Wednesday, November 03, 2010

WNBP: On A Wednesday

I am the first one to admit that I sometimes have difficulty tracking the days. What can I say?  I take a while to get settled into the morning and what the next ten or so hours will bring. I do, however, often brag about my ability to discern Wednesday from the bunch.  That day is like a shining star, if only because I know it is the day of the Wednesday Night Bullet Post.

Not so today.  I woke up convinced it was Thursday.  Maybe even Friday!  You can only imagine my disappointment upon realizing the truth.  The only thing worse than today's sadness was yesterday's because that was when I thought it was at Wednesday.  You can see how I might be feeling a little out of sorts right about now.

Why don't I just start tossing out the bullet points?  That might cheer me up...


*We had an evacuation drill at school today.


*This event entails our rounding up over 500 people and trudging them down the street to the elementary school because it is important that we practice what to do in the event of an emergency.


*Small school, yes.  But still a lot of folks to wrangle when the majority of them are middle schoolers.


*We usually do this earlier in the year, but rain and state mandated testing forced us to put it off until the temperatures hovered around the freezing mark.


*A delightful thing to be doing at 8:30 in the morning.


*On a Wednesday.


*That, by all rights, should have been a Thursday.


*I remembered to wear sensible shoes.


*I did not remember to wear warm, handknit socks or a suitable jacket.


*Now I haz the snifflz.


*Grades close this week.  This came as "news" to several students and now we are scrambling to finish all the stuff they told us they'd finished or didn't tell us they were supposed to finish.


*The Cheerful Teaching Assistant had to go to a training today, but she came back for the last period of the day.


*The Organized Teaching Assistant and I were very tired by then because it is difficult to explain to students how all those zeros have to be averaged into their grades.


*You can get lots of very good grades, but still fail if you don't watch the zeros.


*Kids don't get that sometimes...


*Nor do they understand the concept of "weighted" grades.  


*As in: This Grade Counts As Three Grades So You Should Really Do This Assignment And Not Refuse To Believe Us When We Tell You It is Important.


*Or blame us for NOT telling you this when we most certainly did waaaay back in September when the stupid thing was due in the first place.


*I'd also like to take a minute to explain how a million students handing in a billion late assignments all at the same time slows things down a bit.


*As in: Your Teacher Cannot Review Your Work And Enter All Those Grades Within Ten Seconds.  Going Online To Check Your Grade All Day Isn't Going To Make You Happy.  


*The end of the quarter is fun for everyone.  


*Especially if you happen to throw in an Evacuation Drill just for kicks.


*And on Wednesday.


*I had to chase the Very Complicated Kitty around for a while this morning because he is stealing cotton yarn.


*He's probably eating it.  He has "issues."  


*And is "complicated."


*Every day.  Not just Wednesday.


*But the weather is getting colder and he throws off wicked body heat so I forgive him a great deal.


*Heating some chicken and potatoes I "put up" last summer.  


*There's peas, too but they are the frozen kind because I don't like canned peas.  Not even the kind I make myself.


*A tasty dinner.  Makes all those hours spent sweating over a hot canning pot during the sweltering summer months worth it!


*Re-reading of old favorites continues.


*Just finished Odd Hours by Dean Koontz.  I love this series.


*I don't read the first one very often, though.  (Odd Thomas)


*It's fabulous, but it makes me very sad.


*Koontz is a great writer about 75% of the time.  If you are looking for a good example of brilliantly written dialogue, he's your man!


*And dogs.  He writes good stuff about dogs because he is the patron saint of golden retrievers.


*I don't have dogs.  But I like goldens.  They are nice dogs and sometimes will smile at you.


*I also doubt that they steal yarn and try to eat it, but I don't know that for a fact.  Maybe they do.


*Tomorrow is Thursday.  I'm almost positive of this.


*Then it will be Friday and, after that, Saturday.


*I'm getting my hair cut on Saturday.  Probably should make a note of that since I tend to forget stuff like days of the week and whatnot...


That's it for me, dear readers.  The timer on the oven has gone off and it sounds like chicken and potatoes are waiting for me!  Just the thing on a chilly night that turned out to be a Wednesday.  And I need to replenish some calories after all that evacuating.

On a Wednesday...

SA

13 comments:

Karen said...

Your meal sounds delicious. There is something about eating food that you canned yourself that sounds so homey.

Anonymous said...

Once when my kids' school had a fire or evaluation drill, my older son's E2 teacher (Montessori school, grades 4-6) walked the entire class of 20+ kids to McDonald's for lunch. She later told me she had long ago found that the magic words are "kids" and "school" -- use those and freebies pop up like magic. She was a great, great teacher; the school administrators tended to give her the toughest kids in this inner-city magnet school and she did a great job with them. She was a lot like you, I think.

Leah said...

Oh my. My friend Oscar had a nasty incident with string. If you look on Carol Browne dot com on November 4, 2009 you will see scary, scary stuff. not for the faint of heart That!
But you like scary stuff. Have a go.
http://carolbrowne.com/?s=Oscar+ate+string

Mel said...

Goldens are second only to labs in the category of Eating Things They Really Oughtn't. That includes yarn. And underwear. And utensils of various shape and size. Sometimes rocks. Maybe the occasional stick or seashell. Rubber chair leg ends. Carpeting. Doorknobs. I think you get the picture.

scienceprincess said...

I understand your end of quarter pain. Our quarter ended two weeks ago, and kids are still asking if they can do make-up work for the first quarter. I had the last day for make-up work on the board for two weeks . . . My other favorite about the zeroes is, "But I wasn't here!" I know that, but you are a high school student, and it will stay a zero until you come in and do the work already.

Alright, enough ranting.

Enjoy your yummy chicken and potatoes.
Sarah/scienceprincess

Gracey is not my name.... said...

Our grades close on Friday too...and we have anew computer generated report card with very little to no training...and MES (the it people) are suppose to print them all. We have 10 elementary school, 4 middle and the largest HS in the state...any bets on us getting the report cards on time?

Kath said...

I think I've blanked out most of my middle school years but the one episode that sticks? The fire drill while I was in gym class. In January. In Pennsylvania.

Nothin' like standing by a snowdrift in your gym shorts to really put a shine on your day! Funny in retrospect for a kid from sunny Southern California? Horrors.

Julia G said...

So while you are marching your 500 middle school kids down the street to the elementary school they should go to in the event of an emergency, are the elementary school kids marching past you to practice going to the middle school in the event of an emergency?? Just wondering...

I love Dean Koonz and he IS the patron saint of golden retrievers. He's always more upbeat, albeit with an undertone of pathos, than other "horror" writers -- maybe it's the doggies!

And do be careful about the VCK eating yarn -- it can be very bad for one's intestinal tract. I had to "reel in" (or out) a yard or two of yarn from my Big Orange Oaf one time -- he had only two inches dangling from his mouth when I caught him. It was like that magic-scarf-up-your-sleeve trick (except it cheap acrylic yarn in my cat's tummy).

Elaine said...

I don't know how you do it.........

Knitting Linguist said...

I've been feeling the same way about Wednesdays lately - it always feels like if I can make it through Wednesday, the next day should be Friday. But it doesn't work that way.

Alas.

Donna Lee said...

The Odd Thomas series are my favorite Koontz books. I like Odd (and don't reread number one often because I don't like the ending).

We had an evacuation drill this week, too. It's a circus making mental health workers and clients move across a street. There's always one who decides they don't have to leave the building. And we all get lectured.

=Tamar said...

Fire or evaluation drill? Sounds like a tough choice...

twinsetellen said...

I'm a bit behind in my commenting, but thought I'd toss in the info that Irish Setters eat about anything. I knew one once that ate pantyhose on a regular basis and another who chowed down on all the empty corn cobs after a family barbeque. Neither dog seemed to mind the outcome, but the owners were less than thrilled.