It’s been a long and painful journey for me in my career change. I went into education when the state was crying about needing teachers, but by the time I finished my one-year alternative certification program, there was all of the sudden a crisis here in our schools and teachers are losing jobs left and right.

I spent the summer losing my hair, developing ulcers, and sleeping poorly. I had lost my own position and was worried about supporting myself and my daughter. In the 11th hour, though, another teacher left my old school in my department and I am going to be taking his place. I will be teaching my favorite subject (English), working at the school I love, and teaching challenging (yet rewarding) students.

It’s all good and in the end I learned how little I was trusting God to work things out for me.

The sock monkey night light I posted about in my last post was such a huge hit with my daughter that she insisted we get another to give to her friend, Chloe, this weekend. It’s Chloe’s birthday and my daughter told me she is obsessed with the Bratz Dolls, but I’m not a huge fan and asked if there was anything else Chloe might enjoy. The sock monkey night light was Gigi’s first reply.

I was a little nervous that the kids at the party might not know about the whole sock monkey phenomenon, but was greatly relived upon the opening of the gift to hear several of the children exclaim “Sock Monkey!!”

So, the gift was a success. And, the party was fun. Unfortunately, I somehow did not hear Chloe’s mom tell me it was a POOL party. On the upside, we only live about a mile away and I was able to run home quickly and get Gigi’s suit. Gigi had a blast. I got a sunburn.

Happy Valentine’s Day! I took my daughter for a very special afternoon tea at a cute tea house in town. We are also celebrating her 6th birthday this weekend, since I will not have her this year for her birthday. She will be at her father’s home.

So, we put on dresses and makeup and jewelry. We drank lovely cups of English Breakfast tea and Raspberry Truffle tea. We had dainty sandwiches and special little desserts, all served on a three-tier tray. It was a blast.

I think the setting really inspired Gigi to work on her ladylike manners. I have a problem, generally, with keeping her in a seated position throughout an entire meal. She did quite well today.

..but, there is more than a grain of truth here.

I ask this question as I also ponder my own new job. I made a decision after my divorce to reevaluation my career and make sure I was doing something that made me happy. I was working as a graphic designer before I made a break to stay home and be a wife and mother. Even during the at-home part of my life I continued to take freelance design jobs.

After my divorce I thought back to when I first entered college with the idea of becoming a teacher. I had two professors who talked me out of that particular path, which subsequently led to a career in media, publishing, PR and other exciting lines of work. Still, I kept thinking how cool it would be to work with kids.

I also thought a lot about my friend who became a Chicago accident attorney, only to abandon her high-paying job to pursue a life in the Peace Corps. She had years of expensive law school behind her, as well as a very prestigious clerking experience in Philadelphia. All that might have been what she thought she wanted, but it turns out that it did not make her happy. The Peace Corps, on the other hand, DID make her happy and it’s now the life she cheerfully leads.

So now I am working in the public school system. I am exhausted every day when I come home. There are times when the bell rings for one class or another and I find I have been emotionally drained by the students who were in there with me. However, I still feel like this is the life that will bring me happiness. Some of the kids are jaded already, but for the most part they are still in that part of their lives filled with wonderment and possibility. I love being around that.

Right now the idea of leaving earth for greener planets is something mostly addressed in science fiction novels. In the back of our minds, though, I think we all know that sometime in the future this will be a reality. Technology will allow us to expand our horizons.

What if we have to leave on the tail of global disaster? What if only a handful of people can go to colonize a new earth? Logically, one would assume that scientists would take many, many DNA samples so that the future population of the new world would be diverse and healthy, vibrant and worthy?

So, who would be chosen to donate their DNA for such an endeavor? I am sure there are as many opinions on this as there are people alive today. However, I lean more toward the intellectuals, the thinkers, those who invent and expand our humanity.

And me. Don’t forget me. I can see the endless benefits of my DNA being passed along to those who leave to advance the legacy of the human. I cannot imagine not being able to pass along my wit and wisdom and my amazing timing in when it comes to telling inappropriate jokes.

Operation Immortality: Leave your Mark. Save Humanity.
Here’s the kicker – you can actually have YOUR DNA sequenced and sent into space. Operation Immorality is a project by the makers of the online game Tabula Rasa. All you have to do is sign up and download the free trial of the game during the month of August and you might be one of eight players selected each week to be invited to be a part of this astounding project. How cool is that?

I am in the market for a new digital camera. My current camera has served me well. It bought a top of the line Olympus back in 2000 and the quality of that camera is so good that it has allowed me to take better pictures than most of my friends and family who have bought newer camera over the last eight years.

I was going to hold out and just buy a digital SLR in a year or so, since the prices are coming down so much. However, my daughter is five and she wants her own camera. I spent days reading reviews of the digital camera made for kids and they are all absolutely not worth the money. Why would I pay even $50 – $75 for a camera with only .5 megapixels? My daughter may only be five, but I am not going to insult her intelligence.

This past week I bought her a low-priced regular digital camera. Despite its 6 megapixels, the camera was a fabulous piece of crap. I am returning it to the store tomorrow. Again, my daughter may only be five, but I’m not giving her a camera that not even I can get one clear picture off of.

My solution? I will give her my Olympus and buy an Olympus SP-570UZ. It’s not the absolute top of the line, but it should do me well for a point and shoot for many years to come.

So, I am shopping around and that means I am looking of for promo codes. Of course, shopping online alone is saving me money. I am able to browse through dozens of sites for the best price, rather than replying on a local camera store or department store. The, I just check out a coupon code site like CouponNinja.com. Instead of spending hours looking online for codes that are scattered all over the place, CouponNinja has thousands of promo codes for pretty much any online merchant you can think of – all in one place. So, I just found my camera for a good price and I am off to look for promo codes and super prices on an XD photo card.

If you want to see manatees while in Florida, one place to go in the wintertime is the Crystal River area, as well as nearby Homosassa State Park.

So, it is apt that Crystal River is the place where a public meeting with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was held to talk about protecting the endangered manatees. Much of the states’ human-manatee interaction takes place in and around Crystal River. As the manatee population grows, so does the number of people who want to experience swimming with the big mammals.

The meeting was held to help Federal officials draft a 15-year comprehensive conservation plan for the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. Many people came to the meeting to point out that stricter rules are needed to help protect the manatee population. Some cited the widely circulated videos showing people deliberately harming the animals. Many agree that the number of people in the water should be limited and touching manatees should be outlawed.

Then, there are those who think that the manatee encounters that encourage the petting of the animals serves to create new manatee fans who will in turn stand up to champion manatee safety.

And there is the issue of rental boats in the water. Boating accidents still account for most of the manatee deaths locally.

Fish and Wildlife officials will continue to seek public comment for the next 30 days. Then they will start to draft a management plan. The final plan should be implemented by late 2010.