Too Cold (15 minute free write)

I hate the cold. I really truly hate it. To me, cold is 40 degrees. I'm uncomfortable at 70 degrees, chilly at 68, and cold at anything lower. And then this morning I wake up and my phone tells me that it's in the negatives. -12 degrees. I think the weatherman is trying to torture me. My friend, who lives a little further north, sent me a picture of her thermostat that said -20 degrees. WAY TOO COLD. I can't wait to move south. Even in the south it doesn't get quite this cold. I can handle the cold of the south. I can even handle the heat and humidity of the south. The forecast for Charleston, SC says there will be a high of 66 degrees today. 66 degrees! In December. That's my version of heaven. I don't like having to wear ten thousand layers of clothes just to stay warm. My classroom is a balmy 68 degrees right now, which wouldn't be too bad, except for the cold air coming out of the vents that makes the room seem more like it's 62 degrees. I'm wearing leggings under my pants because I'm so cold. I don't think I can add too many more layers. By the end of the day, I will be wrapped up in my fleece jacket liner, for sure. Probably by 2nd period to be realistic. I need to find someway to trick the thermostat into blowing warm air into the room. I want to put cheese sticks over the air intake part of the thermostat so that it will think the room is a lot colder than it actually is. I just need to buy some cheese sticks...but it's too cold to go grocery shopping. All I want to do is go home and curl up in every single blanket I own. I have one, two, three, four, I think five, blankets on my bed right now. And a space heater that I run at night that sits right next to my bed. That's how cold my apartment is. I have a space heater downstairs too that I'll run when I'm in the living room. Some day, I will have an apartment that has really awesome heat so I don't have to worry about being cold all the time. But if(when) I move to SC, I won't have to worry about the heat as much. My poor apartment right now is struggling to stay warm, just like me. At least the heat in this apartment is actually on. I can't imagine how cold my old apartment would be on a day like today. When it got really cold at my old apartment, the heat wouldn't even come on at all and I had to rely on the heat from the apartment below mine. Sometimes I would turn my oven on and just run it without baking anything because it heated my apartment up. My electric bill wasn't too bad then. I also ran one of my space heaters, and that's what ate up my electricity. But I will pay to be warm. I don't care. Big Lots is really cold too. I'm glad I don't have to work there today. I can't imagine how cold the front of the store is, even with that dinky little space heater running. It's pretty sad that the three places I spend the most time in: my classroom, my apartment, and Big Lots are ALWAYS SO COLD. I feel like I will never be warm again. I'm just going to live in my Spandex leggings and my flannel shirts...underneath all the other layers of course. It's a good thing I'm subbing right now because I can almost afford my electric bill...

Time to go look for jobs in the Carolinas...maybe something will be available in March or April and I can just go after I finish teaching here...

10 Things About Miss Ferrari

1. I am cat-momma to boy cats. Their names are Hickory and Dickory. Sadly, I do not have a pet named Dock. Hickory and Dickory are enough trouble just the two of them. Dickory likes to play fetch with his toys and Hickory used to climb into ceilings--he probably still would if I would let him. They won't drink out of a water dish (we're working on this) and they get into everything, but they're pretty good bug-catchers, so I keep them.

This is Dickory. Isn't he a handsome fella?

This is Hickory. He likes to sleep in the sink.

2. When I'm not teaching, I work at Big Lots. I've been working there for over a year now and even though it's not my intended career, it's still a pretty awesome job. If you're ever shopping at Big Lots and you see me, feel free to say hi, but please do not ask me questions about homework assignments. If you're lucky, you might even catch me singing and dancing to the store's radio station (after the Christmas carols end)!

3. I am mildly obsessed with The Walking Dead. I even have a Walking Dead lunchbox. If I can find a way to work TWD and/or zombies into class, I will.

Some of my many books.

My most recent book purchase.

4. I love books. Buying books, reading books, taking pictures of books, talking about books, giving books, receiving books, writing about books, I like it all. If someone recommends a book to me, chances are I'll read it eventually, but it may take awhile for me to get to it. My goal is to read 50 books by the end of 2013. As of right now I've finished 37...let's see if I can make it to 50! My favorite genre to read is YA and I especially enjoy authors such as John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson, Libba Bray, and Markus Zusak. If you've read a book lately that you think I should check out, let me know!

4. My dream is to one day move to New Zealand where I will live on a sheep farm and teach English to the Maori people. My backup plan is to be a stewardess for Air New Zealand. One way or another I am determined to get to New Zealand. Check out the super awesome time lapse video of New Zealand:

5. I hate winter and I hate being cold, but I do like the magical quality of fresh snow. This will hopefully be my last winter in Maine for a while, so I'm going to try my best to enjoy it. You can enjoy winter from inside, right?

6. I LOVE chocolate. My top three favorite kinds of chocolate are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Peanut Butter M&Ms, and Peanut Butter Snickers. Notice a common theme? Apparently chocolate and peanut butter make me very happy. 

7. I have been an unofficial member of the Mt. Blue English Department since September 2007, first as a teacher's aide, then an intern, then a mentor, a practicum student, a student teacher, and finally as a substitute teacher. Some of the English teachers I've worked with don't even work at Mt. Blue anymore! Basically, I've been practicing this whole "being a teacher" thing since I was a Junior in high school.

8. For three summers while I was in college, I worked at Verso Paper in Jay. For my first two summers there, I worked in one of the dirtiest, smelliest, most dangerous areas of the mill testing chemicals to make sure that everything was working properly. Even though some of the things I had to do were scary and sometimes pretty dangerous, I really enjoyed this job. I worked with some fun people who made the 12 hour shifts bearable. My last summer at the mill I worked in the storeroom. Think of a giant hardware store, like Home Depot, except our stuff was spread out among different warehouses. The mill workers would put in an order for what they needed, and I was one of the people responsible for filling their orders. It was a BUSY job, but I again had awesome coworkers who made everything fun.

This is a picture one of my coworkers drew of me. Looks just like me, right?

9. I love going to concerts. Concerts I've been to include: Grace Potter & the Nocturnals (x3), Journey and Foreigner, Journey and Pat Benatar, Girl Talk (x2), Streetlight Manifesto and Reel Big Fish, Snoop Dogg, Keith Urban, and America.  

This is about one-third of my collection...

10. I collect nail polish. I have around 200 different colors, but I hardly ever paint my nails. I don't have the patience to sit still long enough for them to dry, so when I do paint my nails, they usually get smudged within a few minutes. But I still like to buy new bottles.