I Thought I Was Bad

I'm pretty sure I posted the background info before. Summer's campaign is over and I offered my services to a few other candidates who didn't have primaries to deal with. Two of them, I'll probably make some phone calls, maybe do a mailing or something...stuff I can do in my sleep.

But there's this other one...Her signs have been out for a while. I'm fine with where she stands on the issues, but there's something about her that seems to rub people the wrong way. Not necessarily the "masses" but politicos. I can't quite put my finger on it. But I will give a really good example:

Weeks ago - before the primary - she was telling me how she hadn't found a campaign manager until just recently, but the person wasn't experienced. She wondered if I would meet with her just to "compare notes". Sure. No problem. Well, from that time to the next time we talked (10 days, maybe) she had a different person, but she still wanted me to meet with her. OK...this time I got a phone number. I called and we set a (relatively) inconvenient time to meet. The day before, the person called and canceled. OK. Then, I bump into the candidate at the "loser party" on primary night. Now she has a "committee" of 2 people and the 4 of us should meet. OK, we set a date for Saturday (which is tomorrow for when I'm typing this). Tonight she called me and told me that they didn't work out so she's going to go the rest of the way on her own, but would like to meet. So I'm going to meet her in the morning.

But it's really funny. If she can't work with that many people, how is she going to work with the other County Council members? Again, I'm pretty sure it's her first time running for anything, so maybe she'll learn. And I'll have another story about her on the next podcast.

Oh...and I forgot to mention...she's a child psychologist who specializes in play therapy...and she is so unlaid back...I can see her admonishing a kid for not playing right. I've slipped a number of mini-jokes within our conversations and she usually doesn't get any of them. Oy.


Other Stuff: I'm on "vacation" the next 2 weeks. I still have to work at the Y and I don't have any money, but the sleep will do me good. Don't tell all the kiddies, but I have a new CD I'm planning to send the little folk. I'll be sending it out next week. No "yo mama" jokes this time...I promise. The anti-global warming family struck again. In an e-mail to my direct supervisor, the grandfather was bitching about a number of things. In the sentence directed at me he asked if I was through with my political stuff so I could finish my grading. Uh...hey, Rush...I'm the only teacher caught up with my grading. YOUR granddaughter hasn't turned in a damn thing all year. Asshat...

I really don't like the direction the school is going in. No organization, flying by seats of our pants on a daily basis. We're really not going into depth on any subject matter. We're dealing with kids' behavior in a very traditional-yet-laisse faire manner. Having said that...yesterday, a huge number of the new kids couldn't tell me after 9 weeks what subject I taught. They all love my classes, but had no idea it was social studies. THAT, is the highest compliment. I've done Hawaiian history/culture, human rights, current events, elephant poaching in Africa and more and they had no freakin clue. Awesome.

The kids had off today, but we had a work day. I used the occasion to get some "permission". The same thing happened last year. I get mixed messages about standards vs uh...real teaching. So I basically got permission to teach whatever the hell I want. Heh, heh. Heads are gonna spin. I'm on an island. I have a shit-load of technology, 74 middle schoolers, 2 huge vans, a corrupt local government and a cable access CEO who owes me so long and hard that he won't know what to do when I call him on it. I'm on a mission from God.

Message to GLB: Good conversation today! I'm waiting for the PowerPoint...it sounded cool. As for my stuff...I'm still going through with applying, but just from thinking about it...I'm leaning toward the hometown angle. I looked online...I can deal with the old hood. But there's plenty of time. Stretch out the achilles...I'll have a hoop!