The Coffeehouse

surprisingly, i am still alive and able to write...speak, not so much..i come home with a sore throat everyday and my voice is scratchy all the time (i kinda like it scratchy though! :p) you must sing every minute of these kids little lives and the moose, acorn, AND pirate song are stuck in my head ALL the time and at the SAME TIME.....okay, must go sleep now because i am brain dead....toodles

(my kids look something like this..)

i love my mom, but she shrinks all of the clothes i love..actually, she shrinks the stuff i hate too.. and even when they are pre-shrunk (like my job uniform), she shrinks them further in the wash. i know she doesnt do it on purpose but it drives me crazy! when we moved back here, i did some major shopping and had a pretty brand-new wardrobe, but when laundry time comes, i lose several of these new items. and my mom knows how to do laundry, its not like she doesnt separate the whites from the darks or the cottons from the silks, she does ALL of that..so i guess something similar to the touch of death occurs between her and my clothes, but i have figured a way to delay (cant avoid it entirely) the shrinking process....it may sound ucky, BUT THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.....i try to wear something potentially shrinkable to the max..for example, i have a shirt which i bought back in april and have worn since then, but only put it in the wash for the last laundry cycle...and for your info, no, i did not look or smell like the garbage man, it was still clean but i thought that with 3 months of wear, it had earned its right to be washed....its out in the "clean" laundry pile, but i'm too scared to look at it....

i saw this music video for a new somali rapper called k'naan for a song called "strugglin"..its REALLY good...and you know what, he seems pretty intellectual too, go figure!

since tomorrow i start my new job, i decided to practice my children skills at a picnic thingy i went to today (yes, my people go to a lot of such gatherings)..i didnt really mean for it to happen, but the organizers had some games and prizes for the little ones, and it looked like fun, then i realized "wow, this is how its gonna be like dealing with them at work"...and i must say, i think i really did make a difference in their lives..i grouped some of them into a group and turned them into the "super-cool team" and trained them to snap a "boo-yah" snap at the other team whenever i said "super-cool" ("SUPER-COOOOL!!", <snap, snap>) and i remembered most of their names!..<sigh>.. good times..

what will suck about this week is that last week i got laid off my afternoon shift...yes laid off when i havent even started yet, only because not enough people registered for it..so i'm not sure about the other weeks... cross your fingers, your toes, eyes, and teeth (major braces)...

going off to get a good night's sleep....

the purpose of my existence on this planet is to provide a safe and friendly environment for kids between the ages of 3 and 5...i am to entertain them with stories, songs, games, crafts, music, and occasionally cooking. honestly, this past week has forced me to think over my priorities in life and redirect them all towards kids, the generations of the future!!! since monday, my life has revolved around planning kids activities ( i stayed up until THREE AM last night trying to make creative lesson plans!!! we must hand them in), learning how to first aid a child, how to interact with a child, how to tell if theyre being abused, how to include them, security procedures...and so on...i was going crazy for a while trying to convince myself that it cant be true, there must be more to life than this. the same thing happened to me when i took driver's education, that time, the meaning of life was to become a non-aggressive driver and know all the speed limits. also, when i took that first aid course, we learned to be on the lookout for dying/fainting/broken people wherever we are...im so glad training is over. there were some fun bits however, when we tried out games, or did some craft projects, or painted signs and decorations for the camp rooms...and now im just really excited for monday!!! i have to wear a uniform (did i mention this already?)...ta-daaaa..i get a name-tag too!

i'm kinda bummed we have a uniform..but i gotta wear it, if not for the job, than for the livelihood of these poor kids!