July 22, 2008
….until new teacher training starts. I can’t wait, I’m so tired of my job. I wonder if I knew I was going to be there another few years would I be equally as tired of it.
That is all.
July 17, 2008
You know that trip I took last week–the trip that I ate like crap, didn’t exercise a bit, and had wine or a cocktail with every meal–oh man am I feeling the effects of it now! Oh, and the week before, I went out of town with friends for a long holiday weekend and drank like of fish. All those above things make me retain water like there is no tomorrow. Monday, I started back with normal life food and drink (mostly water and no wine and cocktails) and finally, today, the water is going away–like in I’ve peed no less than eight times from 7:00am to 5:00pm with five of those bathroom trips from 7 to noon. I know TMI, but man am I glad the bloat is going away. Tomorrow is weigh-in day–I’ll see how bad the damage is from my two week indulgence is–I’m guessing it’s not going to look good. My teacher clothes are a little tight–I’ve got about 7 weeks to get my act together.
July 16, 2008
I’ve never really cared for the word tolerance as in, “We have to go to Tolerance Training so we can learn how to deal with the women and minorities that we work with.” When I was in the corporate management world, every year we had to go to Tolerance Training–I always thought it was a little weird that someone from the big office traveled around to teach us how to put up with people. That’s what tolerance means to me, to put up with someone, not get along, not understand but put up with. I was always known as the manager that could deal and get along with just about anyone–the misfits were always shuttled to my store. If someone couldn’t work with me and my team then they just were not going to work out–period. I didn’t just tolerate them–I tried to understand them.
Anyway, I say all of this because this new chick that I’m working with…is driving me CRAZY! I can’t stand her! I usually like everyone and I’m trying to figure out why I don’t like her. Is it because she is like me? (My co-workers assure me she is not….they can’t stand her either.) Is it her non stop chatter? Is it her know it all behavior? I can’t put my finger on it. I try to remember that she has some wonderful attributes–she is incredibly organized, she knows all the right words to say to the yucky vendors, and she is wonderful on the phone with customers–she just drives me nuts.
So I guess I’ve finally found the person that I can’t work with–I am just tolerating her until I leave (in 17 working days…just in case you are counting.)
July 15, 2008
Really…I have not abandon my blog….just really nothing to say. Work, summer, pool, poor….the usual.
I spent all of last week in Atlanta on a buying trip–people say, “Oh, that sounds like fun.” Well, yeah, kind of–if you consider standing/walking for 12 hours at a big giant mall, with no windows, full of mostly crappy stuff for five days fun. Oh let’s tack on a plane trip that took seven hours and a roommate that snored so no decent sleep for 6 days–sound like fun now?
I’m really counting the days until I’m done with the joint….it can’t be soon enough. I’m sick of the whole place!
P.S. Finally spent an hour on the phone figuring out my student loan situation….ick! However, I did finally did get the whole business consolidated! Yeah!
June 28, 2008
I’ve not totally abandoned my blog….I’ve just been incredibly busy. I have about seven weeks before I start new teacher training and it just can’t come soon enough. There has been a few days, on the way to work, that I actually thought, “I guess I wouldn’t mind staying here…if they paid me enough.” On my way home, I will smack my forehead and go, “Get me the Hell out of there.”
June 10, 2008
Since I’m all done subbing and my new teaching job doesn’t start until mid August, I’ll have boring stories of stuff I’m doing this summer.
Today’s entry (this happened yesterday–I was too traumatized to write about it). I have lined up a few “summer friends” for my daughter to hang out with while I’m at work. So I get home yesterday afternoon say “Hi” to the summer friend and walk down the hallway to tell my daughter I’m taking the summer friend home. I walk past the bathroom and wow does it smell! I ask my sweet daughter if she pooped (always a subject at our house since she suffers from chronic constipation, which is now under control…I know, I know TMI). She said no, maybe summer friend did. I take summer friend home then start on some bill paying and checkbook balancing (again…fascinating).
Anyway, after about 45 minutes it still smells, bad. I started to seek out the source. Now, I have to tell you that we have a 17 year old seriously scardey cat, so whenever someone new comes over, he hides–usually under my daughter’s bed. I walked into my sweet daughter’s room and was bowled over by the smell–scaredy cat has done some serious business in this room. First place I look, of course, under the bed. There he is…COVERED IN SLIMY POOP! Scaredy cat takes off to a new hiding place, behind the laundry basket in the laundry room. After a through investigation, I realized that he has not just pooped but hurled under the bed. Great. Good times for mom.
First, I had to take the mattress off the bed and yank off the bed skirt because scaredy cat has somehow managed to hurl on that and I figured if I’m washing that I might as well wash the rest of my daughters bedding–it all went into the laundry. Then I had to attack the hurl and the slimy poop; hurl–no problem, I got most of it up with a paper towel–the poop, not so much. I found the oldest towel we had, scooped the poop up, put it in a Target bag and threw the whole thing away all while I was breathing through my mouth because, let me tell you, the stench was overwhelming! Then I scrubed the carpet with some vinegar, water and baking powder, opened up the window, and cranked the ceiling fan on high. Now to deal with the freaking poop covered cat!
There was no way old man scaredy cat was going to be able to get all of the poop off of him so I drug him out from behind the laundry and washed him in the sink. I repeat–I. Washed. The. Cat. In. The. Sink. It was not an easy task–I did not go for the whole soap and water routine, I pretty much just squirted him down with the sink sprayer the I let him take care of the rest. Now I was covered in water and cat poop and smelled lovely. Wonderful. My husband always tells me that I look hot….honey just look at me now–sweaty, wet and smelling like cat poop–am I still looking hot?
Husband called to see how summer friend went and I had to tell him the cat poop story–he kept saying, “Thank you so much–thank you so much.” I said, “You’d better thank me. I could have left it for you.” (He usually takes care of the foul stuff in our house.) He replied, “That is exactly why I am thanking you.” When the husband got home from work, I made him put the bed back together while I went for a run. “Gladly,” he said.
So there you go–my first adventure of the summer–hopefully not to be repeated.
Tonight, I’m going to spiritual yoga. I’m not spiritual so we’ll just see how it goes–I’ll let you know.
June 3, 2008
Stuff I did at New Teacher Orientation…..
- Learned about insurance (very exciting since we have been without insurance for almost 5 years)
- Signed up for Professional Staff Developement
- Looked at the New Teacher Blackboard site
- Filled out payroll paperwork
- Took picture for teacher badge
- Finally….signed my contract!
After orientation, I went to the Crazy School for a half day. Not quite sure why since I sat for 30 minutes and ate lunch, taped up a box, and stuffed Tuesday envelopes.
May 29, 2008
School is off the wall, whack ass, crazy! I’m just watching from the outside in and oh honey…let me tell you! Any kid that is misbehaving is just sent off to another classroom (in a totally different grade) with a huge workbook and told to work. They eat lunch, restroom breaks, and go to specials (music, art, P.E.) with the different class (no, they are not participating with the class–they have to haul along the big ass workbook and work in the back of the class.) We’ve got second graders with the fourth grade, fifth grade with first graders, you name it, I’ve seen it. I’ve been buzzing around to the different classrooms to be sure the guests are behaving (they always are) and they still have enough work to do (they always do). All the teachers look weary. I am starting to feel weary. Four more days until it’s all over!
May 27, 2008
….from a school in Preferred Suburban School District wanting to know if I’d like to interview. I said I’d already accepted another position. I wonder what the position was. Crack Ass Crazy school is getting a new Vice Principal…and I know her…and I LOVE her! Yeah!
P.S. Slept horrible last night–went to work on about 5 or so hours of sleep–I barely made it through the day.
May 21, 2008
Counting books and doing inventory has become mind-numbing. I was in the disaster first grade room today with more missing books and materials that all of kindergarten, first and second grades put together. The teacher moved to fifth grade just after spring break–her room was a mess before she left and the long term sub has not been able to get it cleaned up. Today was very interesting to watch because it’s clear that these kids have had no structure or rules the whole year; they talk, walk around, color, and basically do whatever they want whenever they want. The long term sub is just as sweet as pie and hasn’t been able to get control of the place–I feel bad for her because she hasn’t had one bit of support because everyone in the building has been putting out other fires. The two reading specialist I’ve been working with pretty much took over the class today–they showed the sub how to teach a lesson, harped on kids for even a toe out of line, and instead of going to recess, the kids had to practice walking up and down the hallway (it was like first grade boot camp). School is out in nine days and these kids are just learning procedure? Really? Shouldn’t have this been done at the BEGINNING of the school year? I really don’t fault the sub, it’s the ding dong teacher that is now in fifth grade! I wonder if she is coming back next year.
