Meltdowns scheduled for Thursdays at 7:00

Okay, so I went to school Monday in high hopes of getting the custodians, or some kids, or anybody that could move tables, to help me get my library straight.

I was in constant motion, putting things away, moving things - oh and the computer lab got six new computers, so I had carts full of computers just sitting by the door - totally unnerving, because it's a mess to look at, and it's more work that needs doing.

So, the first thing I asked the custodians to do was to take out these two coolers that were, at this time, full of water, as they had been there for a WEEK, and the ice had melted.

-Side note - I may talk a lot of shit about our custodians, but the truth is they are probably doing the best they can under the circumstances. One of our custodians had to have emergency surgery the Friday before school started, so we are a man down. But I am still going to talk some shit. -

So our male custodian shows up, and decides he is going to put one cooler on a hand truck and pull the other one behind him because it has wheels. Well, he heads to my front door, and the second cooler hits the rubber edge between my tile and my carpet and guess what. The second cooler tips over, pouring water out in a flood. The funniest thing to me looking back is that it fell over right where we have this ten foot tall lighthouse a teacher made with her class years ago - how appropriate.

Well, a shop vac was found (thank God we have a teacher with one) and the custodian got to sit for 30 minutes or so sucking water up with the shop vac. Then he went to get kids to move the tables - and the two boys did, but when they started moving chairs, they moved them two at a time, and clank clank clank, that was the end of that. I thanked them all for their time, and sent them on their way. I would get the chairs moved later.

That was probably the highlight of Monday.

So Tuesday I get to school and go in the front door of the library - I am the only one that ever comes in that door - besides the odd maintenance man - but it's closer to where I park, so . . .

But there at the edge of the cement was a pile of blue stones, aquarium stones to be precise.

Well, I figured one of my slack ass teachers had dumped her aquarium there, leaving her stones for God only know what - birds with color sense?

So I took a picture. I have it at school and will post it next week. And I printed an 8x10 and have it in a frame on my desk. Seriously. It centers me.

And guess who did it? The custodian. When he dumped the shop vac. The teacher to whom the shop vac belonged had warned him that he needed to empty it before using it. And he had dumped it out and left it there. The custodian.

And then the rest of the day was filled with Language Arts classes visiting the media center for their "refreshers." Did ten classes I guess on Tuesday and the same on Wednesday.

I had gotten my assistant to sign classes up, and on Wednesday she signed classes up that overlapped - guess she just wasn't paying attention - but was that when they were signing up or when she was typing it up to give to me? Wouldn't YOU have checked the times. But it worked out. My 6th grade LA teacher worked with me, and all went well.

By Wednesday I had helpers for 8th grade and knew who my helpers for 6th and 7th would be, so I could see some relief coming. And my list was getting shorter. But it was still LONG for me.

So I worked and worked. And during this, I was staying up until 11:00 or 11:30 with Brent and Second Life (which is worthy of a blog all to itself) every night. And by Thursday, it had all taken its toll.

So Thursday went okay at school, and then I get home, and Brent says lightning has struck the phones. Our phones were dead, our Internet was out, our cable worked, but we had to fix the other. One of our phones had a bulging power pack - so we discarded that. But the Internet - we have to have that. So I got on my cell phone and spent the next hour working with the Suddenlink Guy trying to get the Internet to work. We decided to just let the phones go for the night, scheduled an appointment for the next morning, and kept working on the Internet.

Well, my nerves kept getting more and more RAW, and by the time I got off the phone with the cable guy - we got the old cable modem working, but it wouldn't work with the router, which only made the situation worse - by the time that whole debacle was over, I was, shall we say, tripping.

I was really really ILL. And I just stood in the middle of the living room and clenched my fists and said, "Right now, I am so fucking aggravated that everything is wrong. I'm going to bed." That was at seven o'clock on Thursday night.

At six o'clock Friday morning I got up. (There were a few trips to the bathroom throughout the night.)

And I felt better.

And Friday was a great day.

Meltdowns scheduled for Thursdays at 7:00 - an Introduction

Okay, so the first week of school really, really sucked. Well, actually the first four days did, but Friday, well Friday went fairly well.

I have never had so many people who needed so much all at one time from me. I totally don't remember it being like this last year. And to tell you about my first week, I have to go back to last Friday, before school started.

Well, Cathy, my centering rod, had to leave early for a funeral, so I was left alone. And that's when things started to fall apart. Everything I touched went south. I moved a network printer from one classroom to another and it lost its IP address. Just in case you are reading this and don't understand what that means, here's the translation - it worked in one room, and then it lost its freaking mind and didn't work in the next. In less than five minutes.

And then I go back to my library, dog tired, and it's a mess - things everywhere. You don't know this, but over the summer, people "find" things and drop them off in the library - odd electronic things, carts, tables, SMART board stands with no SMART board. So I had all of this stuff to deal with, because I had been out in classrooms working. And the tables - this was really one of my biggest problems.

My library is only so big, and we have tables on both ends. Well for the first workday when we had our afternoon long faculty meeting, almost all of the tables were crammed on one end. And they stayed that way. Until this Tuesday - when school had started. And being a spatial kind of person who has to see some kind of order, let me tell you that was the last straw - no one to help, because now I can't move tables and things with my back - which really pisses me off.

So, I left. I packed up my stuff and left last Friday. Came home and was so un-nerved, I cried. Yes folks, that's how bad it was and how tired I was - I cried, because this would be the worst opening of school I had ever had.

And then I sat on my fat, happy ass all weekend and rested.

It's the end of the world as we know it . . .

Well, today is the last day before the official start of school for the kids. I have worked all week trying to get classrooms ready for tomorrow, and now my library is in terrible shape. This is going to be the worst start to school I have had in fifteen years. Seriously. I think I was even better prepared my first year, when I was hired after school started and had to push a cart from classroom to classroom.

I will tell you this, and I knew that this was coming. I hate working on computers. I hate networking printers and installing drivers and plugging things in. It drives me nuts. I have had to do too much of this over the past ten years, and now I believe I have reached my limit.

But hopefully I will be able to get things straight tomorrow. If nothing else, I plan to take four 8th grade boys out of their last period science class tomorrow to help me move tables. I have gotta get something done, and fast.

So, if you call and I don't answer, it's probably because I am taking a nap every afternoon this week.

Wish me luck.

It's What the Cannibals Cook In

That's what Brent said when I told him about the item that you will find if you follow the link below -

http://www.dutchtub.com/

Think of what you find there and then hear my husband say, "It's what the cannibals cook in."

You gotta love the man . . .

Do you remember?

Have you noticed the new JCPenny's ad that is based on the movie "The Breakfast Club"? Totally hilarious if you were a fan. And who isn't a Molly Ringwald and John Hughes? God, the movies that man made while we were growing up.

And Anthony Michael Hall was always my hero - the nerd.

So, I'm watching "Sixteen Candles" with the Donger - remember him? You know he was like 21 and everyone else was way underage, so they all got him to buy beer while they were shooting this movie. And then he went on to be on ER forever as Yosh.

And John and Joan Cusack are both in it - amazing.

They're at the part where Anthony Michael Hall has shown up at his friend's house with Jake's dad's car and the prom queen, and he wants a picture taken. And they take one at it's a Polaroid of only AMH's eyeball - lol.

I love these movies. They remind me of being a geek in high school. Something that is farther away than I realized until the JCP ad came out.

And to top it all off. Brent has never seen "The Breakfast Club." God bless his heart. Thank goodness for Netflix.

So, of all the John Hughes' movies, what was your favorite? "Pretty in Pink," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club" . . .

Tough call -