CHALLENGE

Six days left. Will I survive? I don’t know. I’m in the middle of a pissing contest with a custodian, of all people. (Apparently, I missed the memo where I was told the head custodian decides what should be in my room and what should not and if she decides that my resources – including all 24 of my lab pianos that were purchased before my time – need to be trashed, so she can load my room with rickety tables I don’t want or need and that are dangerous, then I have to understand that.)

Trust me. Those tables will be gone by the time I leave by the end of the school year. We have been fighting over them pretty much all school year. It’s unreal. The next time she tells me I only need 2 or 3 pianos, I’m going to ask if she intends to only issue one roll of toilet paper to the bathrooms, for everyone to share.

Did my grade level testing today. I was very concerned because I have been unable to review the last two weeks. Seeing how I only see them once a week, it was… well concerning! My room’s floor has been stripped and I’ve been told – again by the custodians – that I’m not allowed to have children in my room. Wait until next week when I haul kinders down to rehearse for graduation. Hmmm mmm. My sub didn’t show up (because there is no way I can test, grade, load the grades into the State System, and update the data AND teach 5 classes in one day.) and it took the Wrath of God (and a lot of Zee tears) to get a replacement sub 2 and a half hours late. Anyway, they’ve stripped one of the 1st grade classrooms, so that ENTIRE class was pulled into ANOTHER 1st grade class AND the room has about 8 3rd graders who passed their mandated testing and didn’t need remediation for the 2nd go round next week.

So the head of the department takes me down to an empty classroom where I set up, only to discover NONE of the computers – 3 of them – have ANY audio capability. And 2 of the questions are audio.

I attempted to recreate them. One was on an instrument, so that was okay, however the other was vocal. Zee is a contralto with asthma. The listening selection was of a coloratura soprano. My sweeties know Ms. Z sings low and that’s how they answered the question. My apologies to Heidi (the singer) and Schubert for slaughtering such a beautiful piece.

Also my German sucks. I’m sure I saw a few students cringe.

Either way, one of the custodians tries to lay me out for using a room SHE didn’t give me permission to use. I told her tough titties and oh btw – I didn’t let me in the room, the department chair did, so go talk to her. They won’t mess with her at all.

Despite all of that, they did really well – all passed or exceeded. I”m in shock. I have to start hunting up the ones that missed tomorrow on my own time. Hope the 20 that weren’t here show up tomorrow.

Edit: I want to clarify that the state did NOT provide me with recordings. The question stated – what music is the teacher playing? So I provided the music they were familiar with.

Challenges

I turned off notifications from the places I tend to buy clothes from. Told Spawn if catalogs came in to just toss them, no matter what cute tote they were giving away was on the cover. We have things to do this summer, money to save. A 3 day excursion to Charleston is in our plans, especially since That Man promised to take me there for a ‘special weekend’ – and obviously that didn’t pan out. So while Spawn and I can’t afford a nice hotel, we can afford squatter’s cheap (Motel 6) and a few days R&R at some of the memorials and Boone’s Plantation.

Also, Dragoncon is not so far down the road.

Challenged!

 #15 – A character everyone else loves that you hate. OR Watch Zee’s butt get kicked. Sell tickets. Popcorn. I’m sure someone will say – here. Hold my beer. 

Here’s the problem. The characters I hate – I mean really hate – no one loves. At least, I don’t know anyone who would love these god-forsaken lowlifes. For real. I don’t.

So rather than hate a character everyone else loves, I’ll sort of…. reinterpret it.

Name a character everyone loves that you’re rather…. meh to. Immune to.

Easy Peasy. John Thornton.

Now before everyone piles on the hate, I watched North and South spread out over… oh… year or two. I watched an episode, got busy with life and then watched another one and got side-tracked and watched part of one and then back-tracked and waited for a while and then watched the last episode loooooooooong afterwards. With the exception of that train scene…. and that kiss…. which yeah, makes up for a lot…

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It doesn’t help that I’m not so fond of Margaret.

Perhaps, I should have a grand re-watch… Everyone LOVES this character, loves this show and I’m just… immune.

I’ll just tip-toe out….