Miserable Monday

Ok, I really thought today was going to be a great day. I had an absolutely fabulous day yesterday, and thoroughly enjoyed the gorgeous fall weather. I cooked red beans and rice for dinner (one of my favorites), I made a huge batch of pasta salad for today's lunch (I planned to share with Dori and Mrs. M across the hall), and I baked Sour Cream Banana Bars with homemade Browned Butter Frosting (YUM!) I actually remembered to bring the pasta salad and banana bars to work, which is a huge accomplishment with my Alzheimer's! The day was going along swimmingly until lunch....

It happened AGAIN. Major backup at the lunchroom! Actually, the backup started at the bathroom, so then we ended up being the last class through the lunch line. Now, our lunch period starts at 10:30, and my last student was served lunch at 10:47!! It's absolutely ludicrous that it takes 17 minutes for them to serve the kids their lunch!! If we were still on our old schedule of 20 minute lunches, my kids would have had to go directly from the lunch counter to the trash can, because they would have had to line right up! Not to mention the fact that I was left with 8 minutes for my own lunch. Ugh! Completely aggravating! Things just kind of went downhill from there.

Without boring you with too many of the details, I was completely annoyed by one of the assistants who kept on coming to my room to talk to me about a function we are having on Wednesday for our assistant principal. I'm trying to teach, and she keeps walking right in and talking to me, as if I were sitting in an empty room! She expected me to just drop everything, and do whatever it was she wanted done. She wasted literally 30 minutes of my morning asking me to print out a banner.

Then she came in again during our rest time. Of course, this is a horrible time to come in and talk ever, since the room is supposed to be quiet so the babies can nap. It was even more inconvenient today because I was trying to test a couple of kids on DIBLES while the rest napped. So, she not only disturbed the class, she kept me from finishing my testing, which has to be done! I was starting to lose it.

She came in again at about 2:15, again completely oblivious to the fact that I'M TEACHING, and just starts talking to me, and wanting to give me money for Social Club dues. So, not only do I have to stop teaching, I have to go unlock the cabinet that I keep the money locked up in and put it away. All the while, I'm passive-aggressively trying to make clear that I don't appreciate the interruption and that I don't have time to chit-chat.

The last straw came about 10 minutes later, when she came back with more money, and wants to start telling me about "someone" being upset about "something," and "let's go in the hall and talk about it," all while telling me the three people whose money she just brought me all want receipts, so can I write them now? Then I lost it! I had to tell her, "No! I can't do it right now, I'M BUSY! It's the end of the day, I'm trying to finish this lesson, I have homework to pass out and go over, we have to get our coats and backpacks..." I think I scared her. Or pissed her off, I'm not sure. Quite frankly, I don't care either way! Get a grip!! Not all of us can walk around all day, making small talk. Some of us are trying to shape the future of our country! OK, a little dramatic, I admit, but come on! She's always done this kind of thing, and it's ALWAYS bugged me, but at least in the past, I had an assistant to pick up some of the slack, so if I had to take 10 minutes out of a lesson to print a damn banner, my assistant could at least keep the kids on task. Now, it's just me. You can't take your attention away from 5 year-olds for more than a minute before they start going nuts.

I'm going to have to just be upfront with her, and tell her tomorrow that she can not, under no uncertain terms, come in my room during the school day. If she needs something, she'll have to come to me in the morning, before the kids get there. She just can't waltz into my room anytime she feels like it, and interrupting our lessons. Yeah, it all sounds great now, but I'm sure I'll be my usual passive-aggressive self tomorrow :(

Another gripe for today...ANOTHER STUDENT arrived today. That brings my list to 27. 16 girls and 11 boys. That's annoying, in and of itself, because (sshhh....) I don't particularly care for little girls. I really don't hide the fact that I much prefer little boys. Little girls annoy me. They whine and cry and scream and talk incessantly. And did I mention scream?

On the upside, if I get one more student, I'm supposed to get an assistant, per our contract. Not that the Big Cheese will go out of his way to see that I get one, but I'm entitled to one, and I'll be damned if I won't fight for one!

Good God, I've got to stop whining! (See what I mean about girls?!) Today's positive is that it was really nice to actually sit with Dori in the teachers' lounge during our prep, eating yummy pasta salad and YUMMY banana bars.

I'm going to leave you today with a quote I actually lifted from Dori's blog the other day. It doesn't have anything to do with education, but it's particularly fitting for the kind of day I've had. Plus, I just really like it! See you tomorrow!

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems,
but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ---Herm Albright