Category Archives: Captain Random

What’re You Up To?

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I am spending yet another day at home, when we every clearly could be at work today.  Third day home means another day of no pay, and three times as much work waiting for me when I get back.  I’m not a happy camper.  Our high will be in the 40s today, and the 50s tomorrow, so we continue to wait, I guess.  And I will be working all weekend to make up for it, but jeesh…

So today, I am:

  • feeling: irritated by the weather, by being cooped up again, by having so much work that could be done that is now waiting for me, ready to pounce the minute I get back (ugh!)
  • missing: my mom and dad, friends from work (The Boy is at Grammy’s today, so I may head over there later…)
  • reading: Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende and The Hobbit by Tolkien (I don’t usually read more than one at a time, but I’m not doing as much reading as I used to, so…)
  • worrying about: tubas, taxes, and tires and other things which need to be paid for
  • eating: not much – never do when I’m alone
  • looking forward to: temps in the 60s this weekend, even if it’s rainy, dinner with my parents tomorrow night (Stouffer’s lasagna – yum!)
  • playing: hidden object games
  • thankful for: not being in the mess in Atlanta, and not losing power in this storm

What are you all up to today?

Snow Day

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We’re having a snow day here in the south.  The bread has been cleared from all of the Walmart shelves, and now we hunker down in our houses for 48-72 hours and wait for it to warm up enough to melt any snow accumulation we may get because of the fabulous lack of snow plows or road salt.  It will be in the 60s this weekend, so we shouldn’t have to wait too long.

So far this year, we have had several 2 hour delays at The Boy’s school, which is disruption enough, but today is our first actually snow day, and even my office is closed.  The snow is not anticipated to really start until this afternoon, but it is raining and cold, so why not?

We are desperately hoping we don’t have a power outage, but getting things ready, just in case – gathering reading material, charging up what can be charged, and locating candles in our recently re-packed Christmas bins.

This has been a winter to remember, and it is only January.  I can only imagine all the kiddos on the spectrum in the northern states who have had very little routine in the past couple of months.  The Boy was so ready to go back to school after Christmas, and has yet to have had a completely full week of school, and I know conditions are much worse in other parts of the country.

I let him sleep in a bit today, but we will be reading his novel, something he will probably consider homework, which is just NOT DONE on a snow day.  But it needs to get done, and so read we shall.  For now, we are playing with our new Chromecast (a Christmas present to myself).

Considering 140 million people in our country are under some sort of winter weather advisory, here’s hoping you are managing, wherever you are.

snow day at our house

snow day at our house

Not a Great Result

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Met about the band thing today, and basically we need to find him a tuba somewhere or they are going to make him switch to a different instrument, which he doesn’t want to do.  They didn’t seem too interested in discussing strategies to help him participate in band.  The band director kept saying, “but if he doesn’t have a tuba to practice…” as if that was his out.  This solidifies my theory that he orchestrated the return of the practice tuba to the high school director.

He complained about the needs of “the ensemble” and his “high expectations” – I shut that right down by saying, “This is 6TH GRADE BAND, and you are a TEACHER.  He is 12 and he is LEARNING.”

I’m at a loss.  This seems cruel to me, especially after listening to the “counselor” reiterate time and time again that there might be other students in the class who are missing out on the opportunity to play tuba because The Boy is playing it…  What?? Needless to say, she will never be a part of any meeting I attend again.

Supposedly they are asking around the district to see if anyone has a practice tuba he can use, but I know this will end up in my lap – if he wants to play tuba, I will need to purchase one (no one even rents them).

It’s hard not to be disheartened.

Am I Less for Leaving?

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Many of my old teacher friends are scared and weary.  They see what is happening to teaching and education and they don’t like it, but they are trapped.  They have mortgages to pay and resumes that will not allow them to do anything else.  They post links to blog posts and articles on facebook about how education has changed, how people don’t want to become teachers anymore, and how teachers don’t want to even remain teachers anymore.

Yesterday, one posted a link to an article on Monster – “5 Most Regretted Jobs,” and you guessed it – teaching was on the list.  The article ended the lament about teaching with the quip, “It takes a remarkable human being to become a teacher but it takes a golden human being to stay one.”

Which leaves me to ask, “Am I less for leaving?”

Honoring_the_Teachers_of_America_3_cent_stampAm I somehow not “golden” because I had an opportunity to leave that many others do not?  Am I somehow selfish for taking the opportunity that many, many of my old friends would have taken in a heartbeat?  Am I unremarkable because I took a stand and left a profession that I daresay would have killed me for all of the lying, cheating, disrespect, and injustice I endured and watched others endure, and if it had not killed me, would have most definitely killed my soul?  Am I tarnished for taking a chance at a less stressful existence that would ultimately benefit my family?

I think you see where I’m headed with this.  Teachers are phenomenal people, especially those who don’t get the monetary compensation necessary to support their own families.  But no one has the right to look down on a person leaving teaching in these days and times.  Many of us have left because we are taking a stand against the very dark underbelly of the system, and refuse to be the face of it, refuse to be a part of the machine, refuse to actually do harm to children by proxy.

I think all of my old teacher friends, both those who feel trapped and those who continue to fight the good fight (even if they’re not sure from day to day what that even means) are golden.  I think those that have left the profession with souls beaten and bruised are no less golden.  In a system that creates too many victims (if you think my word-choice is histrionic, you should hear some of my “war” stories), teachers and former teachers may indeed be the only people of value left.

Last Day: Looking Back

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I think it’s only normal for people to look back before starting something new, and New Year’s Eve is a logical opportunity to do so.  It’s also important.  One of the things teachers benefit most from but rarely have time to do is reflect on their daily teaching to analyze what worked and what needs to be tweaked.  True in non-teacher lives, as well, I know.  At the end of the day, thinking back on what was positive, and what we could have handled better helps us learn from our mistakes, and decreases the likelihood that we will repeat them.

This year, I moved house in a major way, got married, left my career, battled for better schooling for my son, wrote a novel, and got a new job which I love.  I’ve left old friends behind (but never forgotten), and made new friends.  My life has improved, sometimes by sheer will.  I compromise more (a new husband and a blended family make this absolutely necessary), I don’t get nearly as many headaches, I relax (fully) more.

At the beginning of this year, I couldn’t see past June.  It was a complete unknown – What would I be doing?  What would my son be doing?  How would our lives change?  Now that I am six months past that point of all that was unknown, I am proud of us for taking this leap, trusting ourselves to get re-married, trusting that we could find a good school situation for The Boy, and trusting that I would land on my feet with a job I didn’t hate, making enough to pay the bills.  I am very proud of us.  It was a big leap of faith, and it has turned out beautifully.

2013 has been a year of great change, of great opportunity, of great hope, and of great reward for me (and us).  I hope it treated you just as well.  I look forward to 2014 with great anticipation for continued growth for all of us.

Happy Old Year, Friends.  And Happy New Year.

English: This came from New Years Eve 2004 int...

A New Bed for The Boy

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Today, The Man is working on building a new bed for The Boy.  This is something he and I have promised him since before we moved, and it is now coming to fruition.  I’m actually glad we haven’t done it before now, because The Boy has grown so much physically in the last year that he may not have been able to fit if we had based it on how big he used to be.

You see, The Boy fell in love with a Captain’s bed when I was buying a couch for our new home.  While I was in the process of testing, deciding and purchasing, he had disappeared into the kids section – literally disappeared.  He had crawled into the “hidey-hole” underneath a Captain’s bed, closed the door, and enjoyed the new space so much, decided he had to have one.

After we moved here, when he needed that extra privacy, and the extra-enclosed space, he crawled into his rather-small closet and hung out in there for awhile.  Now that he is as big as me, it hasn’t always been the most comfortable.  The need for his own extra-private-enclosed space was becoming greater.

The Man is building his custom designed bed, complete with a shutter door on the end today (and probably tomorrow).  We went to pick out the paint color this morning, which I thought would be a long process, but was most definitely not.  We begin the process of working on making The Boy’s room his personal space, only six months after he moved into it.  And The Man is designing and building furniture for him to meet his particular needs.

I will add pics to this post when it is all done 😉

Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday to you, young man.  We love you!

Enjoying Work

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I have to say that I am really enjoying my new job.  And it’s been since about 2007 since I could say that.

It’s a great feeling.

I Need You on the Job Every Day - NARA - 534704

For many, many reasons, teaching became less and less enjoyable over the years to the point that I would cry on the way to work in the mornings because I really just didn’t want to go.  Might sound juvenile, but it’s a pretty desparate feeling, especially when you are a single mom and have to provide for your son.  There is no opt out, there is no quitting to try to find something more enjoyable.  And teachers really don’t have that luxury like some other professionals do.  They don’t have the possibility of quitting and making the same pay in a lateral move, which is absolutely ridiculous, but I digress.

And it hasn’t been easy being unemployed for half a year, either.  I wouldn’t recommend it for the weak of heart.  Your self esteem takes quite a few dings.

But opportunity arose when The Man bought this house outright, and I had to take it.  I didn’t want to be miserable anymore.  Today, I’m so glad I did, and I’m so thankful for my new job that I enjoy.  I feel capable and trusted, appreciated and challenged.  I’ve been waiting a long time to feel like this again.

Have a great day, People! 😀