Two words...

Edible underwear. 

Let's just say I'm glad they weren't mine. 

It's been a rough few weeks.  My fingers are crossed that things will begin to settle.  I've been down in the trenches for what seems like ages, but we're not even through January yet.

On the bright side, things are sorted out with my principal now and I'm caught up on lesson plans and grading.  When I spoke with her about the "panty situation," she simply smiled and said...

It's not the first time.  Not even the second...

Really?

Always seems to happen right around Valentine's day.

Parents of the world.... note that.

Yeah, well....

So much for leaving on time today.  Arrived 7:10 am.  Left 6:00 pm.  It's my own damn fault for not having my plans done, for having to have tutoring on Mondays, and for being absolutely unable to walk out the door when I know my principal is looking for something from me.  It's the I cannot fail disease.  When you are the only income, I guess that is a good disease to have.  Even if you want to have the I don't give a fucking fuck disease, in my case it's probably better to come down with a bad case of cannot-fail.

Gonna go get baby girl out of the crib and snuggle her tonight.  Hopefully, she won't crawl out of my bed.  Matt and my mom tell me that if they aren't falling off of the bed then you aren't doing something right.  I think that's what they tell me.  Maybe it's just... if she falls off of the the bed, you aren't the absolute worst mother in the world.  Eh, I'll take either one.

Maybe I can vaccinate myself with some, totally organized, completely efficient, always focused and clear headed disease so that I can actually just take a breath and work like a normal person for once.

FUUUUUUUCCCCKKKKK my life (sometimes.... not all the time... just till I get my shit in gear.)

Lesson Plans Part 2

Let me say one more time... Writing rigorous lesson plans for 5 subjects for 5 days plus intervention plans in Math and Reading is TOO MUCH FUCKING WORK FOR ONE PERSON!!!!  It is the second week back and I am already behind.  I'm behind in grading, in plans, and in sleep.  My room is a mess.  I feel discombobulated.  I'm not ready for work.  It's too much.  It's too much.  It's too much.  I leave my kid at daycare at 6:30, so I can get to work at 7:10.  Even if I leave at 3:10 and get her at 3:30, my 1 year old has been in daycare for NINE hours and that NEVER happens.  I usually get there at 4:00 at the earliest.  So, ya know, screw it.  I've mostly done my plans.  I know what I'm doing tomorrow.  I need to go to bed.  When I get a freaking second tomorrow, I will finish my plans and send them off and I am going to make a concerted effort to get it in gear at school and get caught up.  And I am going to walk out of that door at 3:10 every damn day so I can be with my babydoll.  I'm done being a slave to work.  I'm gonna get it done at work.  I will.  But I'm not staying up all fucking night and all damn weekend to NOT GET PAID.  I'm gonna get my bedtime in check.  I'm gonna get these grades posted.  I'm gonna automate these fucking plans.  But I'm not working at home.  If I have to occasionally work an extra hour so be it, but NOT EVERY DAY.  My baby shouldn't have to be in daycare for 45 hours a week.  That's insane.  I don't have a choice about it, but I'm not going to make her day any longer than it has to be.  And that is that.  This is reasonable, right?

The Principal's Office

My permanent record is pretty much golden.  Not one trip to the principal's office.  Never.  Not ever.  Not even after I toilet papered the principal's house with my best friend and then ran over his water mainline when he blocked us in the driveway.  I probably would have been expelled, but I didn't get caught.  No one made a peep even after I wrote a personal narrative about my little adventure for Junior year English.  

I had another close call in first grade.  My mother loves to retell this story.  

Michelle came home from school and said she got her name on the board for helping Tony take his boots off.  So, I went up to that school and I asked the teacher what she had done that was just so terrible.  And the teacher said ever so sweetly, "But you see, Tony didn't WANT his boots off!"

My mom just cracks up at that part.  I'm not sure if it's because I was so unhelpfully helpful or because at the tender age of seven, I was already manhandling the would-be-men in my class.  Either way, I missed my ticket to the principal's office due to my teacher's good nature.  In the class of another, I might not have fared so well.

It's a good thing that those permanent record things, aren't that permanent or my adult self would be in a heap of trouble for marring that pristine document.  Today, I got called into the principal's office.  It wasn't pretty.  It certainly wasn't my first time since I started getting called into the principal's office, which was sometime back in 2009(-ish).  (Holla-attcha, Mrs. Trout, and, by the way, FUCK YOU!!!)  

On the bright side, my current principal is NOTHING like Mrs. Trout.  That is because my current principal is a good and decent and rational person with a good heart that cares about children AND her teachers AND staff.  She is the opposite of a two-faced cold-hearted amoral self-serving jackass with whom I am familiar.  My current principal is practically an angel by comparison.  

Angel or not,  new principal knows how to smack down.  She is succinct, to the point, and cuts to the chase.  She mixes in a little Encyclopedia Brown style questioning/concern.... How are you doing?  What's going on with you?  (You know, she's making sure that nobody in family has died and that I'm not recently diagnosed with something awful.  I can respect that... nice move.)  Then, boom, so I notice that you've come to school late the past two mornings. (I've gotten there at 7:18 and 7:19.  The bell rings at 7:20 and that's when we pick up the kids.  We are supposed to be at school by 7:10.)  You know, Michelle, it's very important that you are here on time.  

Blah, blah, blah... some other stuff.....  I won't bore you to death with it all.  Suffice to say, I better not show up late one more day and I better have the kids all set and ready to stick with our plans.  No more cleaning out desks during intervention time.  (I did have to tell her that we were cleaning out desks, because last semester one of the kids had a roach crawl out of their desk and I thought it was necessary to clean them all out, even if it took a little extra time.)  

The good news is that my principal was well within her bounds of reasonableness to talk with me about being late and even to check on whether I was going to be doing intervention.  I think it gave me a moment to let her know that I was recalibrating for the year at the start of the new semester and to hear what was important to her... i.e. timeliness in general and working in small groups for interventions.  This was a good thing for me to focus on for my future.  

As they say, every cloud has a silver lining.  If I have learned anything, that is the God's honest truth.  If you can't see the good out of the bad, then you aren't looking hard enough, and you aren't getting the message.  For all of the dislike that I have for Mrs. Trout (Fuck you, again, you fired up my engines all over again with your latest bullshit stunt - sorry - I have Tourrette's, when I think about that woman sometimes and I just start typing crazy shit) um, back to... for all of the dislike that I have for Mrs. Trout, I credit a lot of my current happiness to her.  

I learned a lot from her. I learned a lot about curriculum and rigor.  I learned about what a good teacher that I am and that I can be better and better all of the time.  I learned that I can learn so much from my peers and specialists. I learned that it is important to always to talk about your strengths and to not be defensive about your weaknesses.  I learned that when it comes to your boss just apologize, agree, change it, and move on.  I learned that there are some people that lie.  I learned that there are some people that cheat.  I learned that there are some people that manipulate and bully.  I learned that I am not one of those people.  Above all, I learned that if you do the right thing, good things will happen for you.  Always.  Every time.  Without fail.  I learned that integrity is the permanent record that only you can see and its the only one that matters.