WNBP: Catching Up

Well, that post title is something of a joke.  "Catching Up?"  Who am I kidding?  I am nowhere near to being caught up, however I think I might be just a little bit closer than I was at this time last week.  I think I'm just going to pat myself on the back for that feat and ignore everything else that I should be doing at the moment.

It is Wednesday and I shall forge ahead with a Wednesday Night Bullet Post just like I always do.  Or almost always do.  I think I proved last week that "always" is kind of a flexible concept here in Sheepie Land...

*Your patience was appreciated.  I had about three seconds of energy left by the time I made the decision to give up on blogging last week and I used it to blog an apology.

*That was all I had left to give.

*This time last year, I was moaning and groaning about all the meetings that no one invited me to, but where decisions that would effect my daily working life were made with wild abandon.

*I've actually been complaining about that for many years now.  I kind of figured that everyone listened for the first couple of years, even if they didn't really respond to it with an invitation or two.

*After that, I assumed that my protestations had taken on the quality of a quiet background hum that everyone found annoying but could ignore if they tried hard enough.

*Or if they just headed out to a meeting far away from me so they could talk about what I should be doing the next school year.

*Apparently, at least some of it got through.  This year, I am being invited to all kinds of meetings.

*Spring transition meetings all over the school district.  Late afternoon meetings that require I find coverage for my homeroom lest they try to dismiss themselves for buses.

*And that never goes well.  Trust me.  Left to their own devices, I'd come back to school the next day to find them camped out in the classroom and having gone full-on Lord Of The Flies during the overnight hours.

*My guys aren't much on listening when the loudspeaker tells them things.  Like what the schedule is for the day or that their bus is leaving whether they are on it or not.

*Sometimes they have to be called by name.

*Several times...

*I've gone to a lot of meetings since March.  Yesterday I was told, "This should be the last one we need you for."

*Yay!  I almost didn't mind getting home at 5:30 which doesn't sound so bad until you consider that I leave for work at 6:00 in the morning so I can be ready and waiting for the kidlets by the 7:15.  But if this was the last one, I was gonna party like it was 1999!!!

*I got three meeting invitations today.

*Apparently "done" only applied to the one school I'd been traveling to recently.  Now I get to go to meetings at the other elementary school.

*"Done," much like "always" is not necessarily concrete in meaning.

*I had to send an email to Mr. Principal and Mr. Assistant Principal on Monday.  It went something like this:

Dear MP and MAP,

I would like to apologize in advance for the multiple missives you are soon to receive.  He Who...PROJECTS! has learned how to create his own quizzes in Google and I don't know how long you have before your inboxes begin overflowing.  I'd like to say I have some control over this, but I'd be fooling myself and, by default, you.

He has our email addresses and he knows how to use them.  Blame technology and our school's relentless insistence on going paperless.

Sincerely,

Ms. Sheep

PS.  I got 100 on my quiz.  Top that.  I dare you.


*In fairness, I wasn't even a beta tester for this project.  I was the alpha tester.  Hence, my quiz wasn't as challenging as it could have been.

*And I inadvertently supplied some of the answers since I always respond quickly when HW...P! asks me something.  It is really in everyone's best interest...

*Fortunately, the lad's attention span is short.  The quiz thing should end fairly soon.  Although, I suspect it might last a bit longer given the conversation we had about it yesterday afternoon.

HW...P!:  I like giving quizzes to teachers.

Ms. Sheep: (obviously tired but gamely playing along)  I'll just bet you do.

HW...P!:  I have to put my computer away now, though.  I thought I heard something about buses coming.

MS:  That's nice.  I'll just be over here staring at this wall for a while longer.  It is such a nice...quiet wall.

HW...P!:  (continuing on as if MS hasn't spoken)  I think quizzes are helpful.  I like to give quizzes to old people to keep their minds sharp.  That is very helpful and I think they appreciate it.  I'm going to make lots of them.

MS:  Aren't you sweet?  Hey!  Wait just a minute there.  You just gave me a quiz.  Are you saying I'm...OLD?


*Don't tell me for a minute that kids on the autism spectrum can't pick up on subtle social cues.  Or not so subtle ones.

*That boy froze like a deer in the headlights and didn't speak for a full ten seconds.

*He seemed to be considering his next move very, very carefully.

*Not exactly his strong suit.  But even he knew the dangers ahead.

*Finally, he said with forced cheer, "No!  You aren't old!   If you were sixty or seventy, that would be old.  But, you still have some time to get your mind back in shape at forty!"

*Since forty is barely visible in the rear view mirror at this point, I decided to take it as a compliment.  I was too tired and too ready to go back to staring at that wall to be offended anyway.

*HW...P!  was positively beaming with delight over how adeptly he dodged that bullet when he headed off to track practice.

*I haven't heard from Mr. Assistant Principal, but Mr. Principal reported yesterday that he got a 98.

*I can count on one hand the number of times I've been in the grocery store and said to myself, "Gee, I think I might literally keel over into a coma if I don't purchase some gelato..."

*Yet today, gelato came home with me.  Which is weird because I went there for something else which I now don't remember needing at all.

*I'm sure it will come to me sometime in the immediate future.  Hopefully it wasn't some kind of lifesaving medication or cat food...

*Speaking of Da Boyz, I found this amazing cat litter about a month ago.  It's great!

*They make it with recycled paper and it has been magically pelletized so the pieces are big enough to be swept up easily after certain stereotypically messy males scatter it hither and yon.

*"Pelletized" can too be a word.  I isn't necessarily just something I made up.

*Furthermore, it turns a lovely shade of teal when it clumps.  Just beautiful...

*We used it successfully for many weeks.  Until this past Sunday.

*Which would have been Mother's Day for anyone keeping track and who has a keen sense of irony.

*That was the day I found my Very Complicated Kitty blissfully licking the litter.

*Yes.  You heard me.  Licking.  The.  Litter.

*I'd cleaned the box recently so there was no telltale teal to indicate he was noshing on anything else.  No.  He was just licking the litter while his Absurdly Gi-normous brother looked on in abject horror.

*I removed him from the litter box whilst firmly remonstrating him for such uncouth behavior.

*I am nothing if not an involved parent.

*He went back.  Litter licking resumed.  I removed him.

*We went through several rounds of this before I finally convinced him to move on to other lickable objects around the manse.  I gave myself a mental pat on the back for being so diligent in my maternal duties.

*I figured I deserved a nice, long bath what with it being "my" day and all.

*When I emerged from the tub, all pink and relaxed I was greeted by an horrific sight.

*There was my VCK horking up wads and wads of lovely teal paper.  There was at least one, perhaps two, good-sized handfuls represented in that sodden pile when all was said and done.

*It pretty much matched the divot in the litter box.  I happened to notice that on my way to the kitchen for the paper towels I have to keep out of reach because those sometimes get eaten too.

*I thought having a Litter Licker was bad.  That's nothing.  I'd kill to go back to those carefree days of having a Litter Licker.  A Litter Licker is actually kind of an interesting conversation piece, when you think about it.

*A Litter Glutton, on the other hand...

*Well, let's just say my dreams of him someday going to community college and supporting me in my old age are kind of dwindling.

*We have gone back to the old litter that scatters all over the place and resists the most finely wrought of brooms.

*It also never, ever turns a pretty shade of blue.

*It isn't made of tempting paper, though.  And that, I suppose, is the true criteria for litter box filler in this household.

*I hope everyone else had a pleasant Mother's Day, though.  Hopefully you got breakfast in bed and sweet handmade cards.

*As opposed to the handcrafted art of the resident Litter Glutton.

*I've been really grooving on the Dog Days novels.

*Made it up to Play Dead (A Dog Days Novel).

*I truly do have a preference for books featuring male protagonists.  Not that there aren't some fantastic female characters out there and I love some of the series that feature them.

*But I somehow always seem to gravitate towards the dude's POV when I'm looking for a first person narrative.

*Not sure what that says about me, but I can't say as I'm going to put too much time into examining it.  I like what I like, I suppose...

*My commuter book is also kind of XY chromosomal.

*The Gate Thief (Mither Mages) 

*Not a first person POV.  Not even from one person's perspective, although it is thankfully limited to two.  I don't think I could handle more than two parallel story lines, at least not while I'm driving.

*I somehow managed to forget a great deal of what happened in the first novel of the series, but I'm picking it up as I go along.

*And, like all of Orson Scott Card's books (at least the one's I've listened to), it is expertly narrated.

*Today, upon arriving home, I actually sat in the car for a bit.  You know, just to get to a good "stopping point."

*Or perhaps my brain was worn out from being quizzed.  And there is always the possibility I feared what else might be getting licked in my home while I was away at work...



I think that brings you up to speed on where things stand at the moment. At least it covers the highlights. Again, your willingness to wait a bit was truly appreciated.  Progress reports were finished, a few things that needed grading were evaluated and a cat or two got petted.  (that was before the whole Litter Licking/Gluttony Debacle)  I honestly needed a little extra time to catch my breath.

Which isn't the same as "catching up," but I'm still working that whole "flexible definition" angle...

SA