Experience, Proof And Bullets

Greetings and Salutations, Dear Readers! Welcome to your regularly scheduled Wednesday Night Bullet Post, complete with all the random highlights of the day. At least the ones that are fit to print...

There is very little in my life that is not fit to print, but I like to think of myself as A Woman Of Intrigue And Mystery. Let me have that.

*I had to go to one of the private education facilities our school district uses today to observe some of the kiddos who are placed out of district. This required Interstate Travel!

*And, by "Interstate Travel" I mean that I drove five minutes to the state line, crossed over the New Hampshire border and parked in their lot.

*Seriously. It takes me longer to get home than it does to go across state lines...

*I'd never been to this school before, but have worked with a few of their staff on occasion. Nice place.

*I always like to meet with the social workers and counselors when I'm doing observations. They have the "real info." If I want to justify spending the dollars on these placements for kids, I need the deets 'n data to bring back with me. I was fortunate to find the two people I needed, available and willing to chat with me.

*After a very informative dialogue, one of them looked at me quite seriously and said, "You're very good at what you do, aren't you?"

*I suppose it's not so much that I'm "good." It's more that I have lots of experience and I've worked hard at getting a variety of those experiences in my storied career.

*I can talk "teacher" and I can talk "counselor." I can even speak "agency" since I've worked outside of the school setting in a family services program. I can also talk "residential/day treatment" after spending a few years teaching in a private school for challenged kids. Then there's the whole "adult ed." lingo I picked up during that year that I worked for the alternative program in my town...

*Call it good. Call it experienced. Six of one, half-a-dozen of another...

*It's still nice to hear.

*The weather is starting to turn and you will all be pleased to learn that I probably won't be complaining about the cold tomorrow.

*I've penciled in some time to whine about the heat.

*Call it a change of pace...

*Hey! Remember back when I used to knit?

*Fun times. I used to make things out of string. We all enjoyed that, right?

*I swear to you that I do still knit.

*I've just been knitting bigger things and they take longer.

*I can prove it.

See? Told ya!!!

*No. That is not a sleeve. A sleeve would mean I am knitting a sweater and we know that I don't do that.

*It's just some random tube that I'm going to attach to another, larger tube at some point.

*Just for fun.

*I might even make another one that looks just like it.

*Eventually...

*But it is not a sweater. It's a "dishcloth."

*I am still clinging to that fairy tale. It keeps the Knitting Demons away.

*I also throw salt over my shoulder and knock wood from time to time.

*It can't hurt...

*One of my teaching assistants picked up that stomach bug that's been going around. She was out on Monday.

*She came back on Tuesday, clutching her stomach and making me open her cracker packages because she was too weak to do it herself.

*We are not supposed to come to work sick, but there was no reasoning with this woman.

*My other teaching assistant left school at the end of the day today clutching her stomach.

*Great. Just great.

*I bleached the whole room.

*It needed it anyway. Middle school boys tend to be...fragrant. A little once-over with the bleach wipes helps on any number of levels.

*See what I mean? I know stuff.

*Comes from experience.

Here's hoping that your Wednesday is fragrant in a good way and that you have naught but happy experiences. I'm going to keep plugging away on that "dishcloth" while the weather is cool enough to do so comfortably and hope that my own experience level is up to the challenge of finishing all those tubes before somebody at Knitting Disaster Central notices what I am doing.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I am sometimes good at what I do.

SA