eek, feel better.

I think I've come down with the sore throat that had my officemate out of work yesterday. I am all stuffed up and have that gross feeling in my throat and weird sounds in my ears.

I'm also super sore from boxing last night but I am on my way out the door to go to another gym class (Thurs is my work from home day). I hope this one won't kill me!

Okay. I stayed up waaaay too late watching BSG. And then, I had to get up early to get some things done that I should've done last night. I am getting over a nasty cough, so I should really get proper rest. I might go back to sleep since I don't really need to be anywhere until 6pm.

I'm tired since my boyfriend missed his bus home last night and I got up at dawn to take him home with enough time for him to get ready for work, and then to work.
I have a meeting/workshop at the unemployment office this afternoon. I'm frustrated since I've been so busy in the evening with fittings and the like that I haven't been able to look at any cars yet, but I'm so not in the position to turn down money sewing to go car shopping.

I'm also applying to be a union organizer. Which is my big secret Dream Job. Not sure if I'll get it, though. My best friend's parents have both been organizers (at different branches of the same union I'm applying with) her whole life, though, and her mom said my cover letter explaining why I'd be a good fit even though I have no union experience is "absolutely perfect."
I have to actually mail my resume in for it, though, which is odd these days. I may hunt down the email address of the person I'm sending it to and follow up by email next week to confirm it arrived (and so they know I'm hot for the job).

The weather is quite dreary outside and it makes me sad. I'm quite anxious because I'm supposed to have the condo resale package by the end of the week/very early next week (and it is potentially the last thing that could completely sour the deal for this amazing place that I have my heart set on at the moment). I also have some serious anxiety about the fact that I still don't have a decision one way or the other from UMD about my fall admission to the iSchool, which really sucks because I can't register (which opens today and therefore means I will probably be dicked out of all the classes I want) and I can't start my financial aid for them OR for the stuff that I'm hoping to get through work. And they have no idea when they will have decisions out. Argh!

I'm just glad it'll be the weekend for me in 3 hours and a doctor's appointment. This week seems to have dragged on.

Sorry people are ill. I am feeling good as new. That strep through me for a loop for a few days.

I am currently starving at the moment and dreaming of a big salad with feta and greek olives. I'll make one once I'm at home. Tonight I'm making Cooking Light's Chicken Marsala.

It's gorgeous here. High is 83 and a little red cardinal has been trying to work its way into our building all morning. I wish I had my camera.

Someone told me I looked glamorous today, which was very nice.

The dog woke me in the middle of the night to go outside. By the time he'd checked the entire fenceline with his nose I was wide awake. Took forever to fall back asleep and I could barely peel my face off the pillow when the alarm went off.

But my coworker brought me a flower from his garden in a tiny perfect bud vase. He said he loves working with me because I bring sunshine to the office. How sweet is that?

The dog woke me in the middle of the night to go outside.

Scout, our beagle, surreptitiously devoured half a bowl of spicy, rich, homemade paneer tikka masala last night. We suffered the consequences at 3:47AM, 6:00AM (didn't make it outside for that one), 7:34AM, and 9:45AM. At that point, despite how much fun I was having, I had to leave to get to work.

Last night around two or so, these guys started jackhammering down the block. After a few minutes I put shoes on, grabbed a pen and a little notebook, and walked to the corner, where a crew of two was cutting a trench in the street. I peered demonstratively at the back of one truck, writing down the license plate number, then walked around both trucks and wrote down the other license number. The workers paused in their digging as I passed, and one of them caught my eye.

"Emergency?" I asked.

"Nope, but we gotta work at night cuzza the truck..."

"Yeah, because it's too noisy for you guys to work here during the day."

"..."

It took about ten minutes for them to pack up and clear out.

I'm satisfied to have taken such simple action to thwart the midnight noisies, but irked to have lost sleep over it. But I got license plate numbers and a record of abuse if they pull this shit again.

Today: sweeping, mopping, and guitar stringing.

I'm just OK. I had a phone interview on Tuesday and feel like I really fucked it up. I'm still down about it. On the other hand, I'm playing bridge tonight for the first time in weeks. That's happy times!

It's allergy season here, so I feel crappy -- it's like swimming in a 6"-thick aquarium. It'll only get worse as the day warms up. And, yay, the forecast calls for "an annoying wind that will likely spark up allergies." Oh joy!

But the weather's been pretty perfect overall, and tomorrow's a holiday (Happy Birthday, Cesar Chavez!), and the weekend weather looks very nice. Will hopefully get in some serious yardwork, in between sneezing fits.

I packed a good breakfast and lunch today, and I'm looking forward to eating them.

Oh -- and I forgot to shut the chicken coop last night, which I only remembered as I ventured out to open it this morning. I had momentary images of headless chickens strewn about the yard, but there they were, happily scratching in the grass. And now they're going to be spoiled and complainy tomorrow morning when they get let out an hour later than they want to be. Oh well. They'll live.

Things are really rough here. Still don't know when I can pay March's rent, and as for the rest of it... well. I can't even think about that right now.

Fortunately I paid enough to get my phone service back, and that seems to have come on this morning, so hooray -- I suspect my cover letters specifying to contact me by email were less than impressive. (It kills me to speculate which employers might've tried to call in the 10 days it was disconnected, but there's nothing I can do about that so there's no point in thinking about having missed a rare chance.)

It's 8:45 a.m. and I've been up for about 20 minutes. I'm doing okay so far.

One of the dogs needs a boot on her injured foot when she goes outside. I am this close to finishing rigging the growlights in the greenhouse (Note to DEA: I am a vegetable farmer, not a marijuana farmer. All growlights are clearly visible from off the property. No paramilitary raids required) but, instead of working on that, I need to go to town to buy a new laptop. Good news, new laptop. Bad news, I have to pay for said laptop.

And the chicken with the fluff missing from her ass is feathering out again. I think she was being molested by the drake.

Better. It's been a stressful couple of weeks. I tried to help my students who are being threatened and harrassed by administrators at my school for not adhering to the dress code/uniform requirements. I'm not against a dress code/uniform, per se, but our school is rated as high poverty, with over 90% of the students qualifying for free lunch, and a number of students living in temporary housing or shelters, and they can't afford to purchase special clothes. Never-the-less, students were being pulled from extracurricular activities, given detentions, and even suspended for not having the "right" clothes, and we're a public school. What they're doing is strictly against both the City Discipline Code and Chancellor's regulations (they're supposed to establish a voluntary program, if any, with financial assistance, not a mandatory one, and parents are supposed to be allowed to opt out, if they want or need to), but the administrators at my school don't seem to care about the Discipline Code or regulations. My principal, who's general m.o. is a fairly successful system of "benign neglect," suddenly seems obsessed with everything "looking pretty." When myself and several other teachers raised concerns, my principal's response was, "I don't care, this is my school, I'll do what I want." I guess he's the one who teaches all the classes, too?

In any case, I had the audacity to help the students learn about their rights, which is public information and was supposed to be given to both them and their parents in an open forum, and got "summoned" to the principal's office for my trouble. I was nervous all weekend, waiting for the meeting, much as I tried not to be (I'm not so brave as I might try to seem), but it turned out to be literally a two minute "verbal warning" not to interfere with school policy. Nothing in writing, though. If they put it in writing, after all, they'd have to spell out the policy I was supposedly violating, which again is against city policy (I mean, deny a kid their right to an education because they can't afford to buy the right shirt?), and, at that point, I'd have been sending a copy of my response to every higher up I can think of. As it is, though, I think I'll just let it go for now. I figure they'll wear themselves out on it eventually (what are they going to do, suspend half the school?), and it's not like it's life or death, after all, and the students and parents have the information now, so it's up to them. I'd just as soon keep the noose from around my neck.

I took today off, and I plan to go for a drink and bite to eat later. I'm utterly exhausted. On the bright side, a colleague wrote me a thank you note for my efforts to help the kids (this one pitbull of an assistant principal even threatened to take away one of her student's special education program because he wasn't wearing a uniform), and, at least for the time being, I seem to have earned the devotion and enhanced cooperation of my students. One of my students said, "You're the only teacher who would help us." (Teachers were threatened not to "be on the wrong side of this issue.")

Hopefully I'll be able to transfer to another school after this year.

(sorry... didn't realize this was so long)

You are my Hero of the Day, pips.

That's good work, pips. Sounds like an anonymous letter to the school board and the newspapers might be a good idea, too.

Wow, what a horrible situation, pips. Good for the kids that they have you on their side.

I'm ok, work has been insanely busy this week and we're coming up to the end of our bonus period. Well, that's what they call it, but I won't be getting a bonus. The cases that find their way to my desk are so complex and/or with such difficult people that it's impossible to resolve them within the timescales we're given. So whilst my productivity has been good, there's no bonus if the case isn't resolved within a certain period, and most definitely if it's been in the building for more than a year.

What the reality is is that we are so busy that cases are waiting in a queue for 9 or 10 months before being allocated. We're then meant to resolve them - including all evidence-gathering, sending out questionnaires to the parties, giving people a minimum 2 weeks to respond to each letter requesting information - before the year is up.

But I'm working from home tomorrow, so I can work to my own schedule.

My health seems back to normal now, although I still haven't had my test results. Patients are only allowed to call between 2pm-3pm, and the number is constantly engaged. I'm back to eating healthily, so the gastric bug had a benefit in that it completely detoxed me from starchy carbs and sugars.

Hooray for pips! That was a sad, but also inspiring story... I'm sure you are exhausted, probably from the stress more than anything, but you really are a hero, and a wonderful example for your kids. I'm (we're) so proud of you!

I'm sorry to hear so many of you are or have been ill. I had an awful, awful headache last night, which is a rare occurrence these days. Went to bed early, woke up in the wee hours, stayed up for a while, went back to bed, woke up late, and have felt sort of limp-raggish (but no headache, thank goodness) all day.

Pips, you are an awesome person. If only there were more teachers like you.

What they said, Pips. Good for you.

And here's to all the ill bunnies feeling better ASAP!

Got an email earlier today, saying rather ominously that our group would be having a meeting about half an hour from then. I naturally assumed the worst...

and then found out that I hadn't actually assumed the worst. One of our group members apparently committed suicide.

So yeah, today is not a good day.

I'm utterly exhausted today, which I'm blaming on dogwood pollen and some weird hijinks with the barometric pressure.

Solidarity with all the folks having a bad day/week/month/year. I keep saying that there's a silver lining somewhere, but I guess the universe is conspiring to prove me wrong.

Oh god, Pusher Robot, that's awful. So sorry.

{{The Pusher Robot}} I'm sorry.

Pips, if we can set up a mailing/shipping address, I think I can get shirts and stuff donated. They'd be plain, but still, if nothing else, you could have a box in your classroom that kids could pick from and maybe shame that principal into shutting up.

I am well. Tired today - and I allowed myself to have a sleep in for once - though I did wake at my normal time anyway. I don't really have news. A wedding tomorrow, and a possible second date tonight - but I'm not too keen, think I am obligated to go, but will tell him I'm not interested in anything more.

Resume still not finished... I gotta get off my ass and finish it today, enough is enough.

I feel invisible, here and in real life.

Thanks for the kind words, folks. It really means a lot. At least there's just one more day this week. And thanks, lysdexic. I may take you up on it.

Lonely.