WNBP: I'll Do My Best

I am exhausted.  And my feet hurt.  And I think I still have 342 emails left to answer.  Oh, and I can't seem to put together enough coherent thoughts to guarantee that any of those answers will relate to the subject lines.

Yes, the signs are all in place.  Today was the first day of school.  I survived.  All tweens involved survived.  A few even thrived.  That, dear readers, is what we in the teaching game call A Good Opening Day.

That doesn't help my sore feet, though...

My first thought was to bail on tonight's WNBP, but that has gotten a little easier to do these days.  Since the ol' blog is really just hanging on by a thread lately, I think I should just put my nose to the grindstone and do my best to cobble something together.

And maybe later, I can put that grindstone to my left foot to see if perhaps I can take the swelling down enough to match the right one!

*The online service we use to manage our special education paperwork went Ker-flooey last week.

*Since a lot of stuff was still up in the air when I left school in June, I had only a partial idea of what I needed to do to satisfy state and federal requirements for my students.  

*Or even who those students might be.

*I was able to log on yesterday.

*Which, as you may have surmised, was THE DAY BEFORE SCHOOL STARTED!!!

*Wanna know what I found?

*Last year's caseload with one new student added on because he moved to the district late and apparently only the Johnny-Come-Latelys get counted.

*My caseload is never correctly updated, but this is the worst it's ever looked.

*We were cut back to one secretary in the special education office last spring.

*She decided that the most efficient way to handle the start of the school year and an online file management service going Ker-flooey was to take a week long cruise.

*Let's face it:  we all decide that at one time or another.  I decide that three or four times a day and that's not even on a particularly bad day.

*But I've never actually had the guts to go and do it.

*My email to my director yesterday begging for assistance with this situation required a follow up email extending apologies for my possibly having been a bit snippy.

*She said that I wasn't snippy.  She then demonstrated snippy by sharing a very, very small fraction of her feelings regarding secretaries who take week-long cruises during the first week of school and under Ker-flooey Konditions.

*She and another clerk at central office had been frantically updating online caseloads for grades 6-12 late into the previous evening.

*She also noted that, while doing so, she was surprised to see how "diverse" my own group of little darlings is this year.

*That is an understatement.  Now that I have figured out who is who and who needs what, even I can't help but marvel and the amazingness that I shall be demonstrating this school year.

*Or lack thereof.  

*It's going to be one of those...

*Seriously.  We are all over the map here.  

*And the home screen listing listing my caseload was bursting at its virtual seams. More kids than I anticipated.

*Yesterday, while we were sitting through the second of three Very, Very Long Teacher Meetings, a parent came in to register another one.

*Also mine, I came to learn.

*For the record, the secretary over at central office is actually a pretty hard working lady.  Very nice, too.  And always willing to step up if you need help with something.

*If anyone deserves a cruise, I'd have to say it's her.

*But the timing is kind of...odd.

*I spend a great deal of my summer putting up meals.  I discovered home pressure canning a few years ago and now it's something of an addiction.

*The rule is: Don't break into the jars until December.

*Weird, I know.  But there's something giggle-worthy about eating summer green beans during a snow storm...

*I tried two new recipes this summer, however, and wanted to give them a test run before packing them in my lunch box come the winter months.

*Yesterday, I cracked open the Asian style turkey meatballs.  Very tasty and went well with a bit of rice.

*Of course, the Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty loves turkey.  He loves it beyond all reason and would probably marry a turkey if he could.

*It would be a union of extremely short duration, though.  The bride probably wouldn't make it through the reception.

*Hence, I had to eat my turkey meatballs all hunched over the bowl whilst casting furtive glances about the immediate area in order to protect my dinner from surprise attacks.

*This is what we here at the manse refer to as Dining A-La Prison Chow Hall.

*Tonight I tried the sweet and sour chicken.  The AGK likes chicken, too.

*Not as much as turkey, though.  Maybe it was the pineapple...

*My dinner was eaten at a much more leisurely pace and with less of the furtive.

*Hard to believe this is the same cat that was stealing entrails out of the sink while I was wrestling with chicken parts this summer...

*Mac folks with paranoid tendencies might enjoy the Presence app.  It's free.

*It lets you turn your devices into a home surveillance system.

*Mac folks with paranoid tendencies and a burning desire to see what their cats do all day might like it, too.

*For the record, I think Da Boyz know I'm spying on them now.

*Living room hi-jinx were non-existent today.

*The kitchen, however, was fair game.  And only the spot just out of camera range.

*I'm fairly certain that the soaking wet sponge wasn't exactly what they wanted.  There has never been a run on soaking wet sponges here.

*But, apparently it's any port in a storm now.  Or any forbidden item located in non-observable areas in a storm...

*Soaking wet sponges are not nice things to find dripping all over the kitchen floor.

*Or to step on...

*With your big, fat swollen foot...

*Tomorrow, I'm going to put the camera in the kitchen.

*And expect the living room to be turned into Thunderdome.

*I have been awoken at a quarter to oh-my-god in the morning every day all summer long.

*Cats don't know from vacation.

*Today?  Nothing.  Not a peep from the feline roommates.

*Kind of inconvenient since I forgot to set the alarm last night.

*On the first day of school.


For what it's worth, I made it out of bed and out the door with ample time to herd the children.  And, in spite of the issues we may have had (like running out of lockers, seats in the cafeteria and patience) it wasn't the worst day I've ever had.  I can cross another First Day Of School off the list of stuff I need to do for thirty years or so.

But I think it's fair to say I've had my share of sore feet and Ker-flooies for a while...

SA