Catching Up

Movie Night Thursday wasn't a total disaster, but that's about all I can say for it. PB and AH, as mentioned had other engagements, and DG didn't show up until almost 9 p.m., which was when EW and the Annoying M left. DM had to make his way here by bus (we've determined that the 2-bus method of getting from his place to ours or vice versa is, paradoxically, much faster than the 1-bus-and-walk-5-blocks method). I made crumbcake, which disappeared completely. We never watched a movie, because I wanted to save October Sky for a larger crowd (in particular, I think AH hasn't seen it and should) and the Spouse couldn't come up with an idea for a replacement (I made several suggestions and they were all shot down, either by him or by DG). Even without a movie, we stayed up until well past midnight.

I couldn't sleep. No idea why, other than general life/relationship stress; I wasn't particularly stressed about school starting, nor was my stomach bothering me. I got maybe three hours, and then had to get up at 5:30 Friday morning.

Actually, I probably could have afforded to snooze for another fifteen or thirty minutes. The office wasn't open when I got there at 6:50, and a remarkably large number of my colleagues didn't get there until 7:30 or even a little later. However, it's a good thing I got there with time to spare, as my iced tea bottle managed to break in my messenger bag (I must have banged it on something getting out of the car) and I had to clean out the mess. One of my extra textbooks from the AP institute got wet, as well as the two gifted packets from last week, but everything else was OK, if a bit sticky.

The school served us breakfast - well, bagels, muffins, and fruit - and I caught up a bit with the rest of the math department. Ms. M has split from her husband, is living by herself, and is extremely paranoid about it. She even managed to hurt herself by keeping a knife under her pillow for self-defense. Honestly, this woman could not be stupider sometimes if she tried . . . and she's the most competent experienced teacher on the Geometry team this year. (Still, from everything I've heard of the man, her husband (or perhaps ex-husband) is far, far stupider.)

We then had a three-hour faculty meeting. It's worse than I thought. Not only has the entirety of the top two levels of building admin turned over, 50% of the next level down has also turned over, and Mr. H, the ex-coach, is now the lead AP - the fellow who joined the staff the same year I did. Moreover, we lost both librarians (one we knew about, one we didn't), one of the two tech specialists (aigh!), and more than 10% of the teaching staff. The light at the end of the tunnel is that, if we're going to be changing the culture of the school, this is a good time to do it.

For the last 45 minutes of the faculty meeting, the new Coordinating Principal showed us a motivational video. First of all, the original motivational speech was delivered to a crowd of Chili's managers, so this guy was filmed delivering his message in front of a huge chili-pepper backdrop. Secondly, the fellow giving the speech is a photographer for National Geographic - not the sort of person you'd imagine giving an inspirational message either to businessmen or to educators. Thirdly, I can't imagine anyone having been as successful as Mrs. G. has been in administration actually wanting anyone to behave according to the ideas presented in the video.

I mean, this thing was the most Pagan, double-poly message I'd ever seen. It was all about the reality of multiple correct answers, searching for The Next Right Answer, and trusting that Nature (yes, he talked about Nature, not God, and he referred to Her consistently as female) will give you the next right answer if you just understand that it is there and put forth the effort to look for it. He never actually said "the ground of all being is multiple and diverse" during the speech, but if he'd actually articulated that it would have matched the rest of his message perfectly. For lagniappe, he managed to talk about gratitude and naturally wanting to give back to your community (a popular message to his corporate crowd, I'm sure) without making it sappy. I spent the entire video scribbling reader-response-style comments on my notepad, just to keep from jumping up and shouting "Do any of you people have a clue what he's saying? Do any of you really agree?" I can't imagine that they do, except perhaps for a handful of them (hmm . . . Mr. N., maybe, in an odd sort of way) - or that Mrs. G. really does, either. For example, if you really, honestly believe in multiple correct answers, if you really look for the Next Right Answer in all aspects of your life - strict monogamy and fundamentalism both become essentially impossible.

Weird, weird, weird. And I was highly amused that something that so closely matches my values could be shown in front of that crowd. (Or the original crowd of Chili's managers, for that matter.)

After we broke for lunch, we had general workday time. Coach D didn't even arrive to work until after lunch (grr) and Mr. PB and one of the new guys had to figure out whose the room next to mine was (it was Mr. PB's last year, and his stuff was still in there, but apparently they wanted the new guy in there instead, for reasons I still fail to fully understand). I got most of my stuff unpacked (not all, but that's okay - I'll have time later). I sent Mr. PB some of the Pre-AP Alg. II stuff, and he gave me the 1st 9 Weeks test for Precal from last year. The room is almost arranged in a sane manner now; another couple of hours and some time to hang posters and I think I'll have it.

The MIL took us shopping; I got some craft stuff and office supplies for the start of the year. Ironically, it looks like some of the craft stuff was technically unnecessary, as I found some of the stuff I bought last year and didn't use, but it's always nice to have extras.

Nothing at all interesting happened today, other than the Spouse and myself both getting caught up on sleep and my mother calling to talk about school starting for her (she's going back to grad school for her Nth degree this semester). Hopefully, tomorrow will be at least a bit more social.

Catching Up

Movie Night Thursday wasn't a total disaster, but that's about all I can say for it. PB and AH, as mentioned had other engagements, and DG didn't show up until almost 9 p.m., which was when EW and the Annoying M left. DM had to make his way here by bus (we've determined that the 2-bus method of getting from his place to ours or vice versa is, paradoxically, much faster than the 1-bus-and-walk-5-blocks method). I made crumbcake, which disappeared completely. We never watched a movie, because I wanted to save October Sky for a larger crowd (in particular, I think AH hasn't seen it and should) and the Spouse couldn't come up with an idea for a replacement (I made several suggestions and they were all shot down, either by him or by DG). Even without a movie, we stayed up until well past midnight.

I couldn't sleep. No idea why, other than general life/relationship stress; I wasn't particularly stressed about school starting, nor was my stomach bothering me. I got maybe three hours, and then had to get up at 5:30 Friday morning.

Actually, I probably could have afforded to snooze for another fifteen or thirty minutes. The office wasn't open when I got there at 6:50, and a remarkably large number of my colleagues didn't get there until 7:30 or even a little later. However, it's a good thing I got there with time to spare, as my iced tea bottle managed to break in my messenger bag (I must have banged it on something getting out of the car) and I had to clean out the mess. One of my extra textbooks from the AP institute got wet, as well as the two gifted packets from last week, but everything else was OK, if a bit sticky.

The school served us breakfast - well, bagels, muffins, and fruit - and I caught up a bit with the rest of the math department. Ms. M has split from her husband, is living by herself, and is extremely paranoid about it. She even managed to hurt herself by keeping a knife under her pillow for self-defense. Honestly, this woman could not be stupider sometimes if she tried . . . and she's the most competent experienced teacher on the Geometry team this year. (Still, from everything I've heard of the man, her husband (or perhaps ex-husband) is far, far stupider.)

We then had a three-hour faculty meeting. It's worse than I thought. Not only has the entirety of the top two levels of building admin turned over, 50% of the next level down has also turned over, and Mr. H, the ex-coach, is now the lead AP - the fellow who joined the staff the same year I did. Moreover, we lost both librarians (one we knew about, one we didn't), one of the two tech specialists (aigh!), and more than 10% of the teaching staff. The light at the end of the tunnel is that, if we're going to be changing the culture of the school, this is a good time to do it.

For the last 45 minutes of the faculty meeting, the new Coordinating Principal showed us a motivational video. First of all, the original motivational speech was delivered to a crowd of Chili's managers, so this guy was filmed delivering his message in front of a huge chili-pepper backdrop. Secondly, the fellow giving the speech is a photographer for National Geographic - not the sort of person you'd imagine giving an inspirational message either to businessmen or to educators. Thirdly, I can't imagine anyone having been as successful as Mrs. G. has been in administration actually wanting anyone to behave according to the ideas presented in the video.

I mean, this thing was the most Pagan, double-poly message I'd ever seen. It was all about the reality of multiple correct answers, searching for The Next Right Answer, and trusting that Nature (yes, he talked about Nature, not God, and he referred to Her consistently as female) will give you the next right answer if you just understand that it is there and put forth the effort to look for it. He never actually said "the ground of all being is multiple and diverse" during the speech, but if he'd actually articulated that it would have matched the rest of his message perfectly. For lagniappe, he managed to talk about gratitude and naturally wanting to give back to your community (a popular message to his corporate crowd, I'm sure) without making it sappy. I spent the entire video scribbling reader-response-style comments on my notepad, just to keep from jumping up and shouting "Do any of you people have a clue what he's saying? Do any of you really agree?" I can't imagine that they do, except perhaps for a handful of them (hmm . . . Mr. N., maybe, in an odd sort of way) - or that Mrs. G. really does, either. For example, if you really, honestly believe in multiple correct answers, if you really look for the Next Right Answer in all aspects of your life - strict monogamy and fundamentalism both become essentially impossible.

Weird, weird, weird. And I was highly amused that something that so closely matches my values could be shown in front of that crowd. (Or the original crowd of Chili's managers, for that matter.)

After we broke for lunch, we had general workday time. Coach D didn't even arrive to work until after lunch (grr) and Mr. PB and one of the new guys had to figure out whose the room next to mine was (it was Mr. PB's last year, and his stuff was still in there, but apparently they wanted the new guy in there instead, for reasons I still fail to fully understand). I got most of my stuff unpacked (not all, but that's okay - I'll have time later). I sent Mr. PB some of the Pre-AP Alg. II stuff, and he gave me the 1st 9 Weeks test for Precal from last year. The room is almost arranged in a sane manner now; another couple of hours and some time to hang posters and I think I'll have it.

The MIL took us shopping; I got some craft stuff and office supplies for the start of the year. Ironically, it looks like some of the craft stuff was technically unnecessary, as I found some of the stuff I bought last year and didn't use, but it's always nice to have extras.

Nothing at all interesting happened today, other than the Spouse and myself both getting caught up on sleep and my mother calling to talk about school starting for her (she's going back to grad school for her Nth degree this semester). Hopefully, tomorrow will be at least a bit more social.

It's the Rune Lemming!

( Well, this is optimistic! )

It's the Rune Lemming!

( Well, this is optimistic! )

Hot In Here

I'm procrastinating on dinner because I don't want to heat up the apartment. The landlord finally got the window fixed, so at least we don't have warm, humid air pouring into the front room any more, but some parts of the apartment are still warmer than others, and I'd really prefer not to spend any more on cooling than we already are.

I have a new recipe that I think is actually going to enter my regular repertory - it's a faux Alfredo that one can toss leftover chicken, turkey, ham, veggies, etc. into. If I decide I can stand the stove being on, I'll probably do that with some of the leftover turkey from Thursday and some frozen broccoli. (Otherwise, I'll just eat leftovers and save this for later in the week - Movie Night, maybe, as I doubt we'll be eating at home before then.) The Spouse is napping, though, and if he's going to be asleep, I don't think I want to make a full dinner.

Bagels was interesting - Satyr and LW were there, with their little one and a teenager whom I didn't recognize (my wild-assed guess is that it's Satyr's other offspring, but it could just as easily be a nephew I don't know about), and we arrived just as K&MG were leaving. The Raven showed up just after us, Scary R a little later, and poor DM relatively late, having walked the whole way (and consequently being awfully dehydrated). The B-folk, of course, are all still in Mexico for the wedding. The ambient music mix was awful - a sort of "Worst of the Late '70s and Early '80s" mix, punctuated with occasional good songs from about 1987 or so. I couldn't tune it out (much to the Raven's confusion and DM's amusement). Still, we managed to have a pretty reasonable conversation. I described the WMVE, to general amusement. DM picked on me for having to go to work tomorrow; I'll have to pick on him when he has to go back to school.

No word on when AH is due back from the con, although DM is more likely to hear from him than we are. I'd kind of like to see him before Movie Night, if for no reason other than to get the goofy con stories without their taking up too much movie time. (On the other hand, I can just resign myself to being fried on Fridays until the end of the month. It'll be okay, I'm sure. I shouldn't have good and bad days this year - if I'm lucky, I shouldn't have any bad classes, just a few problem students.) Of course, I do have ulterior motives for wanting to see him as well . . .

Full schedule this week - catching up on sleep Monday and/or possibly doing something with DG; Weird Al concert Tuesday; Black Swan Wednesday (Spouse is probably going to make a Cost Minus/Worst Buy run if the car isn't acting too stupid), Movie Night Thursday. I'd like to schedule something social Friday or Saturday if anyone is up for it. (Assuming I don't need to catch up on sleep too badly, of course.) The kids land back in school on Thursday.

Oh, yeah - I forgot to mention this earlier. I have 1st period off on A-days and 5th (used to be 4th before advisory) on B-days. 5th off I can deal with; I had 4th off on B-days last year. Not fun, but not too bad - teach the same class 3 times, then take off my shoes and get planning done for the last period. (I won't get any grading done during that period, but I can do that after school lets out.) 1st off, on the other hand, is going to suck like an Oreck. I'm not going to get anything done - I'm just going to futz around on the computer and try to rub the sleep out of my eyes. Then I get advisory, two classes of Stats, and one Pre-cal - two gear shifts, run straight through, no break. Yuck.

Good thing the classes are cool. I still haven't seen my rosters, so I don't know how my classes got shaken up, or how many new kids I got, or what the Stats classes look like. I trust, though, that they'll work out fine, and if they don't, there's always a certain amount of schedule shuffling in the first couple of weeks. I'm a little worried about ADHD, but if he's retaking Alg. II, I bet I can convince the SpEd department to put him either with Mr. PB in the Pre-AP class or (if they won't do that) in Mrs. M's class. He'll get along fine with Mr. PB, and he'd find Mrs. M funny. (If he's not retaking Alg. II, they'll have hand-scheduled him into my class.)

Looking Forward . . .

Hot In Here

I'm procrastinating on dinner because I don't want to heat up the apartment. The landlord finally got the window fixed, so at least we don't have warm, humid air pouring into the front room any more, but some parts of the apartment are still warmer than others, and I'd really prefer not to spend any more on cooling than we already are.

I have a new recipe that I think is actually going to enter my regular repertory - it's a faux Alfredo that one can toss leftover chicken, turkey, ham, veggies, etc. into. If I decide I can stand the stove being on, I'll probably do that with some of the leftover turkey from Thursday and some frozen broccoli. (Otherwise, I'll just eat leftovers and save this for later in the week - Movie Night, maybe, as I doubt we'll be eating at home before then.) The Spouse is napping, though, and if he's going to be asleep, I don't think I want to make a full dinner.

Bagels was interesting - Satyr and LW were there, with their little one and a teenager whom I didn't recognize (my wild-assed guess is that it's Satyr's other offspring, but it could just as easily be a nephew I don't know about), and we arrived just as K&MG were leaving. The Raven showed up just after us, Scary R a little later, and poor DM relatively late, having walked the whole way (and consequently being awfully dehydrated). The B-folk, of course, are all still in Mexico for the wedding. The ambient music mix was awful - a sort of "Worst of the Late '70s and Early '80s" mix, punctuated with occasional good songs from about 1987 or so. I couldn't tune it out (much to the Raven's confusion and DM's amusement). Still, we managed to have a pretty reasonable conversation. I described the WMVE, to general amusement. DM picked on me for having to go to work tomorrow; I'll have to pick on him when he has to go back to school.

No word on when AH is due back from the con, although DM is more likely to hear from him than we are. I'd kind of like to see him before Movie Night, if for no reason other than to get the goofy con stories without their taking up too much movie time. (On the other hand, I can just resign myself to being fried on Fridays until the end of the month. It'll be okay, I'm sure. I shouldn't have good and bad days this year - if I'm lucky, I shouldn't have any bad classes, just a few problem students.) Of course, I do have ulterior motives for wanting to see him as well . . .

Full schedule this week - catching up on sleep Monday and/or possibly doing something with DG; Weird Al concert Tuesday; Black Swan Wednesday (Spouse is probably going to make a Cost Minus/Worst Buy run if the car isn't acting too stupid), Movie Night Thursday. I'd like to schedule something social Friday or Saturday if anyone is up for it. (Assuming I don't need to catch up on sleep too badly, of course.) The kids land back in school on Thursday.

Oh, yeah - I forgot to mention this earlier. I have 1st period off on A-days and 5th (used to be 4th before advisory) on B-days. 5th off I can deal with; I had 4th off on B-days last year. Not fun, but not too bad - teach the same class 3 times, then take off my shoes and get planning done for the last period. (I won't get any grading done during that period, but I can do that after school lets out.) 1st off, on the other hand, is going to suck like an Oreck. I'm not going to get anything done - I'm just going to futz around on the computer and try to rub the sleep out of my eyes. Then I get advisory, two classes of Stats, and one Pre-cal - two gear shifts, run straight through, no break. Yuck.

Good thing the classes are cool. I still haven't seen my rosters, so I don't know how my classes got shaken up, or how many new kids I got, or what the Stats classes look like. I trust, though, that they'll work out fine, and if they don't, there's always a certain amount of schedule shuffling in the first couple of weeks. I'm a little worried about ADHD, but if he's retaking Alg. II, I bet I can convince the SpEd department to put him either with Mr. PB in the Pre-AP class or (if they won't do that) in Mrs. M's class. He'll get along fine with Mr. PB, and he'd find Mrs. M funny. (If he's not retaking Alg. II, they'll have hand-scheduled him into my class.)

Looking Forward . . .