CC's Stuff and Things

February 2022 has been about having my condo remodeled, and February 28th, I thought I had read many less books than January, but then when I tallied them up, there was only one less.  :)  Not bad. 1. DNF:  Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz.  I read the second book in this series last month called The Moonflower Murders, and I really enjoyed it.  This wasn't a prequel per se, but had one of the main characters in it.  I could NOT get into it. Gave up after 4 attempts.  Maybe read 75 pages. 2. No Place like Home (audio) by Barbara Samuel Enjoyed listening to this on the way to and from work. Woman moves to an inherited home because of a raise in rent in NYC with her best friend and her teenager son.  A few different story threads with this.  There's a storyline with her best friend at the end stages of AIDS.  There's a love story.  And there's also a reconciliation story with her family.   3. Perennials (audio) by Julie Ca...

Book 3: Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah First, let me say this is the third book by Kristin Hannah that I've read.  I read The Great Alone  and The Nightingale , both which I enjoyed, though I felt that The Great Alone  should have ended differently. I'm also noticing that Kristin Hannah likes to leave the reader feeling hope in some way.   Winter Garden is a family drama sort of book centered around the mother, a Russian woman who married an American and came to the US after World War 2.  She is very cold towards the two daughters she has, and when their father dies suddenly, they are left to care for her.  The story is very well done and flashes back to the mother's time in World War 2.  Very well researched, and I did really enjoy it.   Book 4:  The Art of Inheriting Secrets by Barbara O'Neal I listened to this as an audiobook last year, and I like this author ( When we Believed in Mermaids  my favorite so far).  I deci...

 Book 1 of 2022:  The Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz :) Purchased this book at the Palm Springs Airport on my way to San Jose for the Christmas holiday with family.  I didn't realize that this book was the 2nd in a series-ish sort of book.  It references things that happened in "The Magpie Murders" by the same author, without giving so much away that I knew exactly what happened, but it's not entwined so much with the Moonflower Murders that I could read it and not be confused.  I really liked this book because it was definitely a different structure than I'm used to.  It's about an editor of a deceased author who is contacted because the parents of a missing woman think that she discovered hidden clues in a novel that pointed to a murderer of someone who was killed.  It follows the main character as she travels to England to investigate herself, then about midway through the book, the book with the hidden clues is included for you to read alon...

By no means is this list complete. I suspect I'm forgetting 5-10 books I read. I read books from the library, books that I have been loaned to me, e-books, books purchased at Goodwill or scored for free at church sale prep, and audio books. I was told by a friend that I'm allowed to include audiobooks because I also read book books. I love a good story. So the short codes here are :) for good, :/ for okay, :( for did not enjoy, :)) favorite. 2021 The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben :) Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore :/ The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate :) Verity by Colleen Hoover :( The Lost Recipe for Happiness by Barbara O’neal (audio) :) The all you Can Dream Buffet by Barbara O’neal (audio) :) The Garden of Happy Endings by Barbara O’neal (audio) :) The Lost Girls of Devon by Barbara O’neal (audio) :/ The Art of Inheriting Secrets by Barbara O’neal (audio) :/ Write my Name Across the Sky by Barbara O’Neal :) When we Believed in Mermaids by Barbara O’Neal (audio ...

It's true.  The last few years have been rough, moving across country, adjusting to a new culture, a new career, and working with students who exhibit extreme negative behaviors due to adverse childhood experiences.  I have suffered with depression for a really long time, possibly since my teenage years, but in the fall, I took a nosedive.  Actually, when I was thinking about this earlier today, I realized that I was really struggling badly the summer of 2018, and felt emotionally unbalanced.  I visited Ohio that summer for my cousin Shane's wedding, and when I was staying with Mark, he encouraged me to seek therapy.  I attributed my depression mostly to secondary trauma from working with my students.  Christmas of 2018, I cried off and on worrying about one of my students in particular whose parents/family never told him they love him, and he haunted me as I watched my nieces open their presents, knowing that they (thankfully) will never experience t...

This, my last semester before student teaching, has been an experience.  I'm only taking three classes, which is all I need to finish up before student teaching, so I thought it would be a cake walk, particularly considering that I took five classes both semesters last fall and four classes during the summer.  Keep in mind, I work full time and I still manage to maintain a 3.7 GPA (bragging). Despite the fact that my butt only has to be in a classroom four days a week for about an hour and a half apiece, I still have to complete 20 service hours each at two different locations as well as tutoring an elementary student in reading on Saturday mornings for my literacy class. So yeah, I'm busy.  And the literacy tutoring is the thing that's keeping me awake at night and my brain spinning most days at work.  I've been assigned a second year old urban student who I affectionately refer to as the Big E when I'm thinking about him outside of our tutoring sessions. Whe...

As the school year starts up, I have seen a lot of posting on Facebook about how Common Core Math is the worst thing in the entire world for kids.  Three months ago, I might have agreed with you, but here's the thing, I am a student in the College of Education working towards a degree that will allow me to work with students who have learning disabilities.  And as such, I had to take a class called "Math Methods" which taught us how to use different techniques to work with those types of students. I should stop and explain (in case you didn't know) more schools are adopting a multi-tiered form of special education services.  This means that as much as possible, schools are including students who have mild to moderate disabilities in the general education classrooms rather than secluding them in a room all unto themselves.  That being said, this emphasizes the fact that there are students with a wide variety of learning styles.  Additionally, (as most everyone ...

A habit which is annoying, but a habit nonetheless.  I love having fake fingernails put on.  I can't seem to grow my nails past a certain point before I notice one is not quite straight and I begin nibbling at it.  It used to be that I'd go to a nail salon and have some put on, sometimes acrylic, sometimes acrylic with gel on top, sometimes the solar nails (what are those anyway?).  But it did not matter what kind I put on, I invariably ended up picking them off, working at their weak spots one by one until they were all pulled off, particularly if I noticed that one of them wasn't put on quite straight. Gross, I know, but it's the truth.  I'd use my other fingernails or my teeth, slowly moving pockets of air into the nail until it would pop off, sometimes whole (so satisfying) and sometimes in pieces.  Since getting nails put on is quite obviously a waste of money, I have recently begun to try press on nails, which I have much more luck with keeping on (...

So I decided to throw my hat in the proverbial dating ring recently.  The impetus behind this--aside from my regular loneliness--revolved around a close friend essentially being led on by someone and after it was all said and done, I found myself saying to him "Don't give up on finding a meaningful relationship.  There's someone out there."  And it made me reflect on my own single situation and I thought "Why am I not taking my own advice?"  I decided to try online dating--again--despite multiple failures in the past.  I figured I had nothing to lose because I know the kinds of people to avoid based on their messages, and I also banked on the fact that I wouldn't get many responses because I lay out the fact that I am crazy busy right now attending school and working--both full time. I had about 7 people respond almost as soon as I put up my profile, so that was encouraging.  But they were mediocre responses save for one.  I am a polite person, so I...

I'm always a bit sad when my birthday rolls around as I get older.  Well, my birthday and New Years Eve. It has to do with being in limbo these last, shoot... 7 years, or maybe I could just say my entire adult life.  And it has to do with what one of my professor's called the "Ideal Life Trajectory."  You know what that is, right? It's essentially life taking place in this order:  Birth, Elementary, Junior High, High school, followed by College, marriage/career, children, being promoted further in your career, retirement/grandchildren, die old. Irritating, right?  And I know that more people probably do NOT follow that life trajectory than do, I get that.  I mean, they may add a divorce in there, or not go to college, or have a child during their high school years.  I get that the majority of people do not follow that trajectory.  I can even say that generally speaking, I do not regret not continuing college right out of high school.  I had n...

The semester is wrapping up, just one more exam to take and I can call it done.  I've been going to school since Spring of 2010.  I started at Ohio Dominican University in Columbus and then transferred to the University of Akron for two reasons.  One, ODU was too expensive, and two, they didn't offer many night classes and my employer would not work around an altered schedule so I could take morning classes.  In fact, they told me "maybe you should transfer to a different school."  So I did.  And I moved.  And got a new job. But I digress.  I'm just going to say this:  until this semester, I have always found most traditional students really annoying.  First and foremost, they are very laissez faire about their schoolwork, which annoys me. They have this attitude that it's not cool to care about their classes.  Fall of 2013, I listened to a male student brag about how little he did for the class we were in together, and others par...