Thursday, December 23, 2004

The manhole covers for the sewers here are square. I know why this difference matters, do you? Circle vs. Square, debate it amongst yourselves....

A sovereign thought, delivered to your door at 2:46 AM ~~ 0 bonsai trees

shout out out out out out

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Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Man, I am one tired puppy.

This week was chaos. I wrote both the G12 and the G10 semester exams, plus the G12 Grammar exam, all of which probably took me 6-8 hrs overtime. Then I did my Progress Reorts, which is what we send home to kids who are failing horribly. Mine took about 3 hours one night, on account of my G9 class. I also put together all the study guides for G9, G10, and G12, which probably took about 2-3 hours total. Then I did a ton of marking, probably 2 hours a night for three nights. And somehow I managed to cram in teaching 3 our of 4 eighty minute classes a day, all while feeling sick for the first half of the week. It just all kinda piled up this week and now it is the weekend, and a long one thank god, and I am bagged. Might be pulling a Brian and falling asleep in the chair tonight....

This weekend should be ok, some school work, but not anything crazy. Party on Friday night, brunch on Saturday morning. Gonna go get some groceries, maybe a few gifties for people meeting me in UK/Ireland. Maybe a hot tub, yeah definately a hot tub, at the Hilton. And sleep, lotsa sleep. Naps too. So it should be ok. I am getting nearer and nearer the end of my patience rope with the kids. I know teachers get slagged for having so much time off, and I will be the first to admit that we do. But day after day of these kids, man, it's like an exhaustive death by inches. But it is now less than one month until London, so I'm feeling pretty damn good about that.

I also drove home the other day, as Neil was sick and Jan had to tutor. So it was either leave the car at skool, stranding us the following morning, or get Jay to drive illegally. No big deal, it was all good, no cops, no accidents, no jail time. I won't make a habit of it, but for a second there I felt like 17 year old Cadrin, dodging the insurance companies.

Not too much else to report. Life in the English department, with our 'new' acting Dean Dawn, is waaaaaay better than with Stupid Susan. We had a meeting, if you can believe that! And then, I could understand where Dawn was going with her conversation! And then, Dawn didn't reek of perfume! And then, I didn't feel like I was talking to a brick wall. And then, I walked out of the meeting not feeling like killing myself. Its the little things, but they have been adding up in a positive way.

So I am now gonna try to get the commenting option working again, just cause I miss your insightful comments and low-blow attacks on redheads. G'night.

A sovereign thought, delivered to your door at 7:29 AM ~~ 0 bonsai trees

shout out out out out out

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Monday, December 20, 2004

Hey all. I'm finally starting to feel a little better after a week and a half of feeling like the dog's breakfast. Headaches, sinus pain, sore throat, chills, and fever, man it was one of the better sickies I've had. But hopefully I'm winning the battle.

I know my commenting option on the blog has expired. Don't fret, don't declare this to be the worst Christmas ever, don't start riots. I will get it running again over the latter half of this week, the 23rd-25th, which is when I'll have time. This current week has been madness, everything coming due far too quickly. But I seem to be keeping up, so hopefully that trend will continue. After this week I only have 2 more 4 day weeks, then a week and a half of exam supervision, then London. So it's getting better.

The 'renewal' slips came out the other day, asking us if we wanted to sign up for another year. Loyal blog readers will know that the morale in the school has been fairly low, and as such, the "NO" box is getting a workout this week. I too will be signing the "NO" box, just as soon as my teaching evaluation is done. Trying to play it a little smart.

But this 'renewal' slip thing has re-opened the bitterness dam, and some people are getting rather intolerable, constantly making cracks about resume writing workshops etc etc. Look, fine, I get it, you don't like it here. No one really does, we all seem to be in a holding pattern of life. But bitching and moaning isn't making it any easier, so I'd prefer if you'd take the attitude and tone it down a little.

The thing is that it could be rather easy to get depressed over here, so you gotta try to stay positive. Hanging around doomsdayers doesn't make it any easier, let me tell you. I try to keep to myself, hanging out with the few teachers who don't think the sky is falling, but still, it wears on me. I hope that after the break in January it tones back down again. I wouldn't be too keen on another 4 months of this. I think it should, hope so.

Ok, I do have to go do some work, keep the animal that is marking at bay for another day. I hope you have this week off and I hope you put your feet up and don't have to do too much running around. Cheers and be safe.

A sovereign thought, delivered to your door at 7:09 AM ~~ 0 bonsai trees

shout out out out out out

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