The Fifth Week of School

Only 31 weeks to go! Only 13 weeks till Christmas break! I'm not counting, really. This past week wasn't that bad. It was a short week (yay, Labor Day!), so I only had 4 days of the cherubs. However, I had morning duty this week. What that means is, I have to be at work 20 minutes early to stand in the cafeteria and monitor the students. Most of them are 6th graders, since that is their "official" meeting area before school. Some are 7th and 8th graders who eat school breakfast. They are all LOUD! I don't remember ever being that excited about school that early in the morning. It's probably less that they are excited about school than they are excited about seeing their friends. They are LOUD! This year, however, there is also soothing music playing in the background, like Kenny G. It's pretty funny. I don't think the kids even notice it. And I don't mean to make generalizations here, but I work in a pretty low-income school, with a lot of minority kids. I'm not sure that many of them have even heard of Kenny G. They tend to prefer 50 Cent, Nelly, and Diddy (I think he used to be P. Diddy, but I'm not sure). Those are just the rappers I am familiar with. I know there are others. But I digress. My point it, the music is supposed to keep them calm and prepare their little minds for the day's education. Right. You have to be standing right next to one of the speakers to even hear it. That's just how loud it is.

And I don't get paid extra for this extra 20 minutes either. And I have to do it every other week. Ugh! At least I'm not on car duty this year. That's when you get to stand outside, rain or shine or wretched humidity, and tell the parents "Please pull all the way forward." or "You can't drop off right there because you might get hit." or "You're holding up the other cars, please move on." Or "Are you stupid?! Can you not see the arrow pointing you to turn at this driveway?!" (I made the last one up. We are not allowed to call parents stupid, even if they are. Damn shame.) Morning duty could be worse.

My students are settling down now, except for one class. I think we are going to need a coming-to-Jesus moment in there soon. I'm about ready to meet face-to-face with some parents. I HAVE refrained from using the words "shut up" though. That's a big step for me, as I love to say that. It just gets the point across better than "Please be quiet" or "Hush". I mean, really. These are 13-year-olds. They just don't respond to niceness. Oh for the days of corporal punishment.

In unrelated news, we went to the zoo and Chuck E. Cheese's for Colby's small, family birthday celebration. It would have been fun if he hadn't been a total pain in the ass. He was whiny, he was bossy, he was showing his ass! I think the problem was that we went with the hubs' mentor from seminary, his wife, and their son. None of whom we had met previously, except hubs. So, we're all "getting to know each other" while my little family is trying to celebrate Colby. It was a little awkward for me. Maybe I'm just not good with new people. I didn't have a very good time. Colby and Bennett seemed okay though. Kids are very adaptable. Besides, who can't enjoy Chuck E. Cheese? (I will post pictures later, since Blogger won't let me right now.)

And in other, funny, news: Hubs had to go be psychologically evaluated. It's part of the ordination candidate process. I guess they have to make sure you are not completely psycho before they let you be a pastor. Anyway, he went and spend all day Friday in Charlotte taking test after test. He did one of those Myers-Briggs things. He's an extrovert. Duh. He works well with others. He has his own ideas, but also likes to get the approval of others. But some of the other results were pretty funny, and gave me ammo to use in the future against him. Apparently, he's sarcastic. Well, damn. Who knew? (me too, me too!) He has a problem with authority. Again, duh. I think that comes standard issue with any guy who has gone through ROTC. But the best one, in my opinion, was that he is SELF-CENTERED. Oh. My. God. That just confirm everything I've been feeling about him lately! How perfect! Unfortunately, the psychologist did not see this as a problem in his pursual of ministry. And she didn't diagnose his ADD. Oh, well. At least we know he's not a complete nutcase.

Going to cook lunch now.