The best perk

*sigh of RELIEF*

Summer vacation has officially begun. *looks at those 2 words* "Summer vacation". Hmm. What will I be doing this summer? If there's any traveling involved, maybe a trip to Houston, maybe a trip to Laredo, and that's probably all I'll do. Maybe a Dallas trip. I don't know. But what I do know is this:

June 7-11: Gifted & Talented Certification training, M-F 8-3.
June 22-23: Positive Behavior Support training, T and W 8-3.
July 12-28: Kodály III training (culminating in Kodály Certification), M-F 8-4

THEN I'm free after that, but between 6/11 and 7/12, I'll be doing a lot of work to prep for the longest (toughest) training I have this summer. I've got a lot of work I need to get done completed, but I still have 3 more big things to finish:
1. 5th grade song collection analysis (about 70+ songs)
2. Song retrieval system on Excel or Access (including of at least 200 songs)
3. Finding sources for all songs in my song collection.

I've been told, I know, and I've experienced that one of the best parts about being a school teacher is that we get the summer off. I doubt this summer will feel like a vacation. I define vacation that an event or time period that is used strictly for one's leisure; it's a time when you reward and treat yourself after working hard for a period of time. My "vacation" will be spent attending 3 trainings, prepping for one of them (that directly affects my career). The best part about this summer is the fact that I won't have to wake up at 5:30 am each morning. But besides that, the biggest and best highlight, professionally speaking, is that after my Kodály training is finished, I'll have earned the prestigious title of Kodály Music Specialist. To me, the only title that could be cooler than adding that to my e-mail signatures would be a small acronym: Ph.D. But if that even happens, it won't happen for a few years. Although, now that I have 3 years of teaching experience under my belt, I have the minimum amount required to apply for a Ph.D in music education. So that'll be awesome.

Another nice thing about this summer is that come August, I'll have made my 36th consecutive payment on my student loans, and I will be rewarded a 1% interest rate reduction. That's both exciting and anticlimactic at the same time because of all the debt I have, my student loans have the lowest interest rate at the moment...except maybe for my car refinancing. That shit went down from 8.34 to 3.4%! My credit cards remain the most expensive rate, each over 10%.

Anyway, I hope to have a wonderful summer. Another amazing perk is that Frank and I will be celebrating our 4th anniversary on June 6th. Four years together, and still totally in love!

Another thing I'll be working on is finishing Broken Government. I really want to get that done. Because of how reading that book has pissed me off every time I've read a chapter, I'm finishing it now more out of discipline than wanting to read more...which is not the goal of reading, at least not for what I'm trying to accomplish. Maybe when I'm finished, I should read a book of fiction, where a story with a plot is told. I remember from high school that the books I enjoyed reading the most were the ones that had a lot of dialogue. If it's nothing but description, I'll get bored easily. I like to follow conversations, especially when they get heated between characters.

Okay. I'm gonna get off this and watch this week's episode of Glee I missed because of a True Blood event I attended.

Ahh, sweet summer...I've missed you!