Non-running related happiness

Good evening!

I should be sleeping by now, considering my alarm will be going off at 4am for an early pre-work run but....I wanted to share some good non-running related news!

First, I'm OFFICIALLY done with my first year as a teacher!  Today I had to go back after my 6-2 shift at the bakery to 'checkout.'  I got all my grades and paperwork taken care of and I'm offically DONE.  Buttt, how it works at my school is after you turn everything in, they give you your 'contract' for next year.  I was already offered the opportunity to come back, but the contract is formal and specific (including $$$ offered.)  Sooo, I received mine today and I was offered FULL TIME for next year.  If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may know that this year, I was what was considered '3/4 time'.  Meaning, I worked full days T/Th with gym + academic classes, and taught afternoon M/W/F (calculus, chemisty, physics, algebra.)  Then, usually 2 mornings a week + Saturday I did my bakery thang.  Well, I was offered 5 classes for next year, with only 3 preps + the phys ed.  Not to toot my own horn, but my director told me today that they really worked hard to get me more classes because I was so popular with the students!  That was seriously the best feeling ever.  My students 'say' they like me, but hearing it from the big boss lady that they had been spreading around how much they liked me felt AMAZING.  It made up for all of the times that I felt like going all corporal punishment on them!  JK...kind of.

Probably the coolest part about this, is not the fact that I will be making more money or anything like that (although I am pretty physched about the fact that I will be making more next year at teaching than I did at teaching + baking this year.)  The cool part for me comes from the circumstance.  You might not have heard, but Michigan's economy sucks.  Badly.  Teaching in Michigan?  Pretty much the worst career ever because of all of the cuts and layoffs.  I know very few people who graduated with me who got jobs in Michigan.  My classmates either moved south to find jobs, went to grad school, are subbing, or are working jobs outside the teaching field.  And I graduated from a large, well-known Univeristy.  With that said, I felt very fortunate to get this job.  Normally in the teaching field, new teachers are laid off at the end of the school year, and do not know if they will be hired back until meer days before school starts.  This makes for a summer of frantic job searching, which many times is unnecessary.  For me to be a first year teacher and already know that not only I have my job for the fall, but MORE classes at my job- epic.  I'm really happy about this.  Sure, it may not be the 'perfect' job forever, but I had a great year and am so grateful for my experience there.  I'm looking forward to next year already!

In the mean time, it's just me and the bakery!  My hours are hit or miss, but I'll be going up north alot, plus studying for some tests to get more certifications and make me more marketable for the future.  Not to mention tweaking and prepping for the upcoming school year.  And running.  Obviously.

Today was a short, but good run.  I did 16 miles yesterday at today I had literally less than 40 minutes to run at the end of the day after both jobs.  I thought about doing an easy 5, but my legs felt good so I pushed the pace alittle.  7:32, 7:19, 7:14, 7:10, 8ish cooldown mile.  Not fast enough for tempo, but it felt 'snappy?'  I think that's a good thing! 

Ok, enough of my rambling.  I hope this post doesn't come off as bragging- I just really wanted to share some good news about my 'real life' and show that I don't revolve COMPLETELY around running (just mostly!).  Looks like I have approximately 4 hours and 42 minutes before my alarm will be going off!  Yikes!