The Swifts

There was a chimney swift in the gym today so the thirdies came running to find me. When I walked into the gym, rowdy boy said, "Check out the wings how they cross over just like in our paintings." And rowdy girl said, "It can cling to a vertical surface, so we know it's a swift." It always amazes me how these little crazies remember stuff even tho they never pay attention ever. The swift was cool and I hope it found its way out of the gym somehow. It put on a great show for us today and I'm grateful.

The Help

Teendaughter came to school today. Since I got about 2 hours of sleep last night, she was a

sight for very sore eyes when she showed up at 1, ready to help with the completion of the bird books in 3rd grade. Thanks, TD!

The Podcast

That deer foto is a downer, so I'm going to cheer everyone with this LINK RIGHT HERE to the last best podcast by the third graders. It's about a book called Granddaddy's Gift.

The Bucket

I hated coming home to 2 deer in the backyard because one of them had a kind of weird plastic bucket attached to his antlers. He wasn't even trying to get it off and that kind of made me sad. Can you detect how I documented said deer with said bucket here? I wish that deer could have trusted me enough to let me close enough to remove the plastic bucket.

The Puma

I worked with some third graders today to respond to an article about a mountain lion that's been photographed on a motion sensitive camera. It's living in Bloomfield, about 20 miles away from our town. No one has ever seen the mountain lion but people have found dead deer covered by leaves, a sure sign a mountain lion's about. I'm a little peeved because there's a law that says it's okay to kill the mountain lion if it's messing around with your property. There's no reason to kill our one and only mountain lion. Just leave it alone. It's not even bothering you.

The Computer

My computer in my office doesn't work anymore for some reason. So I had to go to the computer lab to use a computer in there. Those computers are so slow that you feel like killing yourself when you're using them. Every time you click on something, the hour glass appears for about 2 minutes. I'm not sure this is a peeve, or just a mindblowing catastrophe of huge proportions.

The Flashes

Big Peeve of the day? Hot Flashes. Hot flashes are idiotic. They wake me up all night long. All night long, every hour or so, my eyes zing open and I'm wide awake. About 30 seconds after that, my head begins burning like it's being zapped in a microwave. Then I tear off all my blankets. Then I lay there sweating with my head on a pillow so hot it feels like I'm reclining on a giant hot pocket. After a few minutes I drift off back to sleep. Then I get super cold, so I pull up the covers. An hour later the whole thing starts again. It's miserable. Sure things could be worse. But that's not the point. This is a significant peeve. I was exhausted all day today.

The Peeve

I was trying to blog each day about my attempts to be a bright shining star at the compound, but the compound's cramping my starry style. Instead, I shall now write about peeves on a regular basis, until the end of the school year.

Big Peeve: I hate when people say something that's not even remotely funny, but they chuckle or chortle when they finish saying it. Today I heard someone say, "Boy is it ever! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HA HA!" I always feel fairly uncomfortable on these occasions. Should I pretend laugh? I usually go with the nod and smile approach. But it's awkward.

The Disaster

Lots of nonsense at the compound this week. Lotta lying and accusing. So I need to pull myself off to one side and just keep my head low. In other words, I've got to focus on survivial, on getting through to the other side. It can be done.

The Meeting

Big end of year meeting today. When you work at a Title I school, there's a "black box" with 20 folders inside. You have to fill the folders with documentation of various sorts. It's a huge job and maybe a little ridiculous. But at the end of the meeting some of the colleagues said some really nice things about working with yours truly, alittleleeway, and that felt good. Basically, every little bit helps. We have 13 days to go. Lots to do still. This week I read Frederick to the Kinders. Then we talked about what our contribution would be if we lived in a chatty family of field mice. Then we made some pretty cool ripped paper collages of little mice doing various jobs: singing, cooking, reading books. Whenever I get to be with the kinders, it's usually a pretty good day.

The Movies

This weekend has been test data weekend. 6 hours at work yesterday. 7 today. Making stupid little charts. It's hard to have a bright and shiny attitude when you're doing this type of task. Watching movies helped. Over the past 2 days I've watched Jerry Maguire, a documentary about a guy named Jim Killeen who went around the world meeting other guys named Jim Killeen. The Blind Side. Where the Wild Things Are. I was going to see another movie tonight at the Buskirk Chumley with Mitz. Compassion Rising about the Dalai Lama and Thomas Merton. I was looking forward to it, but felt a little tired and cranked out from the data entry so I asked the ticket guy, "Is it just the movie? There are no speakers, right?"

"Oh no, if you want to hear the speakers, you have to come on Tuesday night. We're just showing the movie tonight.

"Great," I told him. "I don't want to hear anyone talking. Just want to see the movie."

"Yep. Just the movie."

We get into the Buskirk Chumley and the start time comes and goes. Finally some guy with a CELLO walks out and starts talking about the making of the film and then plays a long and moving song on the cello. I tried to have a buddhist attitude, but it really ticked me off. So finally the movie starts and I just leave.

I'm really dedicated to making these last 3 weeks of school the most wonderful weeks EVER, but it's going to be hard if nonsense like this keeps happening.

The Swifts

Big ceremony at school today welcoming the swifts back to the new chimney. School board. Mayor. Audubon Society. We're hoping the swifts will roost in the new chimney that was built for them. The old chimney is capped because it's about to be torn down with the rest of our school. During the ceremony some swifts were flying overhead. But they weren't coming down to the chimney. I hope they will roost in the new chimney because it was built just for them. Swifts, you will love it!

The Crank

My 2nd night in a row coming home after 10 pm from the compound. This is nonsense.

My anxiety and paranoia erupted this morning as I began a day of work sessions with different grade levels, organizing common assessments for next year. I basically refused to speak to anyone and simply stared at them when they tried to make small talk. If they asked if they could help me, I said curtly, "No." I wanted everyone to know that I can dish it out as well as take it. I pulled myself together when I snapped at someone who asked a question, responding with a terse, "How many flipping times do I have to say this?"

I thought that might be crossing a line so I started acting more jovial. By the end of the school day, I was fine. And now I'm ready to call it a day.

The Work

I was at work forever tonight and that did not please me. I'm having high anxiety and paranoia. But let's try to find a shiny bright spot.

At this point in time, there's been no discernible bright spot. But this day is done and that's good news. Stick a fork in it. And jab it about a gazillion times.