A rave and a rant. Spoiler: the rant is longer

I thought I was going to get back to some good running mileage this week, but when I woke up yesterday the humidity was at 96%. I managed to make it 5 miles before crying uncle. I decided to do Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (a 20 minute workout dvd) after to pretend that I had intended on having a shorter run to make time to continue to work all my other body parts that were sore from Insanity on our cruise. 

Today I ran 7, and it was better, but still the kind of run where the reaction to realizing my shoe was untied was "THANK GOD. A break!". 

Getting up actually hasn't been that bad, knock on wood. I think I discovered the secret. Going to bed on time. It's only been 3 days, but so far I've been doing really well at resisting the siren's call of the internet and TV at night. It's tough, but I just have to remind myself that Buzzfeed and Seinfeld reruns will be there the next day.

However, I highly recommend dropping everything and reading this article immediately. Here's a preview.



I don't usually talk about my job on here, for obviously reasons, but that's all I really have to say about running today and I've already shared all of my vacation pictures, so I'm out of other options. So I'm going to use the time tested rant/rave format.

Warning: the following paragraph contains no sarcasm, so if that's a deal breaker, please skip it.

Rave: My kids. Not exactly a shocker, but this year because I'm looping with my previous class. For non teachers, that means that I move on to fourth grade along with all my third graders from last year. I'm actually ridiculously excited about this. Last spring, when I met with my boss about my upcoming teaching assignment, she said "you have two options: the first is to loop with your class" and I just caught her off and started yelling "YES YES THANK YOU YES" like a Miss America pageant winner and never ever heard the other option. Ok, maybe that part was a little sarcastic but it does accurately describe the meeting.

Rant: Setting up my classroom. Look, I got into this business to hang out with kids, not become an interior decorator. Every other year I've managed to get away with that just fine, but once again, here comes my nemesis Pinterest ruining my life again. It's done to classrooms the same thing it's done to weddings.

As I've mentioned, I was born without that required female gene that gives you an unquenchable desire to make every space you occupy look cute. I don't know what happened, but I don't have it. When we moved in to this apartment, I slapped some vacation pictures in frames and called it decorated (and those same 2009 pictures are still up). 

I don't ask myself "how can I make this kitchen look totes adorbs?". I ask myself "how can I create the fastest route to the coffee maker in the morning?"

I don't ask myself "how can I make my living room into a sanctuary, full of complementary colors and patterns, promoting relaxation and fung shui?" I point the couch toward the TV and call it good.

I don't do "themes". My wedding theme was "getting married". My classroom theme is "learn". 

That "decorating" or "my home " or whatever board Pinterest assigns you when you sign up? Mine's empty. I don't even know what it's called. Because I don't care.

I bring this same focus on functional and practical over cute and precious to work. Now every other classroom looks like Pinterest exploded and mine.....doesn't. I would like it to look nice, but I would also like to be a professional surfer. I just don't possess that skill set. So I spend the whole week filled with feelings of inadequacy, stress and self loathing and once again, I blame Pinterest.

I'm not going to ask something like "are you good at decorating?" because I already know the answer, it's yes, unless you are me. 

Do you seem to lack a skill set that everyone or at least most people seem to have? Please say yes so I'm not the only one.