Thanks to saetter for putting the expression "survivor's guilt" in my head. It perfectly describes the way I feel. I found out today the number of cuts that are being made in the district by department. Only one English position is being cut. MASSIVE EXHALE.

Again, not that I thought my position was actually going to be cut. My brain would just go their ( Read more... )

Pink slips went out today. I, to the best of my knowledge, am not going to be a recipient of one of said slips...I don't know what my "number" is, but it's pretty high. It's a shitty day to be working. And from what I've heard, more are to come. It sucks. No one is smiling and their is a palpable feeling of gloom.

I won't rant about our top heavy ( Read more... )

Despite the fact that I am a 37 year old married father that has reached a relative level of success in my life, I still get very, very uncomfortable when I am genuinely complimented by someone, especially at my day job as a teacher. I think it might be my own self esteem issues burrowing back up that are at the root of this, but I can't say for ( Read more... )

I'm sitting here with Natters (who is using me as a giant inflatable stunt bag as she climbs all over the top of the recliner to play with the lamp in our living room-I know, what kind of father am I? I ask the same question every day...anyway, not what I wanted to talk about) perusing my favorite sites while trying to outline the upcoming school ( Read more... )

It's hard to believe that I only made 5 blog posts the entire month of July. I'd love to say I was busy writing, but I wasn't...well, not really. As I said, I was "teaching" as part of a very intense writing institute and it went awesome. Exhausting, but awesome.

My schedule changed again, in my favor...sort of. I'm now teaching 4 sections of ( Read more... )

For the first time in five years teaching, I cannot wait to be done with this group. This has been the worst year ever. By far. I'm just so angry and frustrated with this mix of kids. The level of apathy, especially from the senior class, is embarrassing. I mean there are at least six kids absent from class that I talked to today. Kids that I KNOW  ( Read more... )

Some genius at our school decided to give all our tenth graders the ASVAB test on the half day on Wednesday. This is a great idea. Why not just lock them up for Iraq and Afghanistan right now ( Read more... )

I've been sporadic at best the last few weeks when it's come to posting on my blog. Part of it is that I'm still in my typical late-Winter/early-Spring funk and I haven't really been writing. Chapter 5 is vexing me...which I think it did the first time I wrote it during the summer. It's frustrating. So much for my "finishing it by Spring Break ( Read more... )

I've handled the bum hip.
I've handled the bum back.
I've handled the weight gain.
I've handled the bad ticker.

But I cannot stand what happened at work that relates to my "fat suit:"

I am a 13 seed in the Staff Fight Club tournament.

Unacceptable.

SU 87-65 over Gonzaga...and that game wasn't even that close.

Ran errands today while listening to the game on the radio with the family. Now, contemplating planning and writing tonight while preparing to clean up a bit.

Back to basketball...here's hoping Duke loses.