These past few months have been filled with craziness that I should have been blogging about, but until tonight I've been too exhausted/lazy to log on.
Let me just start by saying, I got everything I asked for this year. I wanted a full time elementary vocal music teaching position, my own apartment, and new challenges. Now, let me say that you should be more specific than I was about the details of what you ask for.
I live in what used to be the nun's quarters of the former Catholic church in town. It's quirky and somewhat inconvenient with it's randomness, but it's home for now. I feel like it's a combination of my experience in the dorms and camping. I have no trash pick-up in town so I'm responsible for taking my own trash to the dump. (Although, the trash pick-up is still free at my sister's house so I've been taking it there on the weekends.) I have no dishwasher or garbage disposer in the sink so I've become lazy about cooking since it's much more work now. (Honestly, that's half my motivation for drinking a SlimFast shake instead of eating solid food) Also, there were vegetables in the fridge that had been rotting for several months before I moved in and I'm still trying to eliminate the underlying odor. I have several boxes of baking soda in the fridge, and I'm double ziplocking everything that may absorb an odd taste.
The rez is like a land-locked, dust-filled, technologically barren island. If you blinked on the highway, you may miss the sign and entrance to the town and therefore never realize it was even there. Washing my car is of no use because as soon as I drive to work, my car will be coated once again with the ever present dust. I get no cell phone reception there, and the internet filters prevent me from doing much on the computer besides writing my lesson plans and checking my school approved email.
Today, the one gas station in town ran out of gas because they just didn't pay their bills. I usually get my gas in the town where I live, but I have filled up on the rez before. The gas station is just another example of how one cannot count on anything on the rez. Students show up to school whenever they or their parents feel like it. Girls who begged me to be their cheerleading sponsor may or may not show up to tryouts--let alone practice. Adults who promise to help with activities are just as likely as the children to skip or forget about it completely. And schedules are irrelevant. Things will start when they start no matter what you are told.
The crazy people and the multitude of frustrations are only half my problem. I spend my weekdays with almost no adult contact, and even when I see my friends on the weekend I don't fit in the same. I had a moderate meltdown over my new life last week. It's probably the worst uncontrollable crying I've ever experienced, but I've rehydrated and I'm pressin onward. We got to leave school a few hours early today due to a maintenance issue, which is one of the perks of this job. So I took the extra time to self-therapize. I've indulged in a massage and every form of junk food that I felt like eating today, which probably sabotaged the weight loss I was finally seeing from my dieting efforts but it was a necessary evil today.
In between self-therapizing, I've been plotting how I can run into my new crush at work. He works in the middle school wing so I usually try to strut past his classroom when I need to go to the main office. I've also realized we have lunch at the same time and occassionally we cross paths by the silverware in the cafeteria. He's much friendlier than my last crush (one of the 4th grade teachers whom I'm so over), and he's much hotter, too. I'm pretty sure he would be out of my league back in Omaha, but I'm way hotter than most of the women on the rez. It's kind of like that tv show Hot In Cleveland where those women are old and over the hill in L.A., but by comparison they're hot in Cleveland. Well, I'm probably like a 6 in Omaha, but I'm hot on the rez.
Stay tuned for more details of the crazies that surround me....
