La di dah

La di dah, here I am, back in the library again. I'm feeling much, much better than I was last week, or even Saturday. In the absence of actual classes to teach today, I've resumed my shelf-shifting project, which is moving reference books from shelf to shelf, compacting them, changing the shelf height, and so forth. Fun for me today!

I was just looking over an application to become a Google certified teacher. Yes, there is such a thing. I know someone who's been to the training, and there's a workshop coming up in DC in December, which is within my reach. I doubt that I'll be accepted -- they only take 50 per session from many hundreds of applications -- but it occurs to me that this is something I could do in retirement: give training in the google education apps at various schools. Anyway, part of the application is a one minute video about either "Motivation and Learning" or "Classroom Innovation." I don't have to be in the video, I just have to make it, and make it good. The deadline is November 9, which is, oh, hey, in a week. So I may or may not. I have to think about it. But it would be an interesting thing to do, and a day off from school, I guess. I could take the train, I like trains.

I brought in the leftover candy from Saturday and have it here on my desk at school for kids to take, but of course, I'm eating it as well. Talk about not well thought out, and I do it every year.

I have a short work week due to Thursday and Friday off for New Jersey teachers convention. Don't get me started; I think it's a scam, too, but it's a forever-long tradition in the state. For me, that means a doctor on Friday and a haircut and pedi on Thursday, and some sleeping late, I hope. I've been sleeping so strangely since the clock change. I never really understand that whole thing, I just go along with what's going on, but I don't really get it, the way I don't really get quarts and pints, or math. But it was nice that it wasn't dark when I left for work this morning. This evening, however, is gonna suck.

I think I'm going to give the new pain med a try again tomorrow. *deep breath* I'm only going to take a half pill, so I don't think I'll get stoned, but now that I'm off everything I was doing for the cold, including the round the clock tylenol followed by three or four days of advil -- bad me! -- well ... everything kinda hurts. I know it's just a matter of testing everything out until I find what works and in what amount. Today it's mostly the elbows and knees that hurt. (Hey, maybe I should go sit on a low stool and move more big heavy reference books!) I already warned the school nurse that I'll be doing this, so she'll have a place ready for me to lie down and sleep it off, if it comes to that (which it won't. I did once accidentally take sleeping pills in the morning and not realize it until I got to school, and I slept in the nurse's office for the first three hours of the day.)

Later that same day ...

Oy, I'm tired and achy all over. I need drugs! Okay, maybe just drug. Just one.

I have about forty minutes to go until the bell, and then a faculty meeting, with MANDATORY attendance. I usually just skip them, but I have to go today. Review to follow.

Tick Tock

8:51 am in the library. I'm either about to make a wonderful discovery, or a disaster is about to strike. Hold on .....

8:59. No disaster, anyway; discovery remains to be seen. I just used the pod coffeemaker to make a cup of tea. Since the tea bags aren't the same size and shape as a pod -- I used two tea bags -- I thought there might suddenly be boiling hot water shooting out from everywhere, but no, just a little leaking into the base, where it's supposed to go. Whether or not the tea tastes like tea or coffee, I'll let you know after it cools down a bit.

Again this morning, I had to go head to head with the powers that be over the most foolish thing: they need to provide me reasonable access to a bathroom. Why is this so freaking hard for them? The bathroom right downstairs from the library has had its lock removed, so it's no longer usable. They need to find me another alternative, and quick. The medications I'm taking are not making things easy for me this week; in fact, one of the main reasons I stayed home last Friday was not because of the cough or the cold, but to be near the bathroom. Seems like it should be a basic human rights thing, eh? It's not like I'm toiling in a remote rice paddy is southeast Asia, this is New Jersey, for god's sake. People have bathrooms here, we pretty much expect it.

9:13 am. Good tea.

It's a quiet day here, although busy. I have a class scheduled into the computer lab every period of the day, but nothing I have to teach. I'm still putting off my shelf-shifting project, but I do have to check shelves for books that may or may not be overdue, and then send out the notices.

And I may just go make another cup of tea. I generally only like very ordinary tea, green or black, decaf, but I brought in a container of pink grapefruit green tea in a can, I forget who makes it, you know, the people who put overpriced interestingly flavored teas in tall cans. I don't know how long we had this one at home, but I'll give it a shot.

I just found out that there's no coverage for lunch today, so the library has to close that period. I need to go change the sign at the door, hold on ....

10:02 am. Today is the third of the three days set aside for seniors to review their college essays with English teachers, something they do in the library. Today is also the second day that our computer network has decided not to let anyone login to Hotmail or Yahoomail. Swell. And of course, kids who finished their essays at home last night emailed them to themselves for easy printing once they got to the library. So I just logged into a girl's Hotmail account on my iPhone and forwarded her essay to both my school and personal email accounts -- guess which one never arrived -- and printed it out for her. Oh yes, we're very high tech here. What amused me was that the girl's password was one of those that I use often, and that this was a girl to whom I think I am somehow distantly related through the Hubs. (I have no idea how, but the Hubs' Aunt Marie calls them cousins, and maintains a connection with them, so I guess there's something, unless it's one of those Italian cousins-that-aren't-really-blood-related thing, which is common.) Does that make my iPhone deductible as a business expense?

10:38 am. I've got a class of goofballs with a goofball teacher in the computer lab, taking up about half of the available stations, and I've got a serious science teacher with a serious class in the library's main room, where there are about half as many computers as he needs. What's wrong with this picture?

Time for more tea. (It's Republic of Tea, btw. A pink canister that supports breast cancer research, or something; I remember that K bought this tea once and it was outrageously expensive. I'm generally happy with store-brand tea, although I do use Celestial Seasonings green decaf for the iced tea that I mainline when I'm at home.) I'll let you know in a few minutes.

11:09 am Word on the street is that the authorization has come down to put the lock back on the bathroom door, which should be done within the half hour. Yay! Victory is mine!

(Good tea. Mild green tea, no taste of grapefruit, pink or otherwise. Huh.)

1:23 pm, back from lunch. There's a lock on the bathroom door! I saw it with my own eyes! YAAAAAAAAAAY!

They just made a school-wide announcement about what kinds of costumes are appropriate for seniors to wear for Halloween tomorrow, so that's pretty much anything that's fun or interesting is out. It's really remarkable. Nothing military or political. Nothing with liquids or food. Nothing that conotates violence or alcohol or drugs. Nothing that might be demeaning to any other person. Ad infinitum.

I get it. Of course we don't want to demean anyone and all that. But seriously, this just sucks all the fun right out of it, I think. Let's do it right or let's not do it at all.

2:03 pm. I'm so sleepy! I don't think I've been sleepy at work more than once or twice this year, but right now, I just want to close my eyes. And I have a few things to do after school, too, but I'll probably be awake by then. I can leave here in an hour. It's not soon enough.




watching L/O :: ENTRY #2131
READING: --- by ---

Surreality

The last few days have been interesting, in a way, not necessarily a good way, but, as my title says, here and there surreal.

To begin with, I had an ordinary check-up after school on Friday. This is my least favorite of all my doctors, and she should be my most favorite: the one who ties it all together, the one who has my back in a sea of specialists. She's not. She addresses the questions I ask her and treats what I present her with. She manages my basic medications. She's okay, but she's not a world-beater. In the past, when I've asked her about something -- for example, the tender spots on my head -- she always gives me a definitive answer, in that case, something about pinched nerves. She's very sure of herself. Of course, to the rheumatologist, this was a definitive marker of fibromyalgia. Whatever.

So, two things. I have a rash ... well ... let's just say sub-bosom. You big girls out there know what I mean. It's ... icky. Anyway, I had mentioned it to the rh'ologist on Monday, just in case it was a side effect of the med -- it's not -- and he asked if I wanted a prescription for it. Nah, I said, I'm seeing the other doctor on Friday, she can give me something. Here's what she said "It looks better, so keep using the cornstarch." Better than what, lady, you never saw this before. "Keep using" the cornstarch? Was I using cornstarch?

Anyway, I also mentioned to her that the rh'ologist said he would give me pain med if I wanted it, and I had decided to stop being a martyr, so she gave me what he was going to give me, which was fine. I took it Friday night before I went to sleep.

Cue the psychedelic lights and twirly things and the in and out zoom. I slept a little oddly, and woke up with not much pain in my arms and legs and back, but possible THE WORST headache I have ever had. Even so, I was in an oddly upbeat mood, and didn't let it bother me. I even drove, which may not have been wise, but no harm, no foul. I felt very much pebbled, as we used to say back in the seventies. (A little stoned.)

I lay down for a nap in the afternoon with the TV on, to "How It's Made" on Discovery Science, or something. It's little factory tours that show how a highlighter is made, and other things; I love that stuff. Anyway, I drifted into about three hours of short hops between this dimension and any number of others. I would fall asleep for 30 seconds and wake up, in the meantime, hallucinating the connection between the last thing I saw and what was on now. Did you know, for example, that sailboards (which are like surfboards, but with sails) are made in a secret facility in Nazi Germany, and that the entire process is overseen by my second-grade crush, Billy Glendenning? I never knew that before either. I couldn't get out of it; I couldn't wake up and I couldn't fall asleep. But it was entertaining.

Around dinner time, I decided to screw the whole thing and I took an Advil. Four hours later, I took two. Finally, no headache, but I still didn't sleep that well. Sunday was a similar day, but I couldn't nap at all, and was up and down all night last night, hot and cold, wide awake and drowsy, TV on, TV off. I had taken a half of the pain pill yesterday morning, but nothing last night or today. I'll wait a couple of days and then try a half again and see what it does.

I never even got dressed yesterday, never even put on a bra, which means I was absolutely not leaving the house nor was I accepting visitors. I was lucky I got my eyes to focus at all. I didn't read, didn't do much else. But I wasn't unhappy, either. K kept saying she was bored all day, but I was too lalalalala to be be bored.

We're having an emergency drill at school tomorrow, which involves evacuating the building and going someplace where we can account for all the kids. Talk about a bore. I've already arranged to hitch a ride back to the building with the nurse if the walk out there is too much for me. (I'll be bringing my cane on the adventure.)

A little later ...

Hmm. I went to physical therapy, which turned out to be an appointment they had kindly re-scheduled for tomorrow, a phone message I got as I was parking the car in their lot. In the meantime, I was noticing that when I sat in the car, the seatback against my back hurt. And then when I was walking around, my shirt moving over my back also hurt. At first I thought, Now that's odd, and then, with a giant duh, I realized that this must be a fibromyalgia thing. Even on the commercials for the fibro drugs, it says that it hurts to be touched, but I had only experienced that before on the specific tender spots. Looks like fun years ahead for me, boys and girls.

We did do a little food shopping, since the PT was canceled, so I have lunch for the week. Which is already packed for tomorrow. Now I have to pick out clothes for spending most of the afternoon outside tomorrow, but it's supposed to be in the sixties, I think, so I really have no idea.

BTW, I'm not really reading either of the books I have listed down there. Maybe someday, but I'm not reading at all lately, too foggy at night to read.





watching FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #2128
READING: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
READING: Reading Lolita in Teheran by Azar Nafisi

Day Late, Dollar Short. Something Like That.

I wrote this yesterday at school and totally forgot about it when I got home.

When I put on my jacket yesterday morning, I reached into the left pocket and there was a genetically altered Jolly Rancher deep, deep in the pocket which had morphed into something only recognizable by the shredded remains of the wrapper. It was bright blue, and I couldn't imagine at first what this sticky goo on my fingers was, but now I know, and I think I have to spend the weekend figuring out some way to get it the hell out of there.

I don't want to move to Arizona, or anywhere, really, which brings up something I've always wondered about: why do we all live where we do? Even where there are extremes of weather or frequent natural disasters? Is it inertia that keeps us where we are because we're already there? I get it that people move for jobs and like that, but what keeps us where we keep?

As for me, New Jersey is where my parents moved when they left the city -- the Bronx, in New York City -- in the mid-fifties. And most of the family is still relatively close, so I suppose that's why I'm here. But let me talk about the weather some.

It's hot in the summer, and humid, but not deathly hot and humid like Florida. It's cold in the winter, but it's not the Yukon. Hey, it's not even New England. We get their nor'easters here every so often, and a few times each decade we wake up to two or three feet of snow. But then life stops, no one has to go out in it, and we move on. Hurricanes? Yes, we do get hurricanes, and have had several severe ones in my fifty-plus years, but nothing like they get farther south. Earthquakes. I may have told my earthquake story before -- I'm not telling it now; I'll save it for another time -- but the reality is that although there are occasional mild earthquakes, I have only ever once been aware of one happening. Tornadoes have happened in north Jersey more in recent years, but again, never close to me and I have never seen one. Floods. Yes, there are many places here that flood, just like everyplace else with rivers nearby. B-Town is in a little pocket between two rivers, one of them very small, and so parts of town get minor flooding all the time, and bigtime flooding with evacuations when there's a hurricane. Forest fires? Way too humid for that, most of the time, and not so much in the way of forests left around here. New Jersey's biggest forest is the Pine Barrens in south Jersey -- you may recall this from The Sopranos; it's where they disposed of bodies -- but it's too humid there for a serious conflagration.

So the funny thing is that weather-wise, it's not so bad here. And no, it does not smell. New Jersey does not smell, despite the popular belief to the contrary. Of course there is somewhere in New Jersey that smells, just like anywhere else. Unfortunately for our reputation, that stretch of nasty smelling road is on the New Jersey Turnpike, where there are lots of oil refineries and swamps just before you get to New York City. The rest of the state smells mostly like pine, or tomatoes and strawberries, or here in B-Town, oreos. (We have a big Nabisco factory in town.)

And so. I met with the boss this morning and progress is being made on my library situation, although I'm not sure exactly what or exactly when. Our new vice-principal was involved in some part of it, and let me tell you, he is absolutely a sweetheart, but he is in so way over his head, he won't see air for years.

My neck is very sore from the exercises I've been doing, but sore like after exercise, not sore like my vertebrae want to go on vacation and not hold my head up any more. An improvement, perhaps.I'll be taking my second dose of the new medicine tomorrow, so maybe then I'll start to see some improvement there.

It's Friday, something I very much enjoy, and R and the GF are coming by for a visit tomorrow. And maybe I can sleep in a little.





watching ---- :: ENTRY #2126
READING: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
READING: Reading Lolita in Teheran by Azar Nafisi

Somewhat Tomb-ish For My Taste

Hey, writing in school again!

My day is being choreographed by Rod Serling. Here are the three main elements:

1. Inspectors from THE STATE are coming today, or are here today, to make sure that we have no illegal lamps or fans or tape on the wheels, or god forbid, doorstops, and anything else that THE STATE has deemed detrimental to the cause of public education.

2. The Guidance department has commandeered my library to give make-ups for last week's standardized testing, all week, periods 1, 2, and 3. Yesterday they also used about half of period 4. No one, and I mean no one, can come into the library while they're testing. (Well, I can, but no one else can use the library.)

3. Not only has the administration not solved my issue of who's going to cover the library when I have to go to the bathroom, they took away the few people that were assigned here. This was done by emailing those people about where to report for their new duty assignments. No one told me nuttin', except that the teacher who was upset about losing library duty told me.

And so it began.

The library doors are closed, because my doorstops are illegal and have been removed. It was as quiet as a freaking tomb in here, too quiet, and creepy. I don't hear hall noises, although I do hear the sound of the library door opening and noisily closing again and again. I didn't know my tinnitus was this loud during the day, or that I'm hearing as much interference on my hearing aids as I'm getting. Generally, our double doors are wide-open, welcoming. It provides nice ventilation -- I'm shvitzing in here today -- and no question about whether we're open or closed. Right now I have a big sign on a post in the hall to tell them all that we're open.

They came in today with SIX kids to test. Six make-up exams to give, for which they closed the library for periods 1, 2, and 3. Six kids who would have fit neatly into the conference room in the guidance office, the one they just had to have (and which used to be my reference section in the old library, before we moved out and guidance moved in.) Six kids who sat exclusively in the alcove section of the new library, where I shelve biography and a small collection of children's books.

Which I had to put on a cart -- the children's books -- because I needed them for a second period class downstairs, which I had to go to the classroom for, since they couldn't come here. What was neat was that I brought a USB barcode scanner and logged into my library system from there, and checked books out in the classroom. Never did that before. Anyway, I came back upstairs shortly before the end of second period and my library was ...

EMPTY. Empty, but with the doors unlocked.

You see, the testing finished early. So they left. No note, no telling the Media Aide in her office Hey, we're leaving now, so she could have locked the doors. What kind of guests are these who think they own the whole damn world? (I've been told more than once over the years by guidance counselors that they are the most important part of the school, what they do is more important than what anyone else does. This is what I'm dealing with.)

So I opened the library for third period, using the term loosely, because the doors are closed, but there's that sign, Five minutes to go until the end of third period, wondering if my fourth period library duty teacher has been re-assigned too, or if he's going to be here. Really really really needing to get to a potty somewhere; the one just down the stairs from me is unavailable, I may have mentioned, because it was against STATE regulations to have a lock on the door.

If I have no one to cover, I guess I'll close the library, go to the ladies' room, and call my association president to tell him that it may be time to start looking for that disabilities lawyer to handle my lawsuit.

Later ..

I got back from lunch to find email from the principal to the whole staff telling us that the inspection isn't happening today after all. It's been postponed, and will happen sometime within the next two weeks. Greeeeaaaat. I opened one of my doors, and propped it open with a big trash can.

My fourth period guy got here. Otherwise, I got no answer from the administration about what's going on. I did hear from a secretary (!) that all the library duty people have been re-assigned to help out in her office during their duty periods. !!!!!

Even so, I am being calm and even-tempered and all that good stuff because to be otherwise gets me nowhere at all, and can only hurt me. Even so, it's hard to believe that there are so many people who don't see what kind of jackasses they're being. All the time.




watching L & O :: ENTRY #2125
READING: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan

I Continue to Exist

I've been so bad with the writing lately. I think part of it is that I'm a little overwhelmed by all the recent medical news and I'm not digesting it all that fast, so it's hard to know what to write. Things are off and on weird with my sister, mostly because she's going through a similar, but not quite the same, medical situation. I have to go to work every day, so that distracts me some, but I don't think she has a distraction, and so she's dealing with it very differently than I am.

What can I tell you? No job yet for the ever-persevering K, who continues to apply for every job she can find. In the meantime, she gets up in the morning and waits to be called to sub someplace.

As for me, school is actually good this year, aside from the Big Bad, which has to do with me being in the library alone and not having bathroom access when that happens; the actual library and its work are good. I'm busy, I have more good readers this year, lots of nice kids, and all that. I may sing a different tune next week after I've done all the freshman orientation classes -- about 25 -- by myself, but that's okay, too.

I'm going to start physical therapy tomorrow, and hoping that goes well. Actually, I'm hoping it's like getting a good massage that's covered by insurance. I can dream, can't I?

Oh hey, I went to the cardiologist yesterday and had a stress test and would you believe? It seems that I have one bodily system that actually works just the way it's supposed to! I know! I was astonished myself.

I was looking over some old entries I'd started that I have on Google docs, and I miss writing like that, the entry about something interesting, or something I'm passionate about. Too much health stuff lately. I'd like to get back to that, so I need to try to just do it. Perhaps if I can still hold my head up tomorrow night, I shall.




watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2124
READING: Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan

The Medical Report

Oy. Pull up a chair. Pour yourself a cup of coffee.

I have to start with the punchline, which is to say, what the doctor said at the very end, when he was looking at the sheet on which he had to circle my diagnosis so that it would go into their medical records and billing. He held the sheet in front of him, and his pen in the air, and said "I don't even know where to start." Hmmm.

The bottom line is that I have nothing fatal, which is always a good thing. I have osteoarthritis in my right hip, my left knee, and my neck. I have a little fibromyalgia, so little that he's not even dealing with it (but I guess I show some classic symptoms, so that's how he knows.) That condition I have in my right knee that's going to make me get a knee replacement at some point, avascular necrosis, also showed up in my left elbow, and may be in more places, but it doesn't always show up on x-rays (of which I had many today.) The biggie is something called spondylitis, which is inflammation of the lumbar vertebrae and sacroileac, which is to say, the lower back, and which may be causing a lot of the pain in my extremities.

Whoo.

So I get to start taking a new med on Saturday, an immuno-suppresant, which is supposed to cut down on the inflammation, and then the pain. I start physical therapy next week, which should help the neck and the hip.

So there I am. I've been mostly laughing about all this, for some reason, which I guess is the attitude to have, if you can. I also got my hearing aids back, allegedly fixed, but I'll try them tomorrow. And tomorrow I'm also going to make some phone calls about to find out what accommodations a school is legally required to make for a teacher who falls under the Americans With Disabilities Act, since I just found out that the only bathroom in the building anywhere near me is going to be unavailable for a week, and that's assuming I get the chance to leave the library to use it, since they still haven't solved the issue of coverage for me when I need to go. Let's see what the law says they have to do. I hope it's something big.

I'm off to pick out my clothes for tomorrow and see if a heating pad helps my sore arm for a while.

'Night!




watching FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #2122
READING: The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Fffffttttt

It's taken three weeks of school and the second trip to Florida to wipe me out and put me back in the land of fatigue I've been living in for years. Up until now, I was pretty peppy. I'm sleeping well, too; I just don't have the energy to make it through the day. We're testing at school this week, which means the schedule is all jumbled up every day, morning classes in the afternoon and vice-versa, which makes everyone a little bit confused and off.

Other than the tired, though, I'm okay. (Other than the constant aches and pains, I mean, as well.) Doctor tomorrow right after school.

The big excitement here is that K had a very good job interview yesterday and is teaching a demo lesson tomorrow at the school, to kids who will be her students in a few weeks if she gets the job. It's not in B-Town, fortunately. She worked on her lesson all day today, and then came into school and my friend The Other Chai, who is as master a master teacher as there could be, helped her polish the timing and pacing. This one has some real potential, folks. I'm just saying.

I don't even want to eat tonight, just collapse. Ah well, maybe later.





watching L & O :: ENTRY #2121
READING: The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Newsy Me

I must really be back to my old routine because here I am, starting my entry at work. It's really the first time since school started that I've had a minute to breathe. I didn't even get to finalizing my last book order, checking the shipment against the order and submitting it for payment, until today, even though the books came in during the summer.

As for right now, they're having a board meeting here in my library tonight, so I've gotten my desk all cleared off of personal items and work in progress; I don't like anybody touching my stuff. I've had to relocate a lot of things, and will definitely remember to lock my desk drawers when I go. I've come back after meetings like this and found all my pencils gone, or my desk chair missing.

So, school. In one sense, the year has started off great for me. I've been very busy and have been getting a lot done. The problem is that they haven't been so good about putting someone here with me each period, so I've had to close the library at random times just to go to the bathroom, and every day during one of the lunch periods, since I'm required by contract to go to lunch, but they don't send anyone to cover so that the library can stay open. This is major suckage, folks. If I were the parent of a kid in this school, I'd be calling the superintendent daily. (Of course, my kids didn't come to the library during lunch, so I wouldn't have know. But you know what I mean.) I hope people are complaining, because that's they only way they'll do anything about it.

Kids. My kids are okay, I guess, improved since the trip, anyway. I think this is just a stressful time for R, and she lashed out a little, but I'm all good with all of it now. I just want her to be unstressed, and happy. As for K, still unemployed, but trying to keep her chin up, and still looking, and hopefully starting to sub next week, so that'll be something coming in.

Hubs. Happy as a clam, but not so much income rolling in, so that's tight. I'm doing my best not to let it bother me. Did I mention I'm going back to the therapist tomorrow?

The FIL. Not so good. Still in lots of pain, and the MIL says he doesn't seem to be interested in anything. That's seriously not good. I don't know how long he'll hold on like this.

My health. I am feeling better some, but I definitely have something going on, thus next week's visit to the rheumatologist, who is, essentially, a specialist in immunology, and therefore, in autoimmune diseases, which is most likely what I've got going on here, since Crohn's is one of those. My Crohn's is behaving itself, mostly, which means no pain and no nasty, constant D, but still, when I gotta go, I gotta go.

I was just down in our central office a few minutes ago, and someone was visiting there with a four month old baby. Oh boy, I want me one of those. Not my own baby, god forbid, a grand-baby. It doesn't even have to be R's or K's, one of my sister's kids could have one and I could just hold it a lot. That would be fine for now. But one of the twins wants only four-legged babies, and the other is only married a year, although I wouldn't be surprised by an announcement any day now.

Ach, I just shifted in my chair and now my back is spasming, but not big time, just a little. I wanna go home!

There you have it, me in a nutshell.




watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2120
READING: The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Okay, So ...

no posts from Florida this weekend. It's not that I wasn't thinking about you. It's just that traveling with my family has become such a mental strain, I couldn't find the time to de-stress and write for five minutes.

Who would ever have thought that of my near and dear, the easiest one to travel with is my husband?

Anyway, I'm back, all seems peaceful and serene, at least at the moment. I haven't heard from R today, so maybe she's still aggravated with me because, after all, I did take her to freaking Florida for the weekend and rented a nice car for her to drive around and basically stayed out of her hair, but I guess I was smothering her or stressing her or something. Or so she told me Friday night after we arrived, so it ended up that I did spend a bunch of time alone, because my sister never left her hotel room except for the actual bar Mitzvah, at least while we were there. (I did get to hang out with her in her hotel room a couple of times, with her husband there, as opposed to in my otherwise empty room six doors away, but I digress.) Anyway, I decided not to let anything get me upset, so it didn't; when I was alone, I sat and read, and several times, Wonderful Niece and her Wonderful Husband made sure to include me, and that was delightful. Flying twice in three days is way too much for me. Glad to be home.

Oh, school sucks, but perhaps that will work itself out. I asked one of our union reps today if they would supply me an attorney if I had to sue the school system under the Americans With Disabilities Act. She said probably. Then I asked if the same attorney would represent me when I had to sue the union for the same reason. So things are hopping at Bizarro Town Senior High School.

Off to see the GI doctor after school tomorrow for a little fine tuning. I dropped off my hearing aids after school today -- again -- to be sent back to the shop.

In other news, I am not bankrupt, and I still have my iPhone to play with, so I guess things aren't all bad.




watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2119
READING: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Strange Day

First, I have Back to School Night tonight, which I hate; I'm leaving in about a half hour. Virtually no one comes to the library unless they're lost. I do have a bulletin board to work on -- it's a work in progress, not something I needed to have up for tonight, and anyway, I just thought of it today -- so that's something to do. Years ago, we would always have this in late October, and I would have a baseball game on the library TV, since it was usually during the playoffs. Too early now.

I had a very busy day at school, five classes in for ID cards. It's a strain for me to be on my feet that long, or on an uncomfortable stool in an awkward position, so I was pretty much hurting all day. Oddly, I feel better now, no idea why.

Speaking of odd, K's been oddly cranky off and on the last couple of hours. I am much more the pacifier than the confronter, so I was just letting it go. Oh, and I made that therapy appointment for next week. Not that the two are related ... [looks around and up at the ceiling] ... la la la la.

I am so packed for tomorrow's trip. All I'll have to do when I get home from school is put my last things in my carry-on, and I'm done. Unfortunately, here I am at the last book in the series I'm reading, and it's not out in paperback yet. I suppose I could download the ebook, but it feels kind of silly, since I have one of the library's two hardcover copies right here on my desk. I guess it'll depend on how heavy my bag is when I sling it over my shoulder tomorrow at leaving time.

Which should be fourish-something. I'll try to post over the weekend, maybe a picture or two.



watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2119
READING: The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan

Catching Up

I haven't really written much since I've been back, mostly because I wasn't comfortable with some of the things going on here, but either they're better now or I am, so I can write a bit about it.

Disney World, as much as I love it, is a physically demanding adventure, and none of us who went along are spring chickens. We were all in pain to some degree the whole time. It did occur to us to get wheelchairs on the third day; we got two, and switched off from time to time. I don't think we could have made it otherwise. Next time I go, I will definitely get a scooter (a motorized wheelchair-like thingy), but that's for another time.

When we would get back to our rooms at night, we were beat. I would do what I had to do pretty quickly, which is my nature: put the dirty clothes in a laundry bag, take out clean clothes for the next day, get my shoulder-bag ready for the next day, and collapse. I had two great nights' sleep there, one awful, and two okay. But my sister would take hours to get herself together, both at night and in the morning, and slept badly every night, and that for only a few hours. She was in a lot of pain during the day, and medicated herself for it. She had migraines three days out of five, but kept on going.

When I talked to her Sunday evening, she had been sleeping off an on all day and didn't sound great. She was still in a lot of pain, an arthritis flare-up. On Monday, she told that this was all my fault, and that I should have taken better care of her while we were away. I cried off an on for the next few hours, and she hasn't spoken to me since, although I think we're on better terms after texting last night and during the day today. Obviously, this was not my fault, and she gave no indication while we were away that she needed more help than I gave her. I myself was limping and using a cane when I wasn't in the wheelchair or pushing her in it (I was still limping, but no cane when pushing the wheelchair, which was actually better than the cane.) None of us were in great shape. Even so, the particulars aren't important; I don't know where she got this crazy idea, and it really threw me off for a few days. Not that I thought for a minute that she was right, but it made me very sad, and also made me really question myself: if she thinks that I'm capable of that, of not taking care of her for some capricious reason, what else does that say? That I'm not the person I think I am? That she, of all people, can't read me the way I think others can, and if so, who am I?

So I've been dealing a lot with that issue, and even though I've decided that the issue is hers -- maybe her husband's, but I don't want to go there with her -- it's been hard. Here, it's my last week before school starts, I've had a lot to do, and this was hanging over me.

In the meantime, K still has no job. A good possibility was supposed to call her back today either way, but of course, they didn't. So she's still left hanging. But that district doesn't start until after Labor Day, so she should still hear from them either way early next week. It would be a wonderful job in many ways. Still keeping everything crossed.

My knee was much worse, so I went to the orthopedist yesterday and got a better brace for it. He also gave me an anti-inflammatory creme for my elbows and various aches; so far, it's done nothing, but he wanted me to try it before I go back for the cortisone shots in my elbows. He also gave me some exercises for the plantar fasciitis, which is much worse after all that walking last week. I can pretyy much only wear Crocs now, which is okay, I guess.

Believe it or not, I'm also partially packed for the next trip, back to Florida, on September 11. That's only a two night trip, and not much walking. I'm hoping that R will be willing to do the driving, at least at night. I'm so glad she's going with me. On this one, we're both taking small suitcases and not checking them through, so everything is nice and compact, the way I like it. I've already got my dressies packed to wear to the Bar Mitzvah, and even my underwear and socks. All that's left is two days of day clothes, make-up, and meds.

Speaking of dressies, we have another damn party to go to this Sunday night, for the Hubs' aunt's 75th birthday. This family just loves to have big parties at their country club; every party is there, and so, is identical to the last one. And 5:30 on a Sunday night? How do they think of these things? So we have to drive to the ILs first and pick up the MIL; the FIL is not attending, and then drive back there later to take her home. It adds time, but I have no problem with that. I also told her that I will happily either attend the party or stay with the FIL, if she wants me to; either choice is fine with me, she just needs to tell me how to dress ahead of time. R and the GF, who live closer to the ILs, are also going to offer to stay with the FIL, so I may have to after all, but I have no idea what I'm wearing, of course, since my dressies are, as I said, packed. On the other hand, how much do I care? I'll find something.

Speaking of people who don't return calls -- I was somewhere, yes? -- once again, my principal had totally blown me off. When he didn't see me on Tuesday, I emailed him with all my free time this week, and I got no reply. So let's see. School starts Tuesday, Wednesday for the kids. It appears that there will be two new members of my staff, but I don't know what their jobs are and they haven't been hired yet. It will be my job to determine what their jobs are, and train them. Clerks or aides or something, but I don't know, and I don't know what their hours will be. As it stands, I have no assigned lunch period, other than the one mandated by my contract, which means I have to have one, but as far as I know, no one is assigned to cover the library during either lunch period. I may have to close the doors when I go. I guess. I have no idea what to do, or if he will tell me what to do before Wednesday. Although I'm sure that if I lock the doors during a lunch period, it'll get back to him. I guess I'll have to find a union person on Tuesday to tell me what to do. *sigh* As I recall, this was supposed to be the year I was excited about starting over and doing everything new. Well, this is new. I just so hate to be unprepared.

I've been reading an interesting scifi YA series by Scott Westerfield called Uglies, which is also the name of the first book. It's not what I expected, but I like it a lot. I'm on the third book of the trilogy, but then he wrote a fourth as a follow-up, I guess because it was popular, so I have that next.

Well, there you go, the entire contents of my brain spilled out on the screen. Hoping to see R tomorrow, or possibly Sunday. It's a rainy day and rainy weekend ahead, actually colder outside than in, today. Looks like some frozen White Castle cheeseburgers for dinner for me.



watching THE GOLDEN GIRLS :: ENTRY #2110
READING: Specials by Scott Westerfeld

Settled ... I Think

I got home about midnight on Saturday. Since then, I've been catching up, catching on, trying to get a handle on things. Which I may now have, or maybe not. This could be a long entry, and then again ...

First, the trip. The trip was excellent, despite the unbearable heat -- how do people live in Florida in the summer? -- and the constant pain we were all in from all the walking. The four of us never had a moment of conflict during the whole trip, and we had lots and lots of laughs. My sister was essentially sick the whole time -- a migraine every day -- but she persevered, and let nothing slow her down. I won't give you a play by play of the whole trip, but we were relaxed, saw what we wanted to see, and ate copious and delicious meals.

We got the meal plan because that's what made this such a good deal: the offer was a free meal plan if you stay five nights. I had never gotten the meal plan before, but let me tell you, I won't go without it in the future. It was a real steal. For example, I would get a cafeteria style breakfast (eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, bacon, biscuit) plus a drink and a snack, they would ring up $17.00, and I would give them my card and it would zero out the balance. Dinner for the four of us at nice restaurants would run from $120 to $150, and we would give them the card and it would zero it out. Even if you had to pay for the meal plan, it would still be a bargain.

I didn't take many pictures, but I'll share a few:


One of the few pictures I took at a park, of a Mickey topiary in the Hollywood Studios.


This is the s'mores dessert I had at the 50's Primetime Cafe. It was so good I had to take a picture of it.


I got this great shot of the other three one evening on the bus. Left to right, the Sibs, Colorado Cousin, Crazy Cousin.


This is me on the plane. It speaks for itself.

We were having the professional photographers take our pictures everywhere, and I just ordered a download of the best one, which I'll post tomorrow, probably.

So, home. I finally got to go into the city and visit OldFriend today, which was wonderful. K had another interview this morning, and I think is now starting to get very depressed. Maybe she'll have good news by the end of the week, but she doesn't think so, and she's been pretty optimistic up to this point. My heart is breaking for her.

Tomorrow, I need to go into school and get some things done. Our first day is next Tuesday; the kids' first day is the day after that. I still have no idea how many people will be on the library staff this year, or who they are, or if I have a lunch period in my day. I'm going to try to speak to the principal in the morning, but I don't expect much to come out of it, even if he's willing to see me.

And so on. I have so much to do this week, I don't know how I'll fit it all in. But I suppose I will, somehow.



watching FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #2109
READING: --- by ---

Normal Is What's Normal For You

Or in this case, me. This is the way I am. I have other fine qualities.

My sister and her husband went to Massachusetts yesterday for an overnight visit with his married daughter, her hubs, and their baby. Here's our texted conversation from last night:

She: howdy ... the others are playing monopoly & i'm texting & knitting ... do you realize that i haven't packed 1 thing for our trip ... sat & sun i guess.

I: I am TOTALLY packed. I could leave in five minutes.

She: you suck

Heh heh.

I am getting a little antsy, I guess. I have left numbers on the fridge for the plumber, the car mechanic, the A/C people. Tomorrow I have laundry to do and dry cleaning to pick up. I called the hotel this morning and we have the rooms we asked for: two adjoining rooms, first floor, near the main building.

I also got my school-is-starting-soon mail from the high school. It has the opening week's schedule and a few other items. It also lists all the new staff members. Not that many this year, but out of seven, four are former students. There is no one listed for Social Studies; it says TBA for To be Announced. So they're clearly not opposed to hiring former students; shall we make it five? I don't really think so; she would have heard by now. It's unbelievable to me that she hasn't gotten a job, you know. Even speaking objectively, as much as I can, I can see that she's the kind of teacher a school would want. I had thought that she interviewed well, but maybe not, I don't know. I do know that some school some day is going to be thrilled that she was available for them. I just wish it was today.

And that's my day. Pedi tomorrow (I'll post pictures of that) and a visit from R.




watching PROJECT RUNWAY :: ENTRY #2103
READING: --- by ---

Looking ... Up?

Okay, so here's where today stands:

I went to the cardiologist this morning for an annual visit, and all seems fine to him, although he wants me to have another stress test. (Two years since the first one.) I made the appointment for September 28, which, for the faithful, is Yom Kippur, but since I'm not one of the faithful, it's a day off work, so I don't have to take a working day off to go. I expect no issues to surface. He asked me if I exercise, but said nothing about weight, which is part of what makes him such a nice doctor.

I have a firm date to go in and visit OldFriend, which is the Monday after I get back from Disney World. I'm taking the train this time, and K will maybe go with me and maybe not, depending.

Last night, she got an email to set up an interview that would have been a real blow not to get. Will she get the job? Anything is possible, so she might. If she doesn't, well, I'm just really, really glad she got the interview. More on that in the future, depending on what comes of it. In the meantime, she sent in yet another application today to yet another school district.

We've had this little mini-drama going on, my sister and I, over this big box of pictures that I got from Wonderful Niece, but today, I talked to WN and everything is peaceful and serene. I get the feeling that my sister was reading more into something than was there, and as a result, was making me a little crazy, but WN assures me that all is well, and that my feeling -- that the pictures belong to all of us, she's just their keeper for now -- is exactly the way she feels. Good.

Reading. I cannot make myself finish that damn book, even though I really want to read it. I have at least a half dozen ready to go on the iPhone, but I'm trying not to dig into those at least until we're in the air next week. (I don't want to read them all and then have nothing with me when I'm away.)

Away. One week from this very moment, I will be dining at Cap'n Jack's at Disney's Marketplace, or whatever they call that little mall they have there. We're not going to the part where they have the nightclubs and such because we are, after all, four old bats, crazy perhaps, but hardly wild. We'd rather go shopping. Which we will, before and after dinner, I'd guess. Our flight and our cousins' flight from Denver arrive about a half hour apart next Monday afternoon (theoretically), so we should be at the hotel by three or three-thirty, I think.

Speaking of which, I believe I am fully packed now. Yeah, yeah, no one here believes it, either. But I think the suitcase is good. Stuffed, but good. I have a short list of what is yet to go in the carry-on, which is already stuffed as well, so I may have to carry some medication in one of those draw-string back-sacks, or whatever they're called. (It's school colors, and has the team name in huge letters across the front. These days, aren't all of us whose school name isn't Trojans thankful for that small favor? Our school name makes no particular sense, but it is funny, in a way that took me 35 years to get, which I'll happily explain to you all when I retire.)

The Hubs is now cooking an entire head of cauliflower using some method that is going to make me start sneezing uncontrollably in a matter of minutes. Time to post.




watching FAMILY GUY :: ENTRY #2101
READING: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Good News, Everybody!

It looks like I will not be going to debtor's prison this month instead of Disney World. It is very strange learning to live without two regular paychecks, one of which doesn't come during the summer. Unfortunately, that's the one we've got left at this point. As for the Hubs, I'm reminded of a friend years ago who would tell me from time to time that she wasn't going to spend money on something or other because "Billy's out of work," Billy, of course, being her husband. It was a long, long time before I came to realize that Bill was a very highly paid independent consultant of some sort, and if he had a week off between jobs, his very down-to-earth wife saw this as Billy being out of work for that week, even though he was going to be doing very well the week after. Anyway, the Hubs is basically getting his independent consulting business -- not in the same field as Billy -- off the ground, so he gets paid when he finishes a project, not every two weeks like before. As I say, it's a challenge. But today is a good day, so I'm okay.

There's been some drama at work, even though I'm not even working during the summer. Some of it has to do with the fact that those S.O.B.s did not call my kid in to interview for a job she is very qualified for. I am furious, hurt, and disappointed. In other school districts, people get hired because they have connections. Well, this is her connection, and it didn't work for her. Her grandfather was superintendent of the school system, for god's sake, but I guess that was too long ago to count, and my connection is meaningless. I wonder if someone is going to bother to explain this to me, or they're just going to pretend it didn't happen. I even emailed the supervisor in charge and the principal, asking for a courtesy interview, and got no answers back.

There's other crap going on too, but I won't even bother with that. I'm not getting angry over stupid things, only things that count, like my kid getting hurt.

We were supposed to visit my OldFriend in the city today, but the Sibs woke up with a migraine. I need to plan to see her the week after DW without my sister, just K and I will go in, or just me, if K, god willing, has gotten a job and needs every second to start planning. We were very disappointed that the visit didn't happen, but I'm going to make it happen next time. My sister doesn't have the summer restriction that I have, since she's retired, and her husband is happy to drive her into the city. I had wanted a girls' time visit anyway, so maybe this is all for the best.

Do I sound bummed? I'm not, I'm fine. Just a lot of crap flying around in the last couple of days. On the other hand, I am packed, except for the last minute things. Go me.




watching FRIENDS :: ENTRY #2097
READING: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Catching Up

I'm all out of books for the moment, since I'm saving what I have for the trip. I really liked Finding Oz, about how L. Frank Baum came to write The Wizard of ... It's got a lot of historical and philosophical background, and was set in a time period I like, the late 1800s.

I did not like the next one I brought home from the summer reading list, Me Times Three, and I gave it up early on. I seriously don't understand how some of these books are chosen for kids to read. This was another Sex in the City-type thing. Why are we giving this to kids to read? What are we going to teach them using this crap?

I have another book coming from B & N tomorrow, which I hope I'll like. I'll let you know.

Pictures. I promised you a picture of the map the girls gave us for our anniversary:


I know it's hard to see what this is. The map is from the 1880s, when New Jersey was made up of several large townships, each divided into school districts. About ten years later, legislation was passed so that school districts could incorporate as boroughs, each one a distinct municipality in control of its own schools; the borough movement went on for about 30 years. This map shows the township and its school districts that was later broken up into many boroughs, including Bizarro Town, which incorporated in 1924. We were then part of Saddle River Township, but we are nowhere near the town now known as Saddle River (a very, very upscale community; Richard Nixon lived there in retirement.) We are also not close to Passaic, a city, although the map shows something called East Passaic, which no longer exists. Anyway. We like maps.

I haven't heard from the doctor yet -- I'm expecting her call this afternoon or tomorrow -- but I know that the scan showed "lots" of fibroids. Swell. I hope I can live and die with them and not have to do anything about it. We shall see.

Lacking a book to read today, I thought I'd do a little *shudder* work. I have a procedures manual that I wrote in the spring of 2008, pretty much a guide for anyone who came after I retired. Well, I'm not going anywhere, but I need to update it anyway, a little time-consuming, but not difficult. And then, CRISIS: I could not find the file anywhere. Not on my home computer, not on my flash drive, and not on the school computer, which I logged into remotely. At last, I found it tucked into the wrong folder on the flash drive, but CRISIS: the file is corrupted. I tried a lot of tricks to get it to open, but it just ain't happenin'.

So now I have to type it all over again. It's about 27 pages long; it'll be longer once I put in the revisions. Oy. And then make an abbreviated edition for the teachers who'll be on library duty; they won't need all of it, but they'll sure need some of it. And then save it in a million places. And put the printed out versions in binders, which I guess I'll need to go buy.

So now, it seems, I do have something to keep me busy. Funny how that works out.




watching L/O :: ENTRY #2092
READING: --- by ---