2001-10-06
Cal Ripken's last game, posted at 12:13 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com It's official. Jason quit his teaching job. Oh well. His life. I do admit he seems much happier, but I think any of us would feel less stressed out if we didn't have a full-time job. He's now looking into a number of other options, like substitute teaching and entry-level jobs in the field of social work. We'll see what happens. I'm not feeling stressed or guilty abotu his decision any more, though, which is progress.Last night, Jason, Mike, and I went to the movies - my first in Balto - and saw "Training Day." It was pretty good, though excessively violent (even more disturbing was the amount of laughs that certain violent scenes got from the audience.) The movie cost $8.25 - certainly not worth that (the most I've ever paid for a movie).
Today, the three of us will be working for a catering service at Cal Ripken's last baseball game. When I volunteered us for it, it seemed like we'd be doing some work, but more or less hanging out and watching the game. Now it seems like it'll be some hard manual labor, but we'll get paid and it'll be fun to be at a historic event here. We should be all done by the time the game is over, so we can hear whatever speach Ripken will give.
My social life is still frustratingly boring. The movies were the most exciting thing I'd done in a while amongst friends, and I still haven't been "out on the town" here. For example, I keep hearing advertisements for this bar called Bohager's that charges you $15 at the door and you can drink free for the night. There's music and dancing and it's huge. Doesn't that sound fun? Yup. Have I been there? Nope. I guess we're sort of waiting for out-of-town friends to come visit to have an excuse to go out, but at the same time it's a bit disconcerting that we haven't made friends here that we go out to the bar with. I guess that's what happens when you're profoundly busy.
My evaluation/observation went okay. The post-meeting felt very useful, which is good. She loved my lesson and thought that it integrating writing, speaking, and reading analysis very well. It's classroom management that I have to work on. She gave me a lot of pointers that I think will be very helpful and make me less stressed out after classes. Kids will find a brand new seating arrangement when they come in on Monday.
I made a veterinarian check-up appointment for my dog, and they asked me his name, and I told them "Holden." That doesn't make it official. Quite. But it's getting there. I was surprised to see 37% of the people on my latest poll think the name should be Ashton, and only 21% think it should be Holden. Small sample size, I guess. I'll check again on Monday morning, which is the next time I'll be able to get on a computer.
The other issue I find myself grappling with at the moment is what to do with my car insurance. I currently have full-coverage on my car through State Farm, and the address they have on file for me is my parents' address back in Michigan. Since I've had the car paid off since January and it's an old car with over 90,000 miles, it seems a bit silly to continue full-coverage. However, changing that may prompt the question from the insurance guy as to whether or not I've moved, and if the insurance company figures out I'm now living in a big city, my insurance rates may jump dramatically, even if I'm just on PLPD. However, it would probably be more convenient in the long run. For example, I just received my bill for last month on Thursday, and because it was forwarded from Michigan and it took a while, it is due on Monday. I doubt if they'll get it on time. We will see.