My school is closing in 2010. The teachers' union did fabulous job negotiating - teachers whose schools close have no jobs; they aren't being reassigned to other schools. It doesn't mean much for me. As a special ed teacher I am in great demand in DC. But, still.
I got into an all-out fight with a parent on Friday. Some guy was driving his big ass SUV. He had a woman in the passenger seat holding a seven or eight-year-old in her lap. They were driving in the school parking lot at dismissal, which in and of itself is a no-no. I stopped him and told him that what he was doing wasn't safe. He started screaming, "Do you know who I am?" I told him I didn't care who he was, what he was doing wasn't safe. He started yelling at me for coming up to his truck and who did I think I was and blah, blah, blah. I said that my job is ensuring the safety of children and what he was doing was not safe and not legal. He kept yelling and said, "You don't come up to my truck!" Like I was a real threat. Let me tell you, a thirty-year-old white woman on the grounds of an elementary school. Terrifying. So I said, "What? Are you gonna shoot me?"
I was simply clarifying his threat.
I was so mad.
I'm sick of fighting against a culture in which parents buy expensive cars, but don't have room for the kids they transport. And don't care. I'm tired of working more with less, trying to make a difference when the parents don't even care.
I sat in the tub last night and read for about an hour. I just needed that day to end.
Today was better. We went to Virginia to Upscale Resale. We bought a low table/cabinet to put the tv on and the dvd player and stereo under. It's black and very simple. I'm not sure where it's from, but it's sturdy and solid.
Then we went to Tysons to buy John a new pair of shoes. We went to Nordstroms and got him a pair of Geox on sale for like $25. We bought him a pair of pants and two shirts. One is a Superman shirt and I'm forgetting what the other is. We bought Eleanor a shirt, too. She has tons of pants and no shirts. John has shirts, but no pants.
An elf scared the crap out of John. Eleanor talked about sitting on Santa, but we decided to just look at him instead. I prefer the black Santa at PG Plaza to the hoity toity NoVa Santa.
I'm going through toys, getting rid of things and rearranging. After Mike picks up the cabinet tomorrow I'm going to make a run to Value Village. I'm taking the high chair, a few bags of clothes, toys, and anything else I can find.
John just walked into the kitchen wearing pink sunglasses missing one lens and a plastic bracelet.
The ate really well today. They are drinking Pediasure Nutripals chocolate milk. Now I just have to make sure they never taste real chocolate milk and ruin it. They love dry cereal, which isn't calorie dense, but it's something. At the mall they ate chicken fingers, fries, and a lot of rice with terriyaki chicken.