the way home or shot! Those are things that kids at the ages of 9 and 10 shouldn't have to worry about. Ever.

This is just the beginning of my stories coming out of the South Bronx. Overall, as much as I hate my kids, I like them too. They frustrate the hell out of me, but I want to give them a fighting chance. I have a lot of knowledge to share, and even if in their other schools before me they haven't learned shit, at least I know that coming out of my classroom, they will know how to write an essay, and they will know the 50 states in the US, and they CAN spell words and they CAN be responsible. 

I will not fail them. 

This is my chance to change lives. 

2013: The Year of Transformation

{photo}

It has been quite awhile since I have sat near a computer and actually wrote anything meaningful besides writing lesson plans for work. I have definitely neglected a talent and hobby of mine that I was incredibly in love with over the past four years. But life got in the way and caused me to have to find different ways to make money, which was bartending while trying to finish my master's as fast as possible. So, if you have ever bartended before, you can imagine the hours that I was working in order to make the most amount of money as possible.
And I honestly wouldn't change it for the world. It was an amazing experience and I met and worked with so many people and learned a lot of management skills and forced myself to multi-task going to school to finish my master's, working at many different schools being a substitute, and bartending as many nights of the week as possible to pay my rent, and inevitably trying to have a social life! So, my hobby of writing, really got pushed to the very very end of my list of important things in my life.

As I enter 2014, my life is 100% different from how I started off 2013. If I were to have told myself in 2013 that in 2014 my life would be like this, I would have laughed in my face! But it has been the worst, best, hardest, most incredible experience ever in my life and I would literally change nothing or want it to be any different.

I can never just change one thing about my life. It usually has to be like if I change one, then everything else needs to change as well. Every year I think has been the hardest year of my life and I have accomplished one great thing and so forth, but 2013, this year has been the BIG year for me.

2013:
Graduated, received my master's and got 3 New York State Teaching Certificates
Went to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Met the love of my life
Rented a shore house
Went on vacation to Europe: Austria, Germany, Italy
Got engaged
Found out I was having a baby girl
Got Married
Moved into a house with my husband
Got my first 5th grade teacher job in the Bronx

See what I mean, I don't do anything just half assed. I make sure its all the way!
My life has went from being the single girl who lived with her friends and was just making it by from bartending and working at shitty preschool or substitute jobs to being a grown up.

My life that lays ahead of me is so exciting, I wish this baby would get here now. Collecting girls clothes and getting ready for June 2014 is like the countdown of a lifetime.

I also never thought I would find the man I would love, marry, and have a child with, ever in my life. I literally couldn't have ever been so lucky. I actually still can't believe I got so lucky. After all of these years of having such shit luck, it finally changed.

And here's to the transformation that is about to happen in life.

And as for transformation, I will be focusing on my new life: Army Wife, Teacher, Mom to Be, House maker, life.   Ahhhhhhhh who would have ever thought!!!!!!

Stay tuned.

Hurricane Sandy and The Jersey Shore

 

Seaside Heights, New Jersey, Summer 2012.

This is my home away from home. I spent a lot of time there this summer. I cant believe it looks like this now:

October 2012

{photo}

{photo}



I feel very badly for everyone who lives there and now that the shore that we knew when we were growing up is forever going to be changed and is destroyed.

Governor Christie put it the best way that we will rebuild it again but it will not be the same.

I am looking for ANY place to go and volunteer at but they are not letting just any regular people go down there yet.

I will be starting a fund raiser sometime soon once red cross allows me to and I will put it up here, hopefully we can make a difference. I will be going down there soon to go donate a bunch of things, so hopefully my friends can help out.

If anyone have any reccommendations or has donated, please let me know so i can pursue this.

They need our help... along with the Rockaways and Breezy Point..

{photo}



DO YOUR PART!!!!!

December... And a Dating Update

{looks so much better on the iphone}

It is finally here. It has been a year since my whole life changed and I got more serious about school and saving money and working with kids instead of in sales. It's also almost been a year since the whole relationship I had of mine went down the drain and it has been a constant headache for mostly the whole year after, which is now finally over, again.

As we go into the holiday season, I wish I was in Florida with my niece. But I cannot go there until January due to school and work.

Here is what I have been learning in the past couple of months........

-School is also almost done, which I am sure everyone else is very excited about as well, except we finish December 22nd... like who the hell is really thinking about what is on their final on December 22nd? The only thing I am thinking that day is, who the hell do I need gifts for and where in the hell am I going to get them that doesn't have a line out the door where I might die trying to buy it?

-I have been promoting my restaurant that I work at hardcore, and would appreciate it very much if you could go and "like" it by clicking this link on to Facebook: Olives Restaurant

-I have had crazy shit happen with men and "relationships" in the past couple of months since I have been MIA, and its too much stupid shit to write about or even wanting to talk about it, but I can sum it up in some sentences:

-My ex will always be the person that he is and he will never change no matter how good I am to him.
-Portuguese men are my new favorite people
-21 year olds are so fucking dumb
-If I am asking you for help as a desperate measure and you tell me you can be there in an 1 1/2 hours, pretty sure you will not be graced by my presence again
-If you're 45 and stalking me at my bar and having flowers delivered to me and shoving money at me and still I am not attracted to you, give up!!!!
-Albanians are crazy as fuck but so damn hot
-Nice men will always finish last... just like nice girls.


-iPhone touch screens are very difficult, even worse when driving or drinking.

-I made sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving but I burned them and had to redo the marshmallows... lol

That is pretttttty much the gist of life living in my new apartment.

Bring it on holiday season!

Ah it is so hot...

{picture}

perfectly said with no words.

new york.

Rain... Enough

{picture}

It really needs to stop raining... like by tomorrow. I have to work the entire weekend and I want just like ONE day where it is not raining!!!!!!!! I CANNOT deal with this weather. All it makes me do is what to sleep and it is May! Not December or February.. and this is UNexceptable!

I am still not sure why I continue to live in New York when I can live somewhere else where it is sunny all the time... lol

I hope everyone is enjoying their weather this week because it is crap here in New York...

My New York Story.

{photo}

I love New York.

I am not sure if you could tell that but I do.

I have lived in the tri-state area all my life. Although I always try to leave, it never happens. I end up going on vacation and missing New York like crazy. Although Europe came VERY close to stealing my heart... it just doesn't have the feeling I get when I think about how I, 25 year old me, can survive in the most expensive area in the entire country for years on my own.

Amazing things.

Now.. when I was trying to apply for college, in my mind, all I wanted to do was get the hell out of Connecticut, where I went to high school. I was looking in Hawaii, California, Arizona... anywhere that was really far away. My parents declined my interest in the West coast because it was too far away so I started looking a bit closer. My only choice because I was NOT going to Jersey, was New York. 

I was not happy about this. I really didn't want to stay close. I graduated high school in 2002. 9/11 was the year before. My family went on a trip to Florida and we ended up watching a documentary on 9/11 and the fire fighters that died.

It was so moving and made me so sad that I decided from that moment on that I couldn't leave New York and that I needed to be there to be with all these people that went through all those things. Because me being there really saved them right?! But that made me make the choice to stay and then make my way to living in New York.

Although I haven't moved into the city, I live 20 minutes away and visit frequently. I love everything about New York from the streets, to the people, to the smell, to the look and the feel, to the bridges and the random things that happen all of the time. I love my life that I have built here in this little area that I call my own. 

I wouldn't change it for the world. 

Do you have a New York story?

new york

lovely 60 degree weather we are having :) ..... hey spring.....

ps.... todays the last day for march #2 giveaway! sign up NOW!

pps.... last minute dog project photos being accepted!!!

Cold Spring - A Dog Day

It was around 50 degrees on Sunday and I wanted to go somewhere outside so the roomie & Simba came with me to Cold Spring. I love Cold Spring. That is my "away from it all but not that far away" spot. It's close enough that I can drive there for the afternoon and far enough away that no one will be there.

I love to go there and just hang out, walk around, go hiking, eat some lunch.

I used to go there with T all the time, so I have been wanting to make new memories there so when I go there, it doesn't just remind me of T. I invited someone else but they ended up being busy, and I got upset about it for many different reasons, all being mostly that I can't hold them to anything because we are only hanging out... soooooo... needless to say the roomie saw my anger increasing because it was nice out and I was stuck, so she came with me.

And we had a great time. So did Simba.

Although Cold Spring is definitely no Portsmouth, and the Hudson River is definitely not the Atlantic Ocean, it was still nice enough for the short period of time that it was warm and sunny!

Mind Your MANNERS Kanye!!!

Taylor Swift Wins Best Female Video: "2009 MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West, Radio City Music Hall, Best Female Video, New York, Taylor Swift, Moonman, Moonmen, VMAs, VMA, Award, Winner, Statue, Statuette, Trophy, Speech, Acceptance, Accept"

What a horribly mean thing to do to poor Taylor Swift! I mean holy crap!!!
And Beyonce is like, what?!?!?!

What a jerk off.... I hope someone interupts him next time he goes up on stage. Or how bout this.... DON'T INVITE HIM TO ANY MORE AWARD SHOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ugh... I feel so bad for her.

Remembering the Fallen in New York

It is only appropriate for me as a New Yorker to post about Remembering 9/11.

What a horrific unnecessary dramatic crazy day that was back in 2001.

I remember I was in 11th grade, about to go into my English class that I was in with my ex boyfriend and we were in the cafeteria and as we were getting up to go to the class, we saw it on the TVs in the cafe. Everyone was in shock, no one knew what to do or say. I remember my ex running out of the room to call his mother because I know his dad world in the vicinity of the World Trade Center.

I ran to call my mom from the pay phone because cell phones were not working because so many people were calling everyone everywhere. I had to find out if my dad was in the city, because he went down there a lot for business.
He wasn't thank god. And I didn't end up knowing anyone that was there or worked there or died in the crashes, I am happy for that. But I feel for the people who DID know people and I feel for the people who WERE those people. I couldn't even IMAGINE that. What do you do? Jump or don't jump? Fucking crazy. That is horrble that people even had to make that choice in their lives.

Craziness.
Absolute.
Sorrow.
Horrible.
Pain.
Mourning.

I found out years later that my dad was supposed to be at a training that day in the trade center at 9am. But he didn't end up going because (if i remember correctly) they cancelled it at the last minute.
Wow.
I mean that was some serious angel looking over him/us.



I am thankful for all the people who helped out like they did. I wish I could have been there and helped or did something to contribute to those efforts.

My dad knew a fire fighter that died there, and a quote that always sticks with me

"Live while you're alive"

FDNY Chief Orio Palmer

9-11-2001

United We Stand.

Always Remember.

Where were you when this happened?

Woodstock --Bethelwoods, New York

WOODSTOCK!

Yes! I went there.. and it was SO amazing and inspiring. Especially there museum.

I even bought a book.

I love.

I WISH I was born so I could have went to it...because that would have been simply amazing.

I only have a few pictures because you can't take pictures in the museum and that is where everything that was awesome was.

Such a great experience.





Have you ever been?

giveaways 101

It is coming very close to my 200th follower and I would like to do a giveaway for my awesome blogger buddies, but.... I have no CLUE! what to do.

Can anyone give me some info?!

Does anyone have an Etsy shop that you can leave your website so I can check it out and I will buy something from one of them? Or if you have a favorite etsy shop, can you post that as well?

Oh and tell your friends to follow me, so I can get to 200 faster! lol :)

i hope everyone had a nice day, beautiful weather ova here in New York!


photo credits: etsymom

Fall

FALL! how i love you!

This the best time of the year in New York by far. Its not too cold, not too warm, BEAUTIFUL outside, the trees are changing, you can wear boots again and not sweat your ass off.... LOVE IT.

October is the best month here, although its not October yet (thank god, because that means winter comes faster), but today it feels like fall already because it is so cold outside right now.

I have crazy amounts of stuff coming up in the next 2-3 weeks its a good thing that I moved this weekend because honestly, I don't know when I would have done it.

My upcoming events.....

-Retreat with C for Thurs/Fri in upstate New York ... lots of drinkin and tanning by the pool (thank god!)
-hanging out with my friend i used to work with before he goes back to Cali tomorrow. booo
- working somewhere along the way
-Going to the shelter on Sunday
-Going to the Hamptons with S & M on Sunday night! Awesome because I have never been there!

Then NEXT weekend is a HUGE fashion weekend! Cannot WAIT!

-S and I will be going to Bryant Park fashion show on Sat. night, the Academy of Art fashion show, because my girl won the tickets!!! woohoo!

-Sunday we are going to another one but its a couture show in the city.

Serious amounts of fashion! I need to buy a new outfit because I need to look nice for that!

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening ." ~ Coco Chanel

And....

Thats all for now folks.

Anyone going to NYC Fashion Week?

Interactive Thursday!

Topic:

Lets talk about you! Where do you live? State or town or country, whatever you want to put. And tell me about it. Do you love it? Do you hate it? Will you stay?

(main street in pville --not the best picture!)

(i used to work here)

Mine:

Well.. i live in Pleasantville, New York at the moment. I will be moving back to Connecticut shortly due to what I told you all is going on, but we'll talk about Pleasantville. It is 40 minutes from New York City, and i can take the MTA there.
Basically, I LOVE Pleasantville. I have lived here 4 times in the past 6 years. I love it so much. I don't know why. Those pictures do NO justice to how cute the town actually is.
I have been searching Google for like an hour now since apparently I have no actual pictures of the town except the crappy ones i put up on here!
I don't know why I love it so much.
I have had 3 different apartments in this town and am always sad to leave them. I went to college here, worked at my first coffee shop here, met T here, met so many great people here.

(my college)

(first coffee shop i worked at)

I wish i didnt have to leave, but i think its time to move on. I love my cute little town. I will never forget it.
Maybe i'll come back to this county. Maybe not. Maybe I will find a cuter one :)

Thoughts?! Comments?! Questions?!