Kickoff to Summer

Hey everyone, looks like it is time to sit back and enjoy summer. It felt like it would never get here. Sadly I only had a couple weeks to rest my brain because I started summer classes today. Summer classes at State are split up into 2 semesters, and they go by really really quick. I'm only taking one class this semester 4 days a week, but I'm taking 2 the second semester. During the second session I have a class that goes from 6pm-10:50... Not looking forward to that one.
I successfully completed my first overnight shift at Speedway (11pm-8am). There were a few characters, most notably an extremely intoxicated man that could barely take his wallet out to buy cigarettes (5am) I had to count his money for him. At least he donated all of his change to Children's Miracle Network because he said he would just lose it. Speedway is also giving everyone in my store a fleece jacket because we sold the most cookies in our district... So yeah, pretty awesome. Now I can just donate my NorthFace to charity, or Jeff...
The Ruckus is running good, and it's a real head-turner when I'm on it. I parked it outside a gas station today and some guy came in and said he tripped over it, broke his ankle and was going to sue me. The man was missing all of his front teeth and had a ponytail... We ended up chatting about mopeds for a couple minutes, and after he dropped 6-10 F-bombs about other drivers cutting him off when he was on his I quickly gave him the "Well, see ya," and politely left. Nice guy.

Update

Sorry it's been a while since I've updated my blog. I've been really busy with school, a lot of projects are starting to be due so there have been a couple late nights. My roommates and I were reminiscing about the good ole' days and someone mentioned how they used to tuck their arms into their sleeves, pull their pants up and put wear their shoes on their knees to make it look like there were a little person. It's probably no surprise that I used to do this too. I decided to bring the look back, you're looking at my new facebook profile picture.

Almost everyone in my 400 level Teacher Education classes have gotten their student teaching placements for next year. Sadly I still have another 20 credits to go so I will be taking summer classes and then one more semester of them in the fall. I plan on living in an apartment with my friend/current roommate Shane and two other of our friends. The plan is to keep working at Speedway and substitute teach after I'm graduate because I won't be able to start my student teaching until the following year. Then the plan is to live at home and get a placement somewhere in Grand Rapids.

The Ruckus is running great for me, I just can't wait until I can ride it without a winter hat and gloves on. On Wednesday I was running late in the morning. I was planning on taking the moped and getting there in like 10 minutes but with 15 minutes before class started I looked outside and it was pouring out. I only had one choice... I had to power through it. I put some sunglasses on to keep that rain out of my eyes but they fogged up about halfway through. I ended up pretty soaked by the time I walked into class, but I was on time.

Waiting For Superman

I rented the documentary on the US school system "Waiting for Superman" on netflix a few weeks ago. My plan was to invite some friends over from my TE class but never found a good time. Tonight I finally broke down and watched it when I got back from work. I watched it with my roommate Dan and his girlfriend Aimee (who is also an elementary education major.) If you haven't heard of the movie if shows the story of like 5 families that have to enter a lottery in the hopes of getting their children into a good school.
It was the first movie that my eyes kind of welled up since I saw Air Bud like 10 years ago. You know the scene where he has go get rid of him and says, "Go away! I don't want you anymore!" He totally did, but that's beside the point. It was just so sad that basically the only way these kids will get a good education is if they win the lottery to get into one of the very few good schools in their district. Most of the lotteries were like 800 applicants and 20 openings.
One of the biggest points I took away from it is the problem with ineffective teachers. The movie claimed that after a teacher has tenure it is basically impossible to fire them. So there are all these crappy teachers out there but there is no way to fire them. Obviously this movie only presents one side of the argument, but the side it presents is a pretty strong one.
I encourage you all to watch it and then we can discuss it next time I see you.

Speedway Recap

Ok I have a few short stories about working at speedway
1. There is this old lady that comes in every week and buys us out of bottlecaps candies. If there are 17 left in the box she buys them all. You would think she would get sick of them after a while. I'm doing some math and lets say she buys 10 packages of bottlecaps every week (which is conservative) at $1 a piece. Thats over $500 a year on candy.

2. An old guy came it at like 10pm and bought a banana. Then he held the banana like it was a gun and pointed it at me... awesome.

3. Tonight I shut this ladies pump off because she was sitting in her car while it was pumping. This is against the rules because that can build up static electricity which can start a fire. She marched inside not too happy, I tried to explain to her the situation but all I got was, "SO YOU SHUT MY PUMP OFF!?" Then she said she was never going to come to Speedway again, awwww shucks!

4. Some a-hole came in and bought cigarettes, when I turned my head he put them in his pocket. When I gave him his change he said I never put the cigarettes out (then how the heck did I wring them up?). I said I did and he started laughing and replied, "It never works." He thought it was a hoot, I didn't find it very amusing.

5. Someone stole one of the plastic cases that holds the towels by the pumps. Why?

Some Old Photos of Dawgs

I don't know if everyone is filled in with the whole dog fiasco that is going on with Jeff's facebook profile, but I'll give you the scoop. Dan and a couple other of Jeff's friends posted like 3 dog youtube videos on his profile. Jeff made a comment that people were going to think he was some sort of crazy dog guy, so ever since then literally everyone has been bombarding his profile with dog videos (they spell it dag). One of my personal favorites was from B.J. (http://deadspin.com/#!5760394/heres-a-video-of-dogs-saying-i-love-you) of dogs saying "I love you." 
I was looking through some old photos on my camera and found a few gems of the old band and a deaf/blind dalmatian (named Chico I believe) we watched for a few weeks for one of Dan's college buddies.

Chico had a little trouble knowing when he was going to need to go to the bathroom. He would get up, walk and drop excrement as he meandered through the house. Another problem was that he couldn't tell where he went poop so he would walk through it and just spread the mess. One day I was the first one to get back from to the house from school and Chico had one of these accidents (a particularly bad one). I remember thinking "I have two options, number one clean it up, or number two I could try to play it off like I didn't notice it." Lets just say that it would have been pretty difficult to pull off option number two convincingly...  

The Perks of the Job

Here's another Speedway post for everybody. I may not get much free stuff, but when I do it is amazing... Check out this awesome speedway swag everybody in the store got.

It is supposed to act as a hair net when you make food. I decided I was going to wear mine for an entire 8 hour shift, but I knew if I saw how goofy it looked on me I would take it off immediately. I was doing pretty good with my plan until it got dark and I saw my reflection in the window. I decided to keep wearing it anyway.
These hats are pretty hot, you can't even get them off lids.com. However if someone was really dying to have this top notch fashion accessory I might be able to pull a few strings.

The Old Yearbook

So today I went to my placement at Herbison Woods Elementary in DeWitt (5th grade). First I had to get my car out of the driveway which was an ordeal... It was picture day today and all the kids had those little order things just like we had back in elementary school. However they didn't hand out combs, score one for Holland Christian. It was funny all the guys were complaining about how their moms made them dress up. This one kid put on a vest right before he got his picture taken, and then quick yanked it off right after. They also had a class photo and the photographer was lining them up according to height. Then Mrs. Lucian and all the kids insisted that I got in the picture, so I will forever be in the 2010-2011 Herbison Woods yearbook. I felt really good that she insisted I was in the picture. I can guarantee that I'm the only one in my class that was awarded that opportunity.
Yearbooks are such a fun keepsake to have, they really take you back. The best part is seeing all of your friends old pictures. I also like looking at the yearbooks that were "edited" by us when we were younger. Man kids can be cruel... Anyways it was a great day.