The first bad day of the year was still better than some of last year's best days.
I had to write up one girl for refusing to change seats. I wrote up her friend for making fun of me.
I was ready to write up a third person (in the same class) for, essentially, calling me a dork, but then I realized that - without the context - on paper it would look like I called him a dork first. So I pretended to write an email about him, citing "Code 117-b," then happened (no, really, this was not planned) to leave said email open and in progress when I was helping someone. Maybe some of those seated by my computer will spread the word that so-and-so was getting a "Code 117-b" added to his file.
(Whatever that is.)
Part of our grade-level cross-curricular teaming means that kids attend a mandatory detention if they are failing or missing assignments. Some of the resolve has faltered, though, and this week my team didn't worry about missing assignments, just low grades. Also, we now alternate weeks, so kids have two weeks to improve in each class before receiving another detention. Today I kicked two people out of after-school detention for talking, after the buses had left and they'd presumably made their arrangements to stay late.
Early this morning, I realized that I'd forgotten to pay the power bill. A week ago. Nice. I pay online, so there's no excuse, but maybe I should rethink my stance against automatic debiting. (Control issues.)
I also finally found the receipt for the car wash code, the fancy one with wax and Rain-X that we got right before the power window died and killed that plan. It expired a couple of days ago. Oh. I sure wish we'd chosen the cheap-o version.
Then yesterday I went to open some pudding from Fresh & Easy, only to discover it had already been opened. Drive back to the store to complain and exchange, or throw two bucks in the trash? (Hint: I don't know what was sadder, that I didn't have the giddily anticipated chocolate, or that I had to make up for it with a bag of store brand microwaveable kettle corn. Then, because I was too tired to wait for Mike to cook, that was all I ate that day before going to bed around six. Luckily, or whatever, I was awake again five hours later and made some tacos.)
But, I have lots of good students, new seating charts will fix most of my headaches, and last Friday I really mapped out the rest of the year, complete with lab and library reservations. The hamsters are happy, and that romance novel I keep mentioning is actually entertaining. (It's also interesting in that, from what I understand, the author has written the same story from another point of view.) Mike is having his nap, and I don't completely need one. I got the car washed (elsewhere, cheaper), and I had dinner (the rest of the tacos) before crochetiness and exhaustion could set in. (Yes, that was at 4 p.m., but I skipped breakfast and lunch again. Also, I'm old. Give me the before-five senior supper discount; I know I qualify on the inside. Probably the outsider, too. I haven't moisturized since May.)
The biggest proof that this is a better year is that I didn't get a Starbucks. Part of me says it was because I was erranded out, and part of me says it's because there are still a few peanut clusters left in the candy dish, but the part of me that I'm leaving all of my money to says it's because I'm 20% done with the school year.
I know that if this were a plot graph, we'd only just be leaving exposition for rising action. The big conflict has yet to reveal itself. It's hard to say which characters will be dynamic and which will be static. On the other hand, I'm kind of hoping that this will be a boring year with a boring story that never reaches a climax, and all of the characters will stay rather samey.
But for tonight, more seating charts.
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