WNBP: Short Week, Tall Hurdles

The Cheerful Teaching Assistant and I were talking today.  She took a couple days off to round out the long weekend and was saying how sad she was yesterday when it was time to trudge back onto the plane.  Then she thought about it and said, "You know...I'm kind of thinking I won't get much sympathy after spending the weekend lounging poolside and all.  But I still kind of cringed when it was over."

It's true.  I didn't use any of my personal time, but I still had a three day weekend. It doesn't seem right to complain now about how a short week can be harder than a full one.  This, of course, doesn't mean I'm not going to give it a go, though.  I'm probably even going to enjoy doing it in bullet point form.

*The Cheerful Teaching Assistant was out yesterday because she was taking a personal day and enjoying her last day at poolside.


*I was back at the home front trying to convince a group of middle school students that state mandated testing was the most fun thing ever.


*Even more fun now that we are in the second week of them!!!


*I was not one of the people who had much sympathy for the CTA upon her return even if I really do understand the sadness that comes from leaving a vacation behind.


*I never use my personal days.


*As the head teacher, it is harder to do that.


*And never really worth it in the end since chaos always reigns in my absence.


*If I have to do another day of testing, I might just resort to chewing every single pencil into sawdust by the weekend.


*The 7th graders finished most of their testing today.


*Except the ones who have to do make-ups.  Which is all of them.


*And the 8th graders have two more days to go.


*Hide your pencils, people.  They are no longer safe.


*In celebration of Columbus Day, I busted out one of the Dollar Store Cat Caves this weekend.


*I don't know what this has to do with Christopher Columbus, but it surely is a cute sight.

*Frankly, one look isn't enough.  There should be MORE of the cute kitty in the cat cave!!!

*Ahhhh...I miss those wonderful days from so long ago!


*When all I had to worry about was how to get a fat, furry feline fanny out of a dollar's worth of nylon.


*Which was all of two days ago, but it seems like a long time after going back to the state mandated testing.


*I think I might have found a way to link some books for you.


*I have been reading all over the place here!!!




*Not exactly the link I prefer, but it seems to work and I kind of liked this series.


*The first one is rough and it really takes a while to connect to the characters, but hang in there.


*Totally worth it.  By the time I got to the third book, I was filled with angst for everyone involved and devastated to learn that there was no new installment on the horizon!


*Let's see if I can get another linky-linky to work!



*HA!!!  I did it!!!  Still don't like this type of link, but it's better than the fight I got over this last week.


*Maybe next time, I can do a simpler link that fits with my quiet and dignified demeanor.


*For now, I'm just happy to be able to tell you that I read all three of the George Mann books that comprise this series to date.


*Good old fashioned steam punky fun and you will never, ever feel such loathing for a monarch as you will for Queen Victoria.


*Not the nice version of Her Majesty.  This one is run primarily on vile chemicals and steam engines.


*We are not amused...


*And yet , we kind of are...


*Fun books!


*We were told to expect fire drills this week.


*It is going to rain.  We are not going to be having fire drills unless the weather turns around.


*I'm sure you can literally hear the devastation in my printed words!


*Oh, the travesty of it all!!!!


*I was not looking forward to state mandated testing and fire drills.


*And not knowing that it was already Wednesday.


*Which puts me one day behind in the planning, but that was OK.  I could get a bunch of stuff done on Friday now that the fire drill threat was behind us.


*Except that I can't because I received an email today informing me that I will be at a training all day on Friday.  And that it is, in fact, Wednesday.


*Which meant that I have an early morning meeting, less prep time and state mandated achievement testing.


*And one day left to prepare the class for my absence on a Friday.


*Then I got an email telling me that the training site was changed because they couldn't fit us at the original site.  That was fine.


*Except that we all have to go move our cars at 1:00 because the Farmer's Market is starting and no one is allowed to park at the  school district's central office.


*Apparently, the farmers get a little feisty and the school district lost the last strategic battle in The Great Parking Lot War.


*And it is still Wednesday, not Tuesday.  And I still only have one day left to plan for being out all day on Friday.


*Short weeks are nice but sometimes kill me.  Short weeks that get shorter are also really nice but I hate the part where Farmer Brown comes at me with a pitchfork because I didn't get my car out of the way per his schedule.


*The Cheerful Teaching Assistant doesn't have much in the way of sympathy for me, though.



And there we go.  The Wednesday that made me an unappreciative wretch for not recognizing my short-week fortunes.  I should probably go now.  I need to start printing off a plethora of worksheets if my staff has any hope of surviving the coming dark days.  I haven't exactly done my karma any favors by not indulging in a little of the gratitude tonight.

Blogger seems to agree.  It has decided to stop saving...

SA