Miss Bennett in the Bay

Today is my last day in Colorado. Well, at least it was until a little issue arose with my car. Yesterday I was driving from Boulder to Highlands Ranch and I noticed my brake pedal slipping a little bit. It was just barely happening, so I thought I was just imagining it and ignored it.

Then, today, my dad and I were driving from the nice car wash to Sears to get some new windshield wiper blades. The brake pedal was so loose that whenever I would brake, the pedal would go almost all the way down to the floor. The car would stop, but the pedal was not tight like it normally is. When we got to Sears, I mentioned it to my dad and he asked the Sears guy what we could do. The Sears guy thought we were just low on brake fluid, so we bought a small bottle of that and went back to my car. Well, turns out that my brake fluid is clean and completely full. So I ask my dad if he wants to drive the car so he can see the symptoms for himself. He does, and immediately turns out of the Sears parking lot going the opposite way from our house. “Where are you going?” I say. “To the Honda service center,” he says. (I have a 92 Honda Accord).

We get to the Honda place and walk around to the back so we don’t have to deal with the receptionist. My dad finds an experienced looking mechanic and explains to him what is going on, and basically begs him to look at our car without an appointment. He’s nice enough to do so, and gets in the car, turns it on, pumps the breaks a couple of times, and then gets out and tells us that the main brake cylinder is shot. Super. So the mechanic goes and talks to one of the service guys and tells him that I’m moving to California and since the brakes not working is a safety issue, we must get the car in today. They’re nice enough to squeeze us in tomorrow sometime, and luckily they managed to find the part they need. But, the car won’t be done until tomorrow at 1 pm at the earliest. So, the whole moving to California thing is getting pushed back a bit. That’s ok, though, we’re actually not quite ready to leave tomorrow morning anyway. I would rather have the brakes fail in Colorado where a) they can be fixed by our trusted mechanics and b) I’m not going down the western side of the Rocky Mountains. Plus, it gives us at least a few extra hours to get everything finished and we don’t have to run around like crazy people. My old Honda: a blessing in disguise.

For anyone who may be unfamiliar with the crazy Boulder, CO weather in the spring, I am posting some pictures of last night’s storm.

A view of my back patio

Another angle of my back patio

And the doozy… that branch that is so close to my car is about the thickness of my forearm.

What natural hazard, you may ask, could cause this kind of damage? Snow? Hail? Squirrels with chainsaws? No, my friends, the answer is hurricane force winds all night long. Our power even went out last night as a result.

In other news, this pre-institute work is killing me. I simply don’t have the time or the energy to devote to it. I’m shooting to have it done before we leave for California so that I can focus on studying for the CBEST. I have to say, do these people really expect us to be able to do all of this stuff and stay sane as well? I mean honestly. It wouldn’t be such a big deal if I didn’t also have to do a zillion other things, because, oh, that’s right, I’m moving 1,000 miles away from home. I still have to do my second classroom observation. My next door neighbor used to work at the elementary school on my street. I called her yesterday to ask if she knew anyone who would be willing to let me come in for an hour. She said she’d make some calls and let me know. I got a call from her this afternoon wanting to know when exactly I would come in. I told her it had to be before June 16, since I won’t be in Colorado anymore after that. She said, “Well, my friend would be happy to let you come in, except that the school is being remodeled right now. All the teachers had to move all of their stuff out of the classroom except the bare essentials. He said it would be pointless for you to observe because you wouldn’t get to see what a real classroom would be like.” CRAP. I appreciate his honesty, and in the long run, he’s probably right. But, seriously, damnit, damnit, damnit. The Boulder Valley Schools are done for the summer. I don’t know anyone else in Highlands Ranch who could possibly hook me up. My neighbor doesn’t know anyone at any other schools (and why would she?) So now there’s one other thing that I have to figure out in the next week. Anyone have any ideas?

I am, after many years, opening up another blog. I am not closing my other one, but I figured that I should probably start posting on here. Most of the posts will be the same to the two blogs, I am sure, since Teach for America has pretty much taken over my life. Here will be all the posts related to the process that I will be going through over the next two years in TFA. My other blog will include those as well, but probably some other things too. We will see how this goes. Maybe after a while I will get sick of maintaining two blogs. But for now, this is what I’m doing.

At the moment, I’m getting ready to relocate to San Francisco. Three weeks and counting! I am excited to live with Scott, my wonderful boyfriend, again. But I am not so excited to leave behind my family, friends, and culture that I have come to love. It doesn’t really get any better than Boulder in the summer. Who doesn’t love a spontaneous picnic at the flatirons? But I suppose that living in the Bay will be amazing as well. I’ll just have to get used to the different lifestyle.

I don’t yet have a specific teaching assignment, along with most of my fellow corps members that I am aware of. I know I’m tentatively assigned to the Alum Rock school district in San Jose. Other than that, I haven’t heard much from anyone. I’m staying flexible, mostly because I have no other choice.

And now, back to packing and the summer institute work. Who would have thought that I’d be doing reading and writing essays after graduation?