It's been a week since Olivia Rodrigo's SOUR debuted and a few days of me trying to figure how to put into words the way this album made me feel. I was weirdly looking forward to the release. I felt giddy to listen to the album as a whole. When I woke up the morning of its release, I felt like my Friday morning was made.  So it came as a surprise that when I first listened to it, I didn't feel an instant connection. I felt disappointed. Almost as if my expectations were too high. I started writing down some of my thoughts for this blog post right after listening to it and they weren't  entirely positive.  It really took some time to absorb this album.  I think the initial disconnect sprouted from the first track. The first track usually sets the mood for the rest of an album. In this case, the track, "brutal" caught me off guard. It shouldn't have come as a surprise. Olivia is going through teenage angst that I couldn't relate to in this track. It'

I've had plenty of bad workdays. I'm sure you have too.  Today was one of those days. I've gotten used to the bad moments, but I know it's been a bad day when I feel like crying in the middle of work. You know that overwhelming feeling that starts in the back of your head and quickly rushes to your eyes and before you know it the tears are forming? How do you deal with that? How do you stop yourself from getting to the point of a breakdown?  It's not that I don't love my job. I love what I do. Believe it or not, I look forward to being in my classroom early in the morning listening to music as I get ready for the day. Of course, that joy slowly starts to fade when the chaos starts to rise and if I don't get it under control quickly the balance is thrown off for the entire day. Hence why I'm writing this. It has been one of those days.  I've only been in-person teaching for about three weeks. Correction, I just checked my calendar and it's actual

Welcome to my blog . You might be wondering, what exactly is this blog? Let me start with what it isn't. This is not a "how-to" blog. You might not learn any large life lessons. I'm just an average person going through the motions of life and documenting it.  I like to share what I learn, which makes sense because I'm a teacher and I learn something new every day. If you join me on my blogging journey, you might learn something new too. Or, you might be able to relate to my experiences. I just want to write about what makes me happy, what makes me sad, and everything in between. I'm figuring things out as I go, both with this blog and in life. Which brings me to the burning question:  who are you  ( aka me the person writing this )? Quite frankly, I have no idea who I am. Here's the usual spiel I give when asked:  I'm a teacher, a cat mom, and I love reading/crafting. That's a pretty straightforward response, but it's not everything. If you str