The Scotches

The new hamsters are not working out so well. There's been both biting and fighting. Last night, I went back to the pet store to buy a new cage to separate the gals, now named Hannah and Hope. Today after lunch, we put Hannah into the new cage which is a piece of crap that must be returned to Petco asap. I then put Hope into a plastic hamster ball so she can run around our new "hamtrack." While I'm screwing the ball shut, I look down into her cage and see something so appalling that I want to vomit. A peep nearby says, "Is that food?"
I whisper, "No, that's a baby hamster."
"How can that be?" other peep says, "They're sisters."
I mutter resentfully, "One, or maybe even both, must have been pregnant when I got them at the pet store."
I put Hope back into the tank with the baby and try to transition the class into the taking of a spelling test on long o words. I'm up to about word 5, "broke," when I say to the assistant teacher in the back of the room, "That could be Hannah's baby. You better put her back in the tank with the other two." At the end of the day, a mom comes in during dismissal bedlam. I've been staying away from the hamster cage and ignoring any hamster comments for the last few hours. I'm still slightly nauseated by what I've seen. After a peep tells her of our discovery, she runs over to the tank and says, "They never just have one baby," and starts poking around with a chew stick. She counts four babies and the kids are running about with glee. One peeps comments, "Now we can use the other "h" names." There had been eight h names on our slate of nominees. Finally everyone leaves and I head over to good pal Menosky's house for some scotches. The scotches helped calm me down, but you have to admit, I am facing one hellacious hamster hassle in the coming weeks.

The Election

Because of recent school shootings around the nation, our schools are now closed on election days. So I used the day not only to vote once again for our democrat mayor, but to visit the bursar's office to pay for microfilming, sit at the computer to figure out how to convert the diss to a pdf file, head over to graduate studies office to submit acceptance papers and abstracts, and spent some time ordering cap and gown and hood. The day off was a windfall. The woman at grad. studies asked me if I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I told her I was not yet ready to make that claim. They still have to check over my electronically submitted diss for pagination and margin errors. I'm heading back into the school site. Newboss evaluated me on Monday and the peeps were poorly behaved as I was being observed. I looked like an amateur. I'm not happy with them, but the day off has helped me to cool off. Bottom line...more days off. They're good for all concerned.

The Forum

Because my new school is an old school and because it is a failing school, there are community meetings about the school going on right now to discuss possibilities for moving the school or restructuring it in some way. It looks like restructuring involves closing shop, and that would be a drag since I just moved in. I went to a meeting last night and the neighbors want a more diverse demographic in the school. Too many poor kids in one building. One point no one brought up is my preference for the downtown locale. I almost stood up and told them that I like walking over to Bloomingfoods after I teach and I like being able to see the courthouse fish in the morning from the parking lot. But I'm new, so I didn't pipe up. I lost my chance to voice my opinion.