Episode 1, Return of the Big Boss, Thursday, January 26, 2006 Wasn�t able to post till today.
So, today is shit hitting the fan day, part 1 of 3. The boss returns and the government people arrive on Monday.

They gave us a three page rubric YESTERDAY of what they will be looking for in our classrooms. None of it is unreasonable, but obviously this rubric has existed for a very long time, WHY wasn�t it in our hands much, much earlier. Someone screwed up. Some of the things they will be looking for are artifacts from the children�s progress, examples of projects and such. Now, I�m a pack rat, but I send that kind of stuff home, or I would soon be bu We were told that we have to make PERFECT scores. That is downright laughable when the instructional coach couldn�t even tell us what some of the terminology meant.

It�s days like these that make me want to just start the music in my head and drown out whatever else is going on in the world around me. Find my happy spot, you know?

It was supposed to rain yesterday. It snowed, and had melted in 30 minutes. It was supposed to snow last night, everything is completely dry. I think I�m wanting a snow delay, or a snow day way to much, of course, maybe it will happen tonight and we can have a three day weekend. Lovely.

Couldn�t get this to post before work so I�m continuing it now.

So, I get to work where I was administering a practice state standardized test to a group of special ed kids, when one who will remain unnamed jumps up, nearly turning his table over in the process, all the while screaming, �My pocket is on fire! My pocket is on fire!�

I was staring at him thinking to myself, Crap, does this kid have some issues I wasn�t made privy too? So I tell him, it was the first thing out of my mouth honestly, � I don�t see any smoke.�

Then I promptly realized that he wasn�t faking, and his little face actually was contorted in pain, so I told him to stop jumping around, and get everything out of his pocket quick. At which point he started to unload a copious amount of crap from his pockets, I mean really, it just went on and on, him thrusting his hand in, and pulling out crap, finally his little hand brings out what appears to be a crushed double �A� battery. At which point I became really concerned we were dealing with an acid burn. He dropped the battery in my hand at which point I nearly said �Fuck� cause it was sooooooo hot to the touch. I grabbed him by the hand and high tailed it across the courtyard to the nurses office. This was my first run in with the nurse, and as he was a fourth grade boy she wanted ME to look at his thigh and see if there were any burns. I think I literally raised my eyebrow, I mean isn�t SHE the healthcare professional? Anyway, yeah, he had a battery sized burn on his thigh. Poor kid, and me telling him I didn�t see any smoke. Oy.

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So, there was a huge amount of shit hitting the fan today at work, but none of it managed to land in my face. Thank God.

Friday, January 27, 2006

So, I guess my paternal Great-Grandfather was a rather good friend of L.B.J. and even closer to Sam Rayburn, the speaker of the house. I had heard these old stories before, but hearing them again over Christmas as we actually stood in the places that they happened made them stick this time. Maybe also cause I'm older and know a bit more about the history that surrounded the times. Interesting. I'll flesh out the details another time. But it came to me as I was driving home yesterday, like a conversation you have been overhearing in the background while you were talking to someone else. Sometimes the conversation your participating in moves to the background and suddenly your focused on the murmured whispers of conversations around you. That was how these thoughts came to me yesterday, busy thinking of other things, while details from the trip to Texas replayed in the background and then suddenly leapt to the front of my brain when those tidbits ran through the background. The family historian in me is rather curious and wants to know why there are no documents from this period. Everything seems to have happened on the phone. My dad remembers being a little boy and Sam Rayburn calling grandpa at the Ranch house with instructions to drive great-grandpa down to the border to show him why a border crossing at some point, I don�t remember the name of, was not a feasible idea.

Today is Episode 2, the boss comes out from behind closed doors. It�s dreadfully sunny out. I bet we are approaching 350 days of gorgeous blue skies and sunshine this year. Frankly I�m getting bored with it. I want dark brooding clouds, rain, snow, cold wind nipping at my heels. Oh and a snow day because of the weather. :D

So, I'm finding that most guys seem to think that when they are dating it should be all about them. They are so wrong! It's about me, me, me! All teasing aside, what the hell is this attitude, that someone is entitled to complete spoiling without reciprocation? I want champagne and strawberries dipped in chocolate now and again too, my friend. Not that I've ever done that, just I don't know. It's been in my brain. The guys I meet either want a 'playmate' or have some fetishist admiration for my bearish looks, or from all outward appearances seem rather nice, but want open relationships, or want to be spoiled so completely to the point of excluding the others needs.

Corazon is doing match.com. She's getting like 30 responces a day. And has had a date every night this week. Now, I don't want that either. I'd go nuts from the lack of alone time. I want a guy to appear that is not about jumping your bones in the first 30 seconds. A guy who has passionate interests, and whom I can share my passions with. A guy that understands I'm not going out for drinks at 10:00 on a shool night. Is it to much to wish for another morning person? I'm ready to conquer the city at 6:00 in the morning. It sucks that nothing is open exept for the exquisite natural beauty that surrounds us.

I printed my first 13 by 19 inch photograph last night. Delicious.(redpurse and yes we should totally have a make red's portfolio day.) I should have applied a slight gausian blur to the sky though. There is the teensiest bit of digital grain appearing in the sky. The reflections in the pond of grandpa's oakgrove are flawless though. I think I'll boost the green channel in curves on the next print though. The luminance needs just a bit of tweeking.