Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Summer Musings

School is out, and June is almost over! No fair. Weeks crawl by during the school year, and fly during the summer.

As I write this, I'm in Williamsburg with mom. We come every year to stay in my sister's time-share, visit and shop. We don't do the tourist thing anymore - been there, done that. We are very predictable on these yearly trips: We go to the outlets to buy underwear and shoes, we eat lunch out most days and eat in for dinner, a couple afternoons I go to the pool (haven't made it there yet this week, tho), we read, and we play dominoes. It's a party.

Last week, we were in Duck. The weather was great, and the time there was relaxing. One bump in the road - I have a bad tooth, and it started to get infected the week before we left Madison. Now, I despise the dentist. Dentists like me, because they see $$ when they look in my mouth. I have soft teeth, and most of my molars (with the exception of my wisdom teeth) have those old silver-amalgam fillings. Between braces and all those fillings, my teeth have started to break and the fillings are falling out. My molars are really, really weak. So much so that root canals aren't very effective. I've had two root canals - one tooth ended up needing to be extracted, and the other has broken off at the gum line. No place to put a crown. The tooth that is giving me problems lately is broken, and the old filling has come out. The tooth will need to be pulled as soon as I get home. Very exciting... In the meantime, I'm crossing my fingers that it won't start throbbing again while I'm out of town. I couldn't get in to a dentist before we left, so I went to the doctor and got an antibiotic to deal with the infection. The antibiotic was done last Saturday, so I'm trying to keep the tooth really clean and rinsed until I can get it taken care of.

Mom's dog, Missy, was put down a few weeks ago. She was 17, almost blind, and deaf. Mom couldn't let her go any longer like that, so she had the vet put her to sleep. She was a sweet dog. Ken has been keeping his eye out for another dog as he travels from vet to vet servicing machines. He called the other day, and told us he's found our next dog. Her name is Athena (!?!?), and is a 4-year-old beagle mix. She's (according to Ken) small, and sweet, and needs a good, loving home. I guess we qualify. He's bringing her up either this weekend or next week. We're thinking we will need to change her name - not real fond of 'Athena' - we'll see.

Looking forward to heading home, and getting back into a normal routine.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Done, done, done!

Today is the last day of school!

I've spent the last week trying to complete the end-of-year checkout list given to us by administration. We need to get all this stuff done, and have various people throughout the building sign off on each task. I think I've walked about 5 miles in the last 2 days, going from person to person getting initials. As of about an hour ago (it's now 10:45) I'm done! My room is cleaned up, my personal stuff is stashed in my classroom cabinet, my files are in my file cabinet, and my desk is cleaned off. The only thing left is a drive-by meeting with a parent, scheduled for 11:00, just to get a signature on some IEP paperwork. Then, we are, as a faculty, supposed to have a 'picnic-style' lunch (whatever that means) at noonish.

An announcement was made this morning that 'today is a regular staff work day, and the expectation is that everyone will be here normal hours of 8:00 to 3:00.' WHAT!?? But I'm DONE!!! I'm hoping that we'll be told at lunch that we are free to leave when we finish our final checkout (which I did, about an hour ago)

Meanwhile, I'm marking time...

Monday, June 04, 2007

A couple of lasts...

Today is the last Monday of the school year, and the last full day of the school year. Yippee-kai-yai-yay! (Yep, that's how you spell it. Look it up, if you don't believe me.)

We are on exam schedule today, which means I had a 2-hour exam class this morning (collaborative class - one student taking the exam, four students in the back playing cards, 2 students reading novels) where I graded final projects for my small groups. Right now, it's 4th period, which is my duty period. Since my duty is nonexistent for exam week, I have 2 hours to accomplish other things. (Like write in this blog.) Then, it's 5th period, which is my lunch and computer lab duty (you guessed it - no computer lab during exams). So, I sit here at 11:40, and I don't have to be anywhere until 2:10. Not a bad gig, if you can get it. I plan on getting my textbooks returned to the book room, and start mucking out my desk. I have 2 hours free tomorrow, as well - along with a 1:00 dismiss time. If all goes well, I will be ready to walk out of here on Friday afternoon - free at last, free at last!!

On a down note - Saturday is predicted to be the hottest day, so far, of the year. In the 90's. For graduation. On the football field. In black robes. {{{{{steam}}}}}