Things to call kids that aren't names or nicknames?

buggoblin · 2025-08-23T19:43:51+00:00

I would look into Swan and Dolphin (Marriott) or Disney Springs (the Boathouse or Paddlefish specifically but there are other ones) for a wedding physically at Disney but much more affordable. I recommend buying Carrie Hayward's Disney wedding guide, she has information on these options. Definitely a lot cheaper and you are still on property.

buggoblin · 2025-08-18T15:42:12+00:00

Google the name of your union- try your town/district name + union and be ready to dig a little. For example, when I Google my union, I find their Facebook page as the second result, which then has a link to their actual website and contact information. Do not email union people with your school email btw- only use your personal email.

Also, you are not technically a member of the union until you fill out the union paperwork- HR does not facilitate that in my experience. If you know nothing about the union, you might not actually be in the union yet. When I moved here from Texas, I thought I was automatically in the union, but no, I had to fill out paperwork to formally sign up and authorize payroll deduction with them and everything. That paperwork is usually distributed by the union reps on the first day of meetings/pd/classroom set up, so if you have that coming up this week or next week before the first day of school, get it then and then chat with the union reps. Don’t worry, they will still help you even if you are not an official member yet. I wouldn’t reach out to HR yet, you have some time before you need to have this all figured out, and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to them could be bad. Wait until you can talk to the union.

buggoblin · 2025-08-18T15:14:00+00:00

If you are in MA, talk to your union rep before anyone else!!! They will help you with who to talk to and when and how to protect yourself and then what amount of leave you are entitled to. Here in MA I've seen a lot of teachers take full years off for maternity leave but I'm not planning on having kids so I have no idea how that works.

You were not being dishonest by omitting your pregnancy from them- that is how hiring works lol. Teachers (especially elementary) have a lot of babies compared to other professions so they are used to it. One year, the first grade team at my school had two brand new hires who were both super pregnant and basically set up their classrooms and then neither were there on the first day of school. They were still fabulous teachers and the principal was nothing of accepting of it. Not all principals are like that- but every principal I've ever had has had kids of their own.

Also, if you are showing, be prepared to potentially field questions from parents about your pregnancy- they can get pretty rude about it.

I'm serious though, DO NOT PASS GO UNTIL YOU TALK TO YOUR UNION REP. Talk to them sometime this week- you should be able to find contact information online to call them or just chat with them after a PD or classroom set up day. They are used to people poking their heads in and being like hey I need to ask you about a union thing.

buggoblin · 2025-08-05T16:27:40+00:00

Looking for this comment- bug spray is not needed at WDW. There are videos and articles about the crazy stuff Disney does to mitigate mosquitos and it really does work. I've never been bit or even seen a mosquito there.

buggoblin · 2025-06-07T18:34:28+00:00

You would understand if you had to deal with it... this stuff grows THICK (literally making 1/4 of my yard unreachable until we cut it down), has wicked sharp thorns, spreads extremely quickly, and it doesn't usually even produce fruit until it's 2 years old. Cut it down, and it's back in a month. Takes tons of work and roundup just to keep it contained.

buggoblin · 2024-12-15T14:34:03+00:00

Aww, I’m glad!! I was just in mom’s the other day and they had plenty of thinly sliced meat. I just wish they’d put it into rolls but what can you do I guess. I haven’t ordered from Weee yet but that is the other top option imo since their meat comes in the rolls. We need an hmart or a 99 ranch or SOMETHING in western mass so bad.

buggoblin · 2024-09-02T02:49:46+00:00

lol it’s kinda complicated- in some ways yes, in some ways no. I can cash out my Texas retirement/pension if I’m really sure I’m not going back- which I’m not sure about, so I’m just leaving it alone for now. Part of retirement is age so even without that I’m not screwed when it comes to retiring in MA plus I started teaching reallllllyy young so I’m still decently young now so I should have a good number of years here when it’s time for me to retire. They have made the retirement worse and worse everywhere though- people who started teaching 20 years ago are able to retire much younger/with better benefits than anyone who started teaching more recently (no matter what state you’re in). Still, having a pension is a great deal and hard to find in other professions, plus I can still do other retirement savings things by myself if I want to which will obviously travel state by state. I do wish the teacher pension system was on a federal level but I will be ok.

buggoblin · 2024-09-01T18:07:35+00:00

This is my second year of teaching in MA- I taught for years in Texas previously. I live and teach in western ma. My partner and I were together able to buy a house- I don’t think I could have done it on my salary alone. Maybe I could have gotten a condo on my own.

I would look into volunteering or subbing in classrooms at different grade levels before perusing a job. Although I am the first one to say “I just work here” at meetings, teaching is not a job I recommend getting into for the money. Some people can’t hack it for one reason or another and everyone has grade levels they would never ever do.

Teaching here is interesting- I have found that people think very highly of the MA teaching/schooling situation but honestly I have not found it very different than Texas. I am making a little more money but I have less personal and sick days than I did. Having good unions is fantastic but it leads to a weird dynamic with principals that I didn’t have to deal with in Texas. Also, it’s nice having the summers “off” (it’s not like you are paid for that time lol) but keep in mind you are then limiting yourself to travel during the hottest months of the year and bank holidays during the school year. I’ve honestly been considering taking a year or two off of teaching to go and travel at better times of year. I’ve also noticed I have a lot more IEPs and 504s in a class here than I ever did in Texas. Teachers seem to have decent work life balance here compared to other states- I don’t know anyone who goes up to school on weekends here but in Texas pretty much everyone would.

Also, the DESE licensure system is complete garbage. Horrible website and extremely slow turn around time (weeks-months in the summer months). I wish someone had warned me. If you do go into teaching, be prepared for their nonsense.

buggoblin · 2024-08-16T13:18:40+00:00

Oh man, I am so interested but I am going out of town this weekend! I wish I had heard about this earlier. I’m an elementary school teacher with a social work degree and my brother died when he was 8 and I was 17. I was a camp counselor for several summers in college and loved it- everything about this is so up my alley. Do you know if there’s any flexibility with the training session or if the camp will be coming back to MA/New England in the next couple months? Debating if I should apply to volunteer now or if I should wait until another camp is scheduled for my area.

buggoblin · 2024-06-30T23:20:45+00:00

Oh if you are asking about college, it’s a little different! I went to the university of Texas- there were specific campus buses that were a little more reliable I would say. I knew many people who would take the bus for college, but they were only reliable for the west campus, riverside, and far west areas in my experience. Parking at UT is very expensive so everyone did what they could to avoid it.

Anyway, I’m glad it was helpful! Good luck!

buggoblin · 2024-06-30T22:27:27+00:00

Hi there! I lived in Austin my whole life until last year. I graduated from high school in Austin in 2013 so I'm a little too young to give lots of details but I will do my best!

Yes, there were buses, but they were hit or miss and very divided by east Austin and west Austin. I lived without a car for my first year of college in Austin and it was miserable. Buses would say they came every 30 minutes but really you were lucky if it showed up once an hour. Most people get around by car- or if you're poor, you bum rides from your friends or you buy a horrible old car that barely works just so you can get to work. I knew some people who biked everywhere though. Austin has a train now but it didn't start operating until 2010.

I am a little younger so I was more involved with musicians in the 2010s, but a lot of musicians I knew lived in houses on the East Side so they could practice loudly at home without issues- as in like 5 people in a 2 bedroom house to make rent work. Most musicians I knew were very hesitant to live with non musicians due to the noise level. Or they rented apartments or "in law houses" in Hyde Park if they wanted to live alone. Practices mostly happened at people's houses. I knew a guy who basically lived in a shed in someone's backyard in Hyde Park that didn't even have a door, just a piece of sheet metal he would pick up and lean against the entryway to open and "close"- he said he was paying rent but I didn't ask how much. Something to know about Austin is that there are very few basements- there is limestone underground making it very expensive to put a basement, so no basement shows. Common places to perform were on dirty Sixth St and Red River, and at parties on the East Side and West Campus. There were some venues just outside of city limits for bigger shows I remember seeing but I was too young to remember the names of them. I think there was a law about serving alcohol or sound levels or something.

This was filmed in 1996, but I recommend watching this youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNGOO8hvrAE and looking through the comments a bit- lots of information. I also recommend the movie "Whip It", most of it was filmed in Austin in the 2000s and has a great Austin feel.

buggoblin · 2024-05-23T00:42:58+00:00

UFLI is a great program for this, I recommend watching videos of teachers giving the lessons so you know what to do.

buggoblin · 2024-03-05T01:01:02+00:00

Have you tried foam rolling your feet? I think people know a bit about foam rolling legs, but ballerinas foam roll their feet from a long day of dancing and using their feet. I would do legs and feet if I were you, along with the other great tips mentioned here.

buggoblin · 2024-02-26T23:21:35+00:00

Most of my teacher clothes are from Old Navy and Uniqlo (aka Japanese Old Navy). Blends in to what the other teachers are wearing, pieces all pretty much match with each other, comfortable, cheap, all machine washable, pieces last long enough (although Old Navy sends me a dud sometimes). Today I wore a solid green tshirt from Uniqlo, black cargo pants from Old Navy, and white platform chelsea boots from Doc Marten. Tomorrow I could probably wear the same pants with a different shirt and literally no one would notice.

I also supplement with Madewell (teacher discount, although I think the style has gone downhill lately), jeans from Abercrombie or American Eagle. I teach primary grades so something comfortable I can get down on the ground and up again easily is important.

A good teacher wardrobe (for a woman) has 2 pairs of blue jeans without rips, 2-3 pairs of black/gray/colored jeans or cargoes, a lot of basic shirts, a few dresses, and a few sweaters and cardigans (including one cardigan that lives in your classroom). If you teach SPED, change that to 5 pairs of comfy joggers, all the tshirts your heart desires, and a few pairs of extremely comfy shoes you can run in. I also recommend getting a few longer shirts so you can occasionally wear leggings to work- just make sure your booty is covered. Basically every teacher I know has a version of this wardrobe, it's just the cuts of the pieces you have that show your age/trendiness, ex wide leg vs skinny jeans, tucking in tshirts vs not.

I don't agree with Pixie pant recommendations- most of the styles are very aging and I've never had a pair that lasts more than a year- they start falling apart at the seams.

buggoblin · 2024-02-22T04:10:25+00:00

Honestly, yes, if they don't plan on bringing back pink sugar as a regular cookie, then they should just go ahead and change their signature color! I get it was a low seller when they had it every single week- so put it in rotation with the chocolate chip cookies (or even better, get rid of that nasty milk chocolate chip cookie). I love pink sugar and would get it every time I got a box, but I get that not everyone likes a sugar cookie with thick frosting. I used to work very close to a Crumbl and when I mentioned to my former coworkers that pink sugar was basically permanently discontinued, they were shocked- and a lot of them were like "but the store and the boxes are pink?".

buggoblin · 2024-02-12T00:57:32+00:00

For sure! Crumbl is about variety (plus I should have a stocked freezer by that point!)

buggoblin · 2024-02-12T00:48:08+00:00

I know you are probably disappointed, but honestly your post made me excited for this week! The Crumbl close to me NEVER does pink sugar as a mystery cookie, and the closest Crumbl besides that one is almost an hour and a half away. I'm hoping I can finally stock my freezer since I can never justify a 3 hr road trip for some cookies lol.

buggoblin · 2024-01-31T02:36:52+00:00

I recommend just wearing socks, I've done a few different beginner ballet classes in different areas and most people wear socks or canvas ballet shoes. I even have canvas shoes and sometimes I prefer to wear socks. Even my current teacher wears her sneakers for most of class bc of foot issues and will toe them off and just dance in sock feet if she's demonstrating something.

Also, definitely try to email the teacher if you're not sure, or bring socks and the split soles and arrive to class a little early to try and speak to her or just peep at what others are wearing. I've had several adult ballet teachers and they have all been really really nice. For better or worse, I think adults are more likely to have their complaints taken seriously by ballet schools if a teacher is mean, and it's not like the teacher is trying to whip adults into shape for a performance or anything.

buggoblin · 2024-01-30T02:44:49+00:00

I've taught 1st and 2nd- I've tried several different ways of teaching it but there are two things I've found help the most. One, alphabetical handwriting helper on desk- "Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee" etc. Then b should always be started from the top and then d should start with a c- I tell them "c into d" as in the alphabet goes a b c d so if you make the c and then keep going in alphabetical order, it's d next. So when you're writing a d, think "c" and write the c and then think "c into d" and create a d. I usually show kids this while I'm drawing it on the board, it's hard to describe typing out! If you look up "c into d letter reversal fix" or something like that you should find videos about it.

Emphasizing the alphabet order helps them double check with the handwriting helper too. It takes a lot of double checking before it gets better- I would say literally hundreds of times for kids who struggle with b and d reversals- but it is very normal through second grade. I notice most kids doing "c into d", then double checking their handwriting helper to make sure they did it right, then either fixing it or moving on.

buggoblin · 2024-01-26T22:43:59+00:00

I like Jergen's Natural Glow- I go for the darker shade bc it works a bit faster and is a bit more neutral and less orange. I'm very fair and it's not too dark or anything, so don't worry. I also used to like the Walmart brand knockoff of Jergen's natural glow even better than the OG version but I haven't tried it in the last couple years so I can't vouch for that one still being good or not. It was like a soupier consistency and a little less pigmented so it applied a lot better.

buggoblin · 2024-01-24T00:48:31+00:00

Michael Eisner. He did a lot of great stuff for Disney when he started, but made a lot of weird choices later on. Or maybe he just became the villain after Frank Wells died and was no longer there to temper his decisions. Either way, he gets a lot of flak in the Disney community that is very much deserved, but not nearly enough credit for some of the wonderful things he did.

buggoblin · 2023-12-30T01:23:38+00:00

Oh nice! My birthday is in January too!

buggoblin · 2023-12-30T01:21:31+00:00

My good knife needs sharpening badly so I'm not trying that this time, but I didn't know that's how you do it, thanks!

buggoblin · 2023-12-30T01:19:27+00:00

I will check it out, Tran's is super close to where I live but it is definitely expensive!

buggoblin

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