Now I Make the OLD Girls Cry

This was kind of a weird day. I've had weirder, but it definitely wasn't normal.

I was greeted at school this morning by a parent who was...uh...upset about her kid. We're all upset about her kid. Her kid is obnoxious. You don't know this kid and you should be upset about him because he's breathing your oxygen. Anyway, yesterday, I sent him out of my class. I just had it. He was rude and disrespectful for the 7 millionth time and it was just enough.

We have this web-based tool that we use to give parents a constant update on kids' grades and behaviors. And for the...oh, maybe 9th day in a row at least one of the teachers wrote a note describing his obnoxious behavior. On this day, all 3 of us did. Now this isn't a huge surprise as this is one of the parents who tried to intimidate us at that parents' meeting a couple of weeks ago.

But she came in today in tears. She doesn't understand what is wrong with her son, they can't get him to cooperate, he's never had this problem before, etc. She's going to hold him out of school until something can be figured out. OK. I tell her that I'll make some calls to one of our administrators and the school counselor and that I'll call her later.

Well, by the afternoon, all the teachers received an e-mail from her. She's figured out that, while it's no excuse for his behavior, it's all of our fault (the e-mail was much longer than that). Uh...OK. So my reply was that this is now an issue for an administrator and I passed her off to one. You are dead to me, Crazy Lady.

I blame Mark for hiring such lousy teachers.

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This morning we had a visit by the Bookmobile! Yeaaaaaaaaaa! What's the big deal, you ask? Well, remember, our school is in a Tech Park. We're it. There's no gym, library, nurse's office, etc. We've been trying to stock our own classroom library, but it's slow going. It wasn't bad. They had some pretty cool stuff. Most of the kids found things and I even checked out a 2 CD set of Hawaiian Cowboy music. Yippie-kai-yea, Mother...oh...sorry. Started channeling Die Hard.

And I heard that Rochester's Bookmobile only carries old copies of Jet Magazine with all the good pictures of Lola Falana cut out.

That's what I heard.

Anyway, the Bookmobile leaves and I don't think about it again. Until later, when I was informed that we got in trouble because the Bookmobile parked too close to the world's 11th largest supercomputer that is in the building right next to us. At first I thought they were pissed because they were too close to the dumpster - which is locked, by the way. I have no idea what THAT is all about. What do those nerds throw away, anyway? But no, they were too close to the Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

Were they worried that the Bookmobile librarian was going to try to shimmy over the non-existent barbed wire, take out the non-existent guard and...uh...try to play a war game, inadvertently almost starting World War III while simultaneously kissing Ally Sheedy? It's a freakin Bookmobile! Although the librarian and Ally Sheedy kissing would be hot. I'm just saying.

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Then, this afternoon, I had my school baseball "informational" meeting. All 7 of us. And two of them were girls who came because there isn't a softball team. Doesn't matter to me. I told them that if they're willing to go through the practices, they're on the team (assuming it's OK with the state). Sheeeee-it. I coached at Franklin. I can coach anyone. Bring me your tired, your poor...your players who throw like girls...you get the point.

Oh, and I found out yesterday that if we wanted ANY team for this year we were supposed to go to the league last May. So, we're going to try to get a team, practice and scrimmage with the intent of showing the league that we're serious, then start the full program next year. Assuming I can get more than 7 kids.

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I'm on again at Mana'o Friday night, 8 to midnight. I'm doing so many of this guy's shifts, I wish they'd just give it to me for crying out loud. Remember, now I'm only 5 hours difference from you East Coasters. So that's 1am to 5am.

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If the Greens here moved any slower, we'd have to change our name to the Wilted Greens.

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While I'm having a blast, I can't wait to get home to see everyone. You should all move down here. I'm just saying.