WNBP: I'm Not Sure How I Feel About This...

Ah, Ambivalence...welcome back, Old Friend!  Sometimes I get all black and white with my feelings and I need a dose of good old fashioned emotional see-sawing to get back to my usual, waffly self.

That, in a nutshell, kind of describes the state of things around here these days.  Here's more on that in Wednesday Night Bullet Post Format:


*Vacation was wonderful.

*But, as vacations tend to do, it ended all too soon.

*And Monday morning rolled around with all the cold harshness of a snowy day in February.

*Actually, the cold and the snowy stuff was the day before but I'm getting so immune to cold, snow and anything else in the Winter Weather Category that I hardly even notice it any more.

*I dreaded going back.  I really liked that whole Master Of My Own Schedule thing.

*I could use the restroom whenever the spirit moved me!

*Whether I needed to or not!

*But, as of Monday, I had to hold it because a room full of 6th and 7th graders isn't going to teach itself just because I need to answer the call of nature.

*Nor is it going to look anything remotely like I left it when I return.

*Still...it was kind of hard to not feel a bit of gratitude.  At least I had more than a week of work left to come back to.

*Which is more than 22 of my colleagues can say.

*Not to mention everyone who teaches in the gifted program and band.

*While the dust from the first round of layoffs was still hovering in the tear-laden air, they were informed that their respective programs will be ending in mid-May.

*I came back to a flurry of emails, all of which reflected the panic one feels when one's job, the one you thought you had locked in as of Wednesday, is suddenly yanked out from under you on Friday.

*It's a train wreck.  The teacher's union is blaming past and present superintendents.  Past superintendents had the good sense to retire last spring before all this came crashing down and present superintendents are blaming the teacher's union for not taking a vote of accepting furlough days within the time lines given.  Everyone else is evenly split in their accusations, but I'm trying to stay out of it.

*And enjoy my continued paycheck.

*Even if that means going back to work when vacation was really ever so much nicer.

*I was, however, looking forward to lunch.  I got myself a the cutest little pink lunch crock! 

*Follow the linky thingy if you'd like to see it: Crock-Pot SCCPLC200-PK 20-Ounce Lunch Crock Food Warmer, Pink)

*I just plug it in before I go out for recess duty and, by the time I'm finally able to sit down to eat lunch while I help kids during study hall...I have a hot meal!!

*I can't remember the last time I had a hot lunch at school...

*The weather forecast for today was nothing short of weird.  Most of the state was under a storm warning.

*Not me, though.  I live on the coast and we had nothing to worry about according to the weather prognosticators.

*But even 20 miles away, the story seemed different.

*And they kept changing the rain vs. snow line, not to mention when the whole thing was supposed to kick off.

*I finally settled on the harsh reality.  There would be no Wednesday Snow Day.  The timing was off.

*I figured we'd probably get sent home early or something and then I could experience the joys of driving on ice slicked roads in blinding snow.

*Until I got home, that is.  Home was in the Safe Zone.

*I put a lot of thought into this.  So much so that I barely slept a wink all night.

*Which was going to be a problem come 5:00 in the morning when I needed to arise and somehow find my way back to that paying job 'o mine.

*The call came at 5:00 this morning.  Shortly after I got to sleep.

*No school.

*As far as I can tell, there was  mostly rain during the morning hours in the area where I teach.  I can't fathom where the idea to cancel came from.

*Perhaps the superintendent is trying to cover his bases after the last time he tried to pull off a delayed start to school but neglected to announce it to anyone so they could plan accordingly.

*Frankly, I'm not entirely convinced this was the best use of our limited snow day time...

*On the other hand, I was too tired to care.  A certain sleep-deprived Sheepie decided to not look this particular gift horse in the mouth and pencil in an afternoon nap.

*Let's hope this mostly wraps up by tomorrow morning since I doubt we can get another snow day out of this one.

*This is supposed to be a loooooong storm.

*The Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty is pretty much at the end of his rope with all this gray and gloomy weather.

Sometimes a guy just needs to bury his head and ignore the world...

*That used to be the pillow on my bed but I bought a new one during vacation and tossed that one on the loveseat until I could figure out what to do with it.

*Apparently, it is rather perfect for angst-filled face smashing so I suppose it will have to stay there.

*I kind of feel the same way, except for the part where I didn't have to drag my half-asleep self to school today.

*I seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time with The World's Greatest Stylist And Life Coach during my vacation.

*Hair cut on Saturday.

*Lunch and shopping on Monday.

*More with the lunching and shopping on Friday.

*Happily, we didn't set off any alarms this time.  The local police departments were pleased with us.

*However, we did have to put an entire store staff on alert when we got distracted by a discount rack and someone absconded with our cart.

*Note: When shopping for a frame to best set off your much loved and now deceased dog it is not a good idea to take the only copy of the photo along with you.

*Or leave it in the cart.

*Or get distracted long enough that some poor lady thinks the cart is abandoned and has to be apprehended by a wandering Sheepie.

*But we didn't set off any alarms this time so I still think we were ahead of the game on this trip.

*Having spent much of my available cash on all these shopping excursions, my book monies were limited.

*Fortunately, I got a heck of a deal on a six book set that looked at least a little promising.

*Actually, it has paid off rather nicely.

*Samantha Moon, Moon Dance (Vampire for Hire #1), is a delight and her story is actually far more compelling than I would have thought.

*To be brutally honest, there are one or two issues with editing and perhaps a few tweaks here and there to correct for the overuse of certain expressions might have made the experience even better.

*But it hasn't detracted at all from the book in the long run.  I just really like this character and the story in which she's embroiled.

*I'm only just starting book 2 so we'll see how it goes from here, but I have to say it was a good purchase.

*Much like my school vacation shopping, I always make sure to check that discount rack.  Even when it's in digital form!

*My ongoing mission to eat dinner before bedtime is moving along at a predictable pace.

*In other words, I am eating dinner sometime between 7:00 and 10:00.

*Don't judge.  I get all involved in other stuff.  Important stuff like TV and computer games.

*Or the blog, now that I think of it.  I just realized it's after 7:00 and I promised myself this would be wrapped up by 6:30 so I could at least come close to my goal.

*Plus I still have to dry my hair before bed so I don't think this is going to end well.

*And, as I said before, I also don't anticipate another snow day tomorrow so sleeping with wet hair isn't really a good idea.

*Now I don't know what to do first.

*And I still haven't wrapped up this blog post!!!!


OK.  That's what I'll do.  I'll finish the post, double check the links and do a cursory spell check.  Then it's off to either dry or cook.  One of those.

On the plus side, my lunch is still packed for today's aborted school day and I have clean clothes just awaiting tomorrow's morning routine.  I think that, with those things taken care of, I might just make my usual bedtime.

That's a good feeling.

SA