substitute teaching, marching in Chinese, eye exercises, NCR paper... and MORE! ^_^

today was quite interesting.... I was substituting for Rey as he's really sick, again. (he gets sick a lot. go figure.) yesterday Rosa was subbing for him and the kids weren't on their best behaviour. I was a little worried about that as jr. high IS the hardest age to teach and his class is 6th grade. I mean, I teach them often... but I didn't feel like dealing with problems today. well, on top of the fact that they're 6th grade monsters (haha j/k), 7th and 8th were on a field trip so there was no chance for me to have a break from them and try my hand out with 7th and 8th for their science/social studies classes. so I started the morning by praying on my way to class.

I honestly was expecting a struggle today. not quite sure why. probably has to do with the fact that the other jr. high classes were gone and I figured the students would get bored easily. the day started off pretty well. we got on task straight away and they were all following the rules I set down before we started any lesson (whispering only when not instructed to keep quiet, work hard, be respectful of whoever is talking). all went quite well. they like how I use the alarm on my phone to indicate the end of one subject and the moving on to the next. I mix up the alarms just to keep them attentive to what's going on around them. they were always so curious as to what was going to go off that they typically wouldn't talk louder than a whisper JUST so they'd be sure to hear it. :-)

towards recess time the mother of one of the students was bringing donuts for the whole class. I got them in perfect order and even though we were late to recess (because her mom came late), there were no complaints so I let them stay out extra long for recess. when we came back in we got straight back to work without any problems. seriously shocking for these rambunctious kids! as it was coming time for lunch they were getting rowdy... so I taught them how my kinder students in China go between classes. they MARCH and say, in Chinese "one two one, one two one" (as opposed to "left, left, left right left"). soooooo..... that's how they headed off to lunch! I couldn't stop giggling after they were out of my site. I mean, c'mon... a bunch of Mexicans walking to lunch marching & speaking in Chinese. CLASSIC! I went to the front office and said "I humor myself!" while still giggling. I told the receptionist what happened and she couldn't stop laughing. it was really cute.

because it was so hot out today and the kids were so excited to be out in the sun... they kinda wore themselves out. also, we had finished all the lessons that Rey planned for cuz he forgot that we wouldn't be switching with 7th and 8th today. so immediately after lunch I taught the kids eye exercises to calm them down and help them relax. a lot of them actually said "this feels so good!" and "I feel so relaxed now!" it was cute. :) of course, after that I still had 45 min's free time... fortunately I had quickly thought up a lesson during lunch and we did that. I taught them how to find the mean, mode and range of numbers.... by having them play rock, paper, scissors with partners and in groups and then we put the results up on the board from each group and found the mean, mode and range from them. they learned it real quick that way and had fun.

after we finished playing, the kids went outside for Jump for Heart. it was fun... but it was so hot out and there was some chaos as one teacher went MIA and I had to cover for her while also taking care of the class I was subbing for.

after school I went and helped a friend study Chinese and then we went out for Japanese food with her friend (who is our mutual friend's sister) that is visiting from Seattle. we also went to 21 Choices. yummmmm

ok, so yesterday I read Dani's journal and left a stupid comment on it wondering what NCR paper is. just after I left it, and while I was chatting with her, I decided to do a google search and see just what NCR paper is. I came up with this image (I did an image search cuz I was being too lazy to READ about it and figured an image would be easier for my mind to process):

I immediately had flash backs to when I worked in accounting and also did lots of filing... and thought I was gonna die from the smell of these things... these stupid papers smell AWFUL! and I'd be working with them all day so my hands would end up smelling like them. just thinking about them brings back the scent. it makes me want to cry.... I wish I could forget that scent but my olfactory senses won't permit it... or maybe it's so embedded in my brain that it's just that I THINK I smell it and I think it so intently that I DO smell it. seriously, I could do without that memory in my brain. I remember when I first noticed the smell and I was trying to find where it was coming from... little did I know, I was SURROUNDED by it! ARGH!

the worst was the temp job I had in which I was sent into a filing "room" (I swear it was more like a dungeon. dark, dank, cold, weird lighting, lonely, etc) by myself to file those papers all day! the smell alone is bad enough... add in the other assets and it makes it torturous! I did that for about a week straight. they finally let me out of the dungeon and had me do a desk job. that wasn't any better... the company made products for cats and dogs. products like shampoos and stuff. and for some reason, the office I worked in smelled like all the chemicals.... and I was also working with that stupid paper. I actually asked to be taken off that temp job at the temp office. partially cuz of the above listed reasons and partially because I had no clue why they had me there as long as they did because they had me just sitting in the office doing nothing.

being a receptionist is just as crappy.... I did that for several months on temp jobs, also. one place I worked had a huge warehouse and a pretty big office. mind you, I'm a temp and I barely know any of the people and I definitely have no idea about anything that's going on with the business and their customers... anyhow, I've decided that nobody should ever call an office during lunch time... and if you do, you should know in advance that you're going to be leaving a voicemail or a message with the receptionist. seriously, people get stupid at lunch time or something. they'd call and ask me to transfer them to so-and-so. I'd transfer them and the person would be away from their desk or on the phone so it'd go to voicemail. the person would press 0 to go back to the operator and ask AGAIN to be transfered. I didn't always know that it was a person coming back to me as it was a busy switchboard and if I was on another line there was no identification that it was a return. so I'd transfer them again and they'd come back to me again. then they'd complain that the person wasn't at their desk and asked me to PAGE them over the intercom. I'd do this once and then they'd come back to me (I have to go through this as I literally don't even know if the person is in the building... they were supposed to let me know when they left and came back in... but most of them didn't AND I was a temp so I didn't even know who everyone was!) complaining that the person never answered. at which point I'd politely suggest that they leave a voicemail or a message with me (actually, I suggested this at any point that they began complaining)... then they'd start complaining to me about whatever problem they were calling about and ask ME what they should do... ME?! heck, I don't even know who they are or who the person they're calling for is in charge of and they want me to tell them how to handle a problem?! I'd explain that I'm just the receptionist and it'd be best to leave a message... they'd get furious with me and start complaining about how the company has bad communication, blah blah blah... seriously, people are too high strung! haha

anyhow, Danielle's post from yesterday just made me remember all that and she suggested that I blog about it... so I did! :) I think it was a form of inner healing by letting it out... all the woundings from past jobs. lol seriously though, I never want to work with NCR paper again and I STILL don't like answering the phone 99% of the time. lol

hmmm... just had another memory about a different temp job. it was so stupid. small company that got maybe 5 calls a day and 4 of those were from there own tech people that worked in the office just asking me where someone was or whatever... well, everyone loved me. I worked hard, it was a pretty simple job and I was always kept busy... and suddenly one day the boss calls me in the office and said he didn't like the way I was saying the name of the company (Triton Communication... or something like that. something about phones. I forget). I was kinda swallowing the second t. so he told me to pronounce it with a hard second t. I started doing that.... and then a couple days later he complained that the hard second t sounded too cold and harsh and had me go back to the way I was originally saying it. then a few days later he randomly said that I wasn't needed there anymore because we weren't "compatible". (I say he's mafia... Italian guy. lol anyhow, that had nothing to do with anything about this story...) I was SO angry. he just dropped me during lunch randomly one day. I went back to the temp office and told them what happened. well, it turns out that the person who I replaced quit her new job and wanted her old job back.... so he decided to take her back and I ended up being dropped. well, anyhow, I was tired of working for the "mafia" anyhow. the rest of the guys were cool, but he was a jerk.

one other temp job I had was cool, despite the fact that I worked in accounting so was ALWAYS working with NCR paper (I think it's of the devil... why else would it smell like that?!?!?!). the president and co-president were brothers. in their late 30's/early 40's. the co-president was ALWAYS joking around. I was a bit intimidated by him for a while. but then I got comfortable there... and I don't remember what happened but he came to the front office (where the accounting was) and was giving people a hard time joking around... without thinking, I said something right back at him (don't remember what, but I remember being VERY sarcastic and keeping a straight face) and everyone was like "oooohhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he looked shocked and started laughing. he started to walk away and then thought of a come back and came back in and said it to me. it was so funny. we were laughing about it the whole day. then there was the time I almost fainted in the office.... that was kinda traumatic! haha it was the beginning of the day and I was getting my desk ready for it by straightening up any loose items. I put some stuff in the draw and went to close it. somehow, someway (unknown to me to this day) I slammed my thumb in the drawer pushing back the cuticle and just making it hurt REAL BAD! at that moment I felt like all the blood rushed out of my body. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even look at my finger. I swore it was bleeding like mad. I just held it tight and tried to calm myself down. yeah, it didn't work.... eventually I got up and went to the bathroom to wash it off... at which point I discovered that it wasn't even bleeding! LOL but I still felt faint and then suddenly I had a cold flash. I was going into shock or something... someone brought me a cup of milk to try to get something in my system. anyhow, during all that my face went real pale. after I was done going through all of that shock my pale face was compared to a post-it note. so, for the rest of the day there were jokes about post-its going on in the office. heck, even the guys out in the shop knew what happened and I didn't even know half those guys. HAHA

ok, finger slamming reminded me of another finger slamming incident on another job. last year (?) I was visiting insurance agents for my job and as I was walking in one place I was trying to keep the door from slamming, not realizing that there was a gap between the door and the doorway and I ended up slamming my thumb in the little gap. I immediately knew it was bad news but kept my cool while talking with the agent... I left the office and freaked out. I didn't want to look at my finger. when I finally did... I was DISGUSTED! I had split the fingernail up * down instead of left to right and there was blood and skin popping through the split, etc. it was just gross and crazy painful... I wrapped my finger up and drove around til I found a store where I rushed in and bought bandaids and antibiotic with pain relief. seriously, I was still using bandaids on that nasty split for like 3 or 4 weeks. it was bad.

I totally did not intend on talking about those injuries... hope I didn't gross you out. and if I didn't gross you out, I hope you found it in you to laugh hysterically at me! LOL :-)