Much Ado About Nothing

Stoopid! Stoopid! Stoopid!

How foolish of me to forget: ding, dong, the witch is dead. My former principal, The Psycho, is gone and is never coming back. Therefore, I must remember in the future that a summons to the principal's office for a meeting does not mean imminent disaster. Let me backtrack:

In the past, the subject of changing the library's hours has come up a few times. Each time, The Psycho would use this to torture us. Our hours would change, they might not change. We might stay much later, or maybe not at all. She toyed with us like a cat with a mouse. Never once did she indicate that our hours were only negotiable by our association (that is, our union), and that she had no power to change this unilaterally. She had power over us and used it, and that was all we needed to know.

On Friday, the SCM and I got email from the current principal to attend a meeting with him Monday morning to discuss changing the library hours. Needless to say, we both went into panic mode. I arranged for a representative from the association to be there with us, even while thinking that this alone might cause repercussions. The meeting was postponed this morning, making us more tense, and then took place an hour later.

By this time, we felt that there was only one solution to the problem, but that it would take a lot of convincing to get the principal to buy it. So you can imagine our surprise when we sat down and he suggested the same solution, right off the bat, and asked for our input as to how he could make it happen.

Wow. He really is a nice guy, and a mensch. It was a great meeting. It never occurred to him to extend our hours, only the library's hours, and with someone else covering that time. Wow. So it turned out to be much ado about nothing.

Even so, I was already less panicky this morning by the time I got to school, because my four minute commute was so excellent. Okay, I stopped by the post office this morning, so it was maybe an eight minute commute. What I did was I put a CD in the player, one I had made for Wednesday morning's trip to the airport, of Disney songs. I cranked it up loud and sang along at the top of my voice, first to A Whole New World, and then to The Circle of Life. About halfway through the ride, I started to grin, and I said to myself "What do I care about whatever they decide this morning? I'M GOING TO DISNEYWORLD IN TWO DAYS!!!!" So when I strolled into the library a few minutes later, the SCM asked hesitantly "How are you?" and I answered with great confidence and no sarcasm at all "I FEEL GREAT!!"

And so I pretty much have all day, except for the hour or so before the postponed meeting was re-scheduled; that was a little tense, but in general, I'm in a great mood. I had also decided this morning to take my car on Wednesday instead of K's car, as planned, so I'm happy about that. I had figured, why leave the best car in a long-term parking lot? but I'll be happier driving my car, and her car is going to turn over the odometer this week to 100,000 miles and she wants to see it, and not have it happen while I'm driving home on the thruway. It's not like my car won't be safe there, and it's not like it isn't a four year old car anyway. It's just new to me, but it's not exactly a 2008 BMW. And this way, I don't even have to use the Disney CD, because I can plug in the iPod and get the whole Disney playlist, not just some of it.

My stomach is a little upset, though, this afternoon, so I must remember to take the meds for that when I get home. If I catch it on the first day, I should be okay, and maybe this isn't an IBS attack but a bit of less than fresh food I ate, although the sandwich I had for lunch, which I got at the supermarket deli yesterday, was really delicious. But the stomachache started less than an hour after eating it, so I'm suspicious.

It's now passing time between 7th and 8th period, and I understand there's a fire drill coming moments after the bell rings, so I'd best end it here. More when I get home, perhaps.



Home. It was a beautiful day for a fire drill, I can tell you that. Crisp and clear, not too cold. Crazy weather. Lots of the trees are still green. It's nearly 5.00 now, and about to get dark, and it's still 57 degrees out there.

K and I made a short trip to Loehmann's after school, which is not the store for me. When we moved here in 1961, my mother only felt that she wasn't living on the frontier because there was a Loehmann's less than a mile away. As for me, it's overwhelming. For those not in the know -- or not originally from the Bronx, as my mother was -- Loehmann's was one of the first stores that sold large quantities of good-name clothes at big discounts. One of its trademarks is that they only have communal dressing rooms, so every little girl of my generation was scarred by the experience of going shopping with mommy and sitting on the bench in the Loehmann's dressing room while ladies of every conceivable size, shape, age, and undergarments tried on clothes they had no business trying to wear.

I'll try to fit in a quick entry before I go tomorrow night --

WATCHING GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #1621