Whoa. This week. Exhausting. Doing labs every day is one part. The second part is that we are two weeks in, so the honeymoon period is OOOVVVEEERR. Oh yes. First fight, first referrals, first inability to listen during a lab, then a helicopter and police shutting us down into secure lockdown right before class gets out. Mayhem, y’all, fucking mayhem. And that was just Thursday. We still need to get through Friday. I blame the blue supermoon and also well it’s middle school and this is how we roll until we don’t. During the secure lockdown, parents were calling kids because the school sent out a call and yeah, parents, could you NOT? Your kid is fine. They are locked in a room with a tired teacher and your patience is noted. Also some kids have a sense of entitlement with their phones that can only come from their parents. One told me it was “after hours” so she could have it out (we literally kept them 4 minutes after the bell…FOUR minutes y’all). I hope these kids figure reality out at some point. But since their parents haven’t, it seems unlikely.
Anyway. I also made about 25-30 short videos of everything we’re doing in the labs so the absent kids and the kids who didn’t finish CAN finish…I downloaded and ordered them last night, although iCloud was being a cranky bitch, so I didn’t get all of them, plus realized I’m missing some, so I’ll get those today. Last-year’s self wanted to do it but never found the time. Next-year’s self will be happy with me. This-year’s self is fucking exhausted.
That said, I did iron. I peeled myself off the damn couch, stopped watching cat videos, and walked my ass in here to iron. I think I got 49 minutes last night. I also didn’t cook dinner. We ate all our leftovers instead. Seriously, I do like food, but at some point, it’s just fuel and I could swallow a pill and keep going and I’d be fine.
Wednesday, I ironed Alito down and started Thomas…
Well I laid out all the parts and ironed his shoes and shirt and tie. I gave him red shoes. Each justice has their name on their robe, and I made the names in rainbow colors because I can and then matched the tie. So far, all the baddies are men. Amy will need something. Yes, I am just ironing justices for DAYS. One a day, to be clear. And also yes, that’s two cups of different kinds of tea. Don’t ask. It was necessary.
Close-up of box…
Seriously just adding about 50 tiny pieces each night to the pile.
So last night, I finished Thomas’ face and then laid out Kavanaugh.
Did the shoes, his name, his shirt, his tie. Didn’t get to the beer bottles because I was really tired at that point. And I realized I was gonna have to figure out what fabric I used for the previous beer bottles. Didn’t have the brain energy for that.
I gave him dirty socks. Seemed legit. I have 22 hours into the ironing so far. Slow. I keep saying that. I’m in the 1100s though. And some of the 1200s are done. And once I pick the 5 face/flesh fabrics, it’s easy to iron that down. I’d like to think I’ll get a goodly chunk done tonight, but I’m going to a social thing and that does not bode well for energy this evening. So assume Kavanaugh’s face will get done and Coney-Barrett’s stuff will get laid out. And I’ll do her shoes and her whatever is under her robe (let’s not think too hard about that). Then I have three days off. Yes, I have a shit-ton of work to do. Yes, I am tired. But also, yes, I want to finish the ironing so I can spend a few weeks cutting all these tiny pieces out. I started ironing down on August 13, right near the beginning of school. It’s time to be done. So that’s my weekend goal…about 800 pieces. I can do that. Can’t I? Ugh. Also, I can’t do a bunch of the school work unless my other co-teacher uploads all her shit so I can start making sense of things.
I visited Annie yesterday…
She’s still a spaz.
But I like her.
OK. Lab day. Probably will lose my prep to subbing a teacher who’s been out all week for a totally legit emergency, but they never got a sub for him. Then social thing. Plus dealing with parental stuff. Haven’t heard from them, so presumably they’re fine. Hike on Saturday…required! It’s been getting cooler, so that should be good. We could even do it Sunday with the Monday off. We’ll see. I’d rather do two if I could. Lots of yardwork. Wondering if spiders are smart enough to realize their web in a particular area (the middle of the damn path) gets knocked down a lot so maybe they should move it? Not sure if that level of natural selection and/or Darwinism works with spiders. It’s been real this week. Hoping a lot of kids are absent today for the long weekend so I don’t have to deal with the crazy level we’ve been at. It would be a plus. Some chill please.
Kathy Nida 