Work, Play, Inspiration, New Location, Learning, Teaching.

 OK, I only have 15 minutes to write this blog post, because then it will be 5 pm and I'm not allowed to work anymore. After 5 it's time to have fun with Suzannah. Up to 5 it was work time. I finished my CPR and First Aid recertification, had a planning session with my online co-teacher (the human values and spirituality class I teach on weekends which is starting up) and then called all the parents to say hello. Which, by the way, is something that in the past would be pretty outside my comfort zone. It still is, I suppose, but I did it anyways. I feel pretty good about that. It's a nice reminder how much I've grown in just the past year or two. I've mentioned this before; my ability to just do the work that needs to get done without drama or delay has vastly improved. It's super exciting for me, since it was a long time issue that I had and caused me much shame and consternation.

Moving on: great news: we found an awesome house, and we got it! The contracts are signed, and we are moving forward with the mortgage process, and should be moved in within the month! I think it's the best-feeling house we visited over the course of our whirlwind house-buying adventure, and there were other houses that were also good, so it's pretty great we're getting the one that seemed the best.

Though just recently Suzannah was reading through the homeowners association document which is over a hundred pages long and, as far as I can tell, feels like incarceration to her. It delineates the number and trunk width of trees that must be in the front lawn, along with the two approved types of grass. Any modifications made need to be submitted for approval by committee. Suzannah is not pleased. I can understand: I think landscaping and gardening is a form of creative expression for her, and this is like having severe rules placed on what you can create, as well as having to submit your plans for your art project to stern review before even getting to work on it. Not the best environment for creative expression. So we might have a more potted garden while there. Good thing we'll have plenty of space and light inside.

Work is going well. I'm learning the ropes, getting to teach some lessons, but doing more of an assisting role. It's a good way to ease into things. My mentor is super busy, but even just getting to chat for a few minutes once a week ends up being super inspiring for me. 

Right now this is just an idle thought, but I think it would be satisfying to learn how to be a master teacher, and then figure out how to train other people to be master teachers. In general, teacher training isn't doing a good job of that, I think, despite the best intentions and some wonderful teachers of teachers.

I can't wait to have a fully fledged office space. And just space in general. It is a fantasy of mine to have enough space and storage, that there is a place for everything, without being crowded or cluttered. I think that would make it much easier to put things away quickly, and easier to have things look nice. Uncluttered and beautiful. I can work, am working in pretty messy conditions, but it's like a constant, slightly unpleasant background noise, and it makes it hard to take on any large organizational tasks or changes, when I don't have the physical or mental space to do that planning and rearranging. I'm kind of in a holding pattern until that happens. Just maintain life support systems long enough to get into the proper house, then I can spend the time setting up my nice systems. It's not worth spending that time here at the airbnb, when I'll just be leaving again in a few weeks, and there's too much to do that's higher priority than that.

I think it's good practice though. I'm down to life-support essentials, work and play, which is it's own kind of minimalism. My physical space is cluttered, so it is a kind of mental discipline to keep my mental space clean and focused, despite that.

Even so, I think I could use a little time cleaning up my office this weekend. But not tonight! My times up for work! ^_^

Now it's time for play and relationship!

What a whirlwind. What a series of changes going on.

Until next week!

-I <3

Talking about not talking. Location, food, time for love.

 OK, I gave the big news in the last post, how about a more general update for this one. In some ways, it feels a bit like when I had a girlfriend (previously, not my now wife) and things weren't going well: I didn't want to share that with the world, because it was personal to her and though I was fine sharing what was going on with me, it seemed like an invasion of privacy to air that with the world, so I went a little quiet for those years. My current job at my school had a fairly lengthy and business-like contract to sign that included stuff about not sharing pretty much anything about the operations of the school. In business speak I think it's the idea of trade secrets and not wanting competitors to know how you run your business. And then there's the normal element of all schools, where you must protect the identity and info of the students. 

Between all that, I'm going to have to talk very generally about the school, if at all. (And obviously if there's something I really don't like about it (which there currently isn't and I don't foresee their being, this school is pretty great) there's no way I'm going to air that publicly on a blog. That's super unprofessional. So don't expect 'the dirt' here)

That said, to give a general idea, they are doing a good job easing me into this new job, though I suspect it's a bit more intense that it would be, without Covid going on. The staff are all really nice, cool people who are good at their jobs, the children are great to work with (but they still require work and attention, as I assume you'd have anywhere in the world.) And the school itself is lovely. The work environment itself is not stressful, which is great. It's long hours though, which I'm adjusting to fairly well. I miss having more morning time, but once we've moved and settled down, I'll figure out a routine that gives me all the time I need.

On to a few other things: our airbnb is in a very convenient location. There is an HEB (supermarket) about 2 minutes away, and a whole bunch of excellent restaurants about the same distance away. There's a jogging path right around where we're staying so it's easy to keep up that part of my routine. I'm prioritizing fun time with Suzannah during my free-time. It's mostly low-key activities, but I'm trying to make sure my relationship isn't suffering from me being away working so much of the time. It means less time at home to catch up on other work, and I'm still finding the balance there, but I think the quality of my relationship is a high priority and shouldn't get short-changed. This is all stuff I need to feel out and re-balance once life starts getting into more of a routine, but I think I'm doing pretty good right now in this ad-hoc situation. I'm glad I'm not in charge of more outside-the-job lesson planning right now, as it means I don't have much time pressure outside of class to be working, so I can be spending it with Suzannah.

OK, I definitely need to go now. It's 6:30 am so I need to give Suzu morning cuddles and get running. ^_^

Take care everyone. The crazy adventure continues.

-IO

Found a Home

 Again, it's been another two-week stint without a post. I'm trying to post now in the wee hours of the morning before I go to work.

The biggest news is more big news: we've found a house. We've been house-hunting for a while, and it's a bit of an exhausting process, when you're on a timeline. We could theoretically have stayed in the airbnb longer, but living in what amounts to a hotel out of a suitcase (if a very large hotel room and suitcase) is draining in it's own right. Our routines are disrupted, and that makes everything else harder as well. Everything is a bit uncomfortable, and it's not worth spending a lot of time to make it comfortable, since we'll be moving again shortly. I have only a makeshift system for organization, what goes where. And, as we're spending so much time viewing houses, as well as getting settled into the new job, with all the additional energy that requires, there's not much time/energy for organizing things and making it super tidy. It's about as good as it's going to get.

But we found a house we genuinely like (for a while we were vacillating between looking for that, or settling for something that was "sufficient.") and they accepted our offer. Actually, it's a bit of a story, where at first they didn't accept our offer (all the nice places we'd looked at were going off the market in a mater of a day or two after coming on, all with multiple offers, and, it seemed, a fair bit above list price) but this last weekend (as we continued to look at a whole bunch more houses) the other people backed out of their offer, and we put in a much better offer, and were accepted. This is exciting for two reasons: one, we got the house we really liked. One that we were unconsciously comparing all the other houses we looked at too. It's not perfect, but I suspect you have to start from the ground up to get something you think is perfect. It felt good to be in, the neighborhood felt good, it had everything we needed and then some.

So now we get to think about how we're going to set it up. I'm already dreaming of finally having an office that's not also my shrine room and and bedroom and storage room. Suzannah is looking at beds for when we move in. And it will still be a while before we move in. We're hoping we'll be able to move in a month from now. That's the timeline. That's about how long we have left in the Airbnb, plus a week for wiggle-room. It's a relief to not be thinking about what house we want anymore. I was spending much of my time visiting houses and there wasn't time for much else. Now I've got a little more time for some of the other things, like the online training courses I need to do for work.

OK, I've got to write two of these, so I'll stop here for this one, and start a second that is technically for this week, while this one is technically for last week (though the house thing just happened this last weekend.)

Arrival, Adaptation, Aspirations

 OK, onto post two, catching myself up from my late blog posts. Something about being on time rather than a week behind with my posts makes me feel relaxed. If I have time to catch up on posts, that must mean that the intensity has simmered down a bit. Of course, it would be easy to simmer down from the rolling boil of exams and moving, and starting new job, but I don't know if that's going to keep up. I think the school is starting out kind of slow and relaxed, as several students haven't arrived yet, and some of the teachers also haven't come back yet. Once things get rolling, it's likely it will heat up again. But it's too early to tell what to expect. I suppose if it's well designed it will get more intense at the rate that the teachers and staff can handle.

We've begun house hunting. It's amazing how many poorly designed houses there are. From poor architecture choices to poor design and style choices. It seems like someone could make a good living designing nice houses, but I guess they can also make a good living designing so-so and mediocre houses. But we did find at least one that was quite nice, inside and out (the outside, the nature, is perhaps as important to us as the inside.)

Saturday was a pure fun day. Well, a little work in the morning, but almost all fun together. Today, Sunday, was house hunting and a little fun and some work. This is the same issue I've had previously, that I've got a lot I'd like to get done, but by the time the weekend rolls around, I need a day to just recuperate, and then the next day is filled with life-admin stuff, and there is only a little bit of time for getting ahead on long-term important projects. Perhaps I should say energy, rather than time, since if I was a tireless robot or superhuman I could probably get it all done. Aspirations. In any case, I should finish up this blog post and get to some of the other things that need doing. Like cleaning up my room. One of the exciting things about house hunting is the idea that finally I'll have enough room for my office and storage stuff, so that my office looks as neat as I've always wanted. The ideal thrills my soul. Previously it's always been just barely contained. The thought of having enough space for everything is exciting. But perhaps the issue is systemic rather than environmental. (Meaning, maybe a bigger office with more storage won't fix things) I suppose I'll have the opportunity to find out!

Suzannah doesn't like the heat, or the various tasks she is having to do with finances and domestic type stuff, or being away from friends or family, or the city, and is generally having a bad time, though making a valiant effort to make the best of it. It's hard to get around the fact that we moved here so that I could work at a dream job. She would certainly have preferred to stay where she was. It's incumbent on me therefor, to make the very best of the learning opportunity I'm getting in working here. I think even more than that, I want to help her find some joy here. I'm not sure how yet, and it seems a bit overwhelming, but I haven't yet found a problem I couldn't eventually overcome with enough persistence and experimentation (and prayer).

OK, goodnight all! We're onto the very first chapters of a new book in the Isaac's Life series. ;-)

-IO

Arrival in Austin

OK, I've arrived! Actually, I arrived a week ago, but it's been crazy busy, so I'm only now getting a chance to post. (or rather, having an alignment of time and energy to post). I think I'm a week behind, so at some point I may split up this post into two posts, just so I can say I've kept up with a post a week.

So much has happened this summer. Oh my gosh. In the weeks and days leading up to the move, it kind of felt unreal. Could I really be moving across the country in the middle of a pandemic to start a new, demanding job? It seemed like a dream or a fleeting fancy. Even once I arrived, it still felt kind of unreal. Perhaps partly because I was so tired, everything felt a bit dreamlike.

There is a lot to tell. As I said, what a summer: together, me and my fiancee planned and executed a Covid wedding, and I finished my intense teacher training via online, and I studied for and passed (that's right, I passed the final test, I'm official, the diploma is in the mail. Though it's going to my Aunt's house because I have no permanent address yet...) ... my final tests. And packed up all my belongings (and helped a little with the general house belongings, but that was far and away Suzannah's hard work) and drove across the country with our two cats.

I thought I was going to have to start teaching the very next day, but wonderfully, I had two days to rest before diving in. Which was much, much needed.

This was a busy, busy summer. But I did it. I did it all. We did it (Suzannah and I).

But oh, it is not over. Not by a long shot. We're looking for a house to move into (another big thing that seems kind of like a dream or fictional story I read, not something that's really happening to me). And I'm learning the ropes of the job I'm in.

The job is a fascinating experience: the kids are wonderful. The facilities are wonderful, the co-workers and bosses are wonderful. The job is intense. I need to arrive by 7:20 every day, and leave at 5 (though I don't actually get to leave at five, since I have to disinfect everything once the final kids are gone at 5.)

This is longer than I've ever worked before, as a job. I'm getting up at 5am so I have at least a little time to do a 15 minute run and some meditation. I've worked other teaching jobs, like for student teaching, where I was getting up as early, but none where I was working this late. Also, as usual, I'm exhausted at the end of the day. I think this is just par for the course as a teacher starting up a class at the beginning of a year, but also it's expected, as a new teacher, learning all sorts of new things every day, trying to get up to speed. And then on top of that the long days. So, that is all just to say, by the end of the day I'm not capable of much higher order thinking.

And this is just doing a little teaching and mostly assisting. The other teacher who's going to come in is still in training for another week, so we're running on two people when we'd normally be running on three. We're making it work, it's just one more thing adding to the intensity of what's going on. Then in addition, we have a bunch of extra energy going into sanitation procedures, sanitizing all the high use surfaces and desks and chairs two to three times a day.

And of course, since I'm moving towards being a teacher rather than an assistant, I'll be picking up more teaching duties as we go along, I think, which means, though it should settle down somewhat in terms of the newness of the job, learning the ropes, more and more complexity is going to be added. Still, that's a more gentle on-ramp than most teachers get, where they're just thrown into teaching from day one and it's sink or swim.

OK, that should do it for part one. I'll continue this in part two.