Playing catch-up

So much has happened since I last posted that I don't even know where to begin. I am still teaching high school English, only now I teach 11th and 12th graders in Dual Enrollment Composition, Dual Enrollment Intro to Fiction, and AP English Literature. This upcoming school year will be my second year teaching these courses. I am enjoying it immensely, though the workload has intensified tenfold -- the biggest difference between 9th graders in regular English and 11th/12th graders in advanced English is that the upperclassmen actually DO their classwork. Which equals more grading for me. Oy. But it is nice to teach students who are overall inspired and disciplined.

As of June 2015, I have officially been living one year with my fiancé. We lived in our first apartment from June 2014 until April 2015, at which point we moved into the apartment we are living in now. I loved our first apartment -- it had a covered garage and had the best view of downtown Miami, especially at night. So when our landlord called in March to let us know he was moving his daughter into our apartment, I was devastated. But there are some upsides to our new apartment. It's only five minutes away (if that) from our old place; it's got two bathrooms, one more than the other; our current bedroom is much bigger; we now have a pool; and best of all, it's $200 cheaper in rent, only $1100 a month. Sure, our second floor apartment may not have the spectacular view that our other place did (we look out onto a motel, ick), and it's a little louder here because many of our neighbors have kids, but it's all right. After I got over the initial disappointment of losing our amazing first apartment, I was surprised how easily our second place began feeling like home. We have yet to try the pool, but hopefully we'll get around to that before our summer vacation runs out.

So you've probably noticed that I've been calling Andy my fiancé. That happened on February 21st. It was something I was hoping for, daring not to expect too much, and while the circumstances surrounding that happy day were not the best, it was still a very happy surprise. February was a tough month for all of us. My father passed away on February 10th after battling colon cancer for seven months. He had been hospitalized with pneumonia but was expected to recover and go home in a few days. So that late night phone call from my mom was not at all expected, and the first few days felt like a nightmare I couldn't shake. The engagement was like a ray of light, one I clung to. And then the distractions of having to move, plus going back to work, helped give me focus and comfort. But I will not lie -- this has been the hardest thing I've ever gone through. My mother and brother have both been incredibly strong, and that has helped me. Andy and my friends have been great, too.

Originally, we had planned on getting married in December, but we have since decided to get married in February. It is the month in which we met, he proposed to me in this month, and while my father may have passed in this month, that doesn't mean February can't be a time for celebration and remembrance both. We have even chosen a date and location -- February 21, Sunday (the same date he proposed, natch) at the 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant. The restaurant is beautiful, styled after the 1940's wartime, complete with airplanes and jeeps on display in the front yard. It faces the Miami International Airport and has a beautiful little garden in the back, where our ceremony will take place. Right now we are in the process of choosing our priest and seeing if the Catholic Church will grant us permission to wed outside of an actual church. We had originally planned to wed in a church but the exorbitant "deposit" and "donation" fees scared us away. Besides, as Andy says, God will still be there.

Truthfully, I'm glad we are getting married in February. Not only does this give us more time to plan and save up money, but it gives me more time to meet my weight loss goal. After dad got sick, I kind of let myself go and gained a ton of weight. This summer I finally decided to refocus, not just for the sake of my wedding but mostly for my health -- my blood pressure has been high even on medication. When my cardiologist threatened to put me on even more medication, this time to control my heart rate, I decided enough was enough. I promised her I would focus on diet and exercise. So I've been doing Weight Watchers again, which helped me lose weight back in 2011. It's completely points based, which really helps me control my portions. I've been working out 30 minutes a day to Leslie Sansone's workout videos, which are basically really intense walking-based exercise routines. When I've lost some more weight and have built up some endurance, I'll go back to Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. That workout is a bit too intense for me right now. I also got myself a Fitbit, which is basically a wristwatch that monitors your steps, heart rate, and calories burned. It's a good way to track my exercise and monitor my heart rate, which happily hasn't been that high since I started dieting and working out.

Since I started my weight loss journey three weeks ago, I've lost 9 pounds. I'd like to lose at least 50 more pounds by February. It won't be easy, but I know I can do it.

I go back to school in two weeks to get my classroom ready, and school resumes in three weeks. Part of me is kicking and screaming at the notion, wishing time could stand still. But the other part of me is excited and looking forward to a new school year. A lot is going to happen in 2015-2016. I can't wait to see what the year brings.

This is getting old, isn't it.

Welp, I went and did it again -- I got caught up with life and began neglecting my blog. Again.You can blame work, my e-reader and its scrumptious, oh-so-time-consuming books, and my boyfriend. (Not necessarily in that order.)

Also, I kinda sorta abandoned Project 365. But that doesn't mean I stopped taking pictures -- it's just that I stopped blogging about it. I got the Instagram app for my iPhone and have been snapping pictures left and right. (If you've got the app, feel free to follow me: my handle is anniecristina.) Here are a couple of the pictures I've taken using Instagram...

Gratuitously cute pictures of my cats!

Showing off my Dinosaur Toes orb necklace! Pretty, pretty.

What else have I been up to? Let's break it down, bullet-style:

• I have been using my new Clarisonic Mia to wash my face for the past month and it has made a world of difference for me. My face is finally getting clear again! :D Yes, it is expensive, but I see it as an investment. I was spending a ton of money on different facial cleansers and concealers anyway. Might as well solve the problem at the root.
• Ricky and I had a low-key Valentine's Day. Just dinner and cuddle time. We had "agreed" not to get each other any gifts, and then we surprised each other with silly little gifts -- love coupons from me, and flowers and a sock monkey from him.
• Ricky and I spent a hilarious evening looking up The Lonely Island videos on YouTube. Their videos are crass and ridiculous, and yet strangely compelling.
• I saw "How to Train Your Dragon" on Friday with Ricky and looooved it. I want my own dragon now!
• Okay, I admit it -- I've been cheating on Blogger with Tumblr. But you're still my first love, Blogger!
• I've also been spending time on my new addiction, Pinterest. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, let me know in the comments. Same thing if you need an invite!)
• I've also been (what else?) reading like crazy. I plowed through The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, and then read Clockwork Angel, a new series by the same author. Then I read the galley of The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson, a book which isn't due in stores until April 26th. How did I manage to get my grubby little paws on this? Thanks to Maureen Johnson's Twitter! She posted the link to this website called netGalley, where book reviewers and educators can join and requests galleys directly from publishers before the books are released. I sent a few requests, not expecting much, and so far, I've been granted all of my requests. It's like Christmas! Too cool. Anyways, I just finished The Last Little Blue Envelope, which is the sequel to 13 Little Blue Envelopes. Like I wrote in my Goodreads review, I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this sequel, but to my very great surprise, I wound up liking it even more than the first book. Next up is finishing the galley of A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine (of Ella Enchanted fame), and then I've got Dawn Light by Diane Ackerman and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë all lined up.
• Speaking of books, I successfully convinced Ricky to read a recent favorite of mine, The Art of Racing in the Rain, and to my very great joy and surprise, he loved it! Yayayayay! It makes me so happy when my man loves the same things I do. :-) 

So that's me in a nutshell or twelve. What the heck have you been up to?

"The years shall run like rabbits."

Another year has come and gone. Where do the years go?! 2009, I hardly knew ye.

But it was a good decade. In the last ten years, I met the love of my life. I graduated from college. I worked as a passenger assistant for Iberia Airlines, a VIP club attendant, a legal secretary, a middle school teacher, and a high school teacher. I started writing again. I began blogging. I traveled to Los Angeles, Panama, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Segovia, Malaga, and Tokyo. I got my first cat. I rode my first roller coaster (and liked it!).

There were bad things that happened, too. I lost a grandfather. I almost lost my mother to a heart attack (she's okay now, thank goodness). I drifted apart from all my high school friends. My boyfriend lost a grandfather, an uncle, and his beloved dog Rocky. But for all the sad things, all the losses we've experienced, I cannot help but feel blessed at the end of this decade, because when I weigh both the good and the bad times in my mind, I realize how much the good outweighs the bad. This is something I forget too often -- I become too focused on the bad to realize how much goodness there is in my life.

What will the next decade bring? I am excited to find out. In so many ways the past ten years feel like they went by in a blur. It reminds me of that W.H. Auden poem that Ethan Hawkes' character recites in "Before Sunrise" -- "The years shall run like rabbits." And they do run like rabbits, always just out of reach. Well, I'm going to do my hardest to keep up with them in the next ten years. I don't want to feel like my life is running away from me, but rather that I'm keeping in step with it.

"As I Walked Out One Evening"

by W. H. Auden

As I walked out one evening,

Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror?
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.

 

Le boyf and I on New Year's Eve.


Picture was "polaroidized" courtesy of Poladroid.net.

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All content on this site is the sole property of Ana Cristina Simon, unless otherwise stated, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

The greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing...

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool,
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out is to risk involvement,
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return,
To live is to risk dying,
To hope is to risk despair,
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

--William Arthur Ward

I need to be less afraid of life, more willing to take those risks. I need to be braver with myself and with others. So many times, I feel like the little engine that could, except my mantra sounds more like, "I wish I could, I wish I could..."

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All content on this site is the sole property of Ana Cristina Simon, unless otherwise stated, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

To teach is to briefly take part in a child's life.

Today I am grieving the loss of two of my former students' brothers. One was 22 and an aspiring musician named Myles Davis. He passed away after trying to move a downed wire off the road last week. The other was a 17 year-old boy named Edwin Whitehead who was about to start his senior year. He drowned in a lake yesterday afternoon.

It's not the same to lose the relative of a former student as it is to lose a former student -- I should know, as one of my first students named Kevin Garcia died last year in a car accident. He was only 18. I still feel an indelible sadness every time I remember Kevin's smile. But while losing the loved one of a former student is not the same, it still hurts, because I know my former student is suffering.

I grieve every time I hear about a child's death because it seems unfair, almost cruel. It makes me question my mortality -- am I not as invincible as I seem? It even makes me question my faith -- why does God have to take someone whose life is just beginning?

In trying to answer these questions, I learn lessons that are as valuable as they are grueling. I've learned that to teach is to briefly take part in a child's life. Sometimes I am fortunate and the experience transcends graduation -- I have former students that I still keep in touch with, along with their families. I've also learned not to take my students for granted, as sometimes they are taken away too soon. I have been teaching 7 years, roughly 120-150 students a year. That's a lot of students, a lot of lives that have touched mine. I hope I've touched theirs, too, at least in some small way.

As I type this, I have the Davis, Whitehead, and Garcia families in my thoughts and prayers. The pull of tears at the back of my throat has been with me all day, as well as the reminder that life is fleeting and never to be taken for granted.

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All content on this site is the sole property of Ana Cristina Simon, unless otherwise stated, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.