shocking!

ok, so today was "one of those days". I woke up sick and feeling under the weather. I got to school and the principal was mad cuz the filter still wasn't working properly and I got frustrated with the tech support guy cuz he couldn't figure out WHY it wasn't working properly and kept trying to make it sound like user error (when, in fact, I just think our computers are too stupid and old to handle it properly). after all the frustration, he told me to just change it from proxy mode to bridge mode... which means that I can no longer control whether certain sites are blocked or unblocked. DANG IT! I had purposely UNBLOCKED youtube because I want to use it in class for teaching purposes, but the stupid filter blocks it. so now I guess I can't use it until we get our new computers. I'm praying that happens soon. anyhow, I finish that and then the principal gets mad cuz I'm not in math class. I go up there and just sit... and sit... and sit... I got up for like 5 min's to help students, but the rest of the time was just sitting. I almost fell asleep. I really don't know why she has me up there. if there were groups for students who were behind in math and ahead it'd make more sense. but they're all learning the same lesson at the same time and I'm just sitting there til the lesson is over. BLECH! it's boring... oh well. so, it comes time for my 4th graders to come in to class. I'm ready for them. they're usually pretty good, considering the few trouble makers in the class. the class went real well. they were all on task and very curious about the subject (Chinese New Year), so they kept asking me questions WHILE they were doing the research... and also telling me everything they already knew about it. so cute! at this point I'm freaking out that the 7th grade teacher is gonna send me the whole class for their lesson cuz I only have enough computers for half of them. they're a, how can I say it, not so calm class. so they all get there and I'm kinda thinking "oh crap! I'm REALLY not up for this..." I tell them the assignment and have them get into pairs. I'm seriously worried at this time that they're gonna just start goofing off. SHOCK OF ALL SHOCKS!!! they all get on task right away... and the ones that were working the hardest were our "troublemakers"! when I first realized they were all doing their work, I went to Rosa and we talked about it... cuz even though they were on task they were a bit noisy. and the principal has already told me that she's "old fashioned" and she thinks that the classroom should be quiet. we talked about that very fact and how she would be upset if she came into the class. well, I was so into helping the kids out and answering their questions that... I didn't notice the principal had come into class!!!!!! I saw her and thought "uh-oh... I'm dead" cuz the class had gotten considerably noisier than at the beginning of the lesson. but alas, she walked over to me and said that it was a good lesson and that she was glad I was working with the students and she was proud of the students staying on task. I even pointed out to her our "troublemaker" students and how they were the ones working the hardest, and she went and praised them. seriously, it made me feel good that they were working so hard. I showed Rey the hard work that was going on (he'd been working on something in my class the whole day, for the principal) and he jokingly said "give me back the old students! what have you done to these kids?!" I even wrote a note for the 7th grade class teacher telling her how the lesson went and suggesting that they be praised. I know that they don't get praise that much from her and I think it would mean a lot to them, even if they do feel like dorks for being praised in front of the class. haha :-) so yeah... that was my SHOCK of the day.
after work I stopped by Target to pick up a few things for transporting the food from my house to Jonder's for our Chinese New Year dinner/cell group tomorrow. I'm SO excited about it. seriously, I get way too excited about this. I'm already a compulsive over-cooker (that means I cook too much, not that I over cook the food. haha) and mixing that with the fact that it's a Chinese holiday means that I'm going all out for it. a few of our cell members are going to come over to help me cook, which will be fun. I like cooking with people and talking/singing/dancing (the key ingredient to good food... DANCING! no joke!). I hope I make WAY too much food... so that I can take it to work on Thurs. Rosa, Rey and Lily really want some and have been bugging me all week about it. actually, they've been bugging me since June about it. but Chinese New Year gave them a renewed reason to bug me about it. and since I'll already be cooking, why not give in! haha
I don't think I have anything else much to write about. I'm on Theraflu Severe Cold Warming Effect right now... I was gonna do a blog about what "warming effect" means, except I wasn't motivated enough to find out and the first page that came up on a google search didn't explain it to me. so I scrapped that idea! haha my brain's kinda fried... it's been all over the place since this morning and I didn't think the Therafly daytime helped any. I'm gonna take nighttime in about 20 min's and then try to get to sleep. tomorrow's gonna be a LONG day of cooking. I'm so excited! is it wrong that I've been looking forward to this dinner since last year immediately after Chinese New Year? I just LOVE doing this. partially because I love cooking for people, partially cuz it reminds me of China and it's kinda my "link" to China, and partially cuz I like to hang out with people in a relaxed setting that has a purpose, even if FOOD is the purpose... (as opposed to sitting around trying to think of something to do)
alrighty, I'll stop rambling now... and I'll let you see some of the pix of food from the past 2 yrs of making Chinese New Year dinner. *disclaimer* I'm not responsible for damage done to your computer due to drooling! =0)