Onward

Today was that so-glorious, seemingly ever-receding but eventually arriving Last Day of Work (cue the heavenly choir!) Yes, gentle reader, I am done, done, DONE with work for the summer. I actually have two whole months off!*

Except. I didn’t get all my work done, as I feared I would not. So unless I want another write up like last year (I’d rather not) I’ll have to go back and get some stuff done.

The difference is, this time I can do it whenever I want. Such as tomorrow morning.

I’m so dedicated, no? Actually, my reasoning is that Monday morning summer school starts. If I’m in the front office, people will want me to answer phones and questions, make copies and find people. And I don’t get to say “not my job,” no matter how firmly it is NOT. Can’t even tell the people I’m a volunteer–most of the parents know me, and wouldn’t buy it though it’s true. (Volunteer = working for free, blast it.)

So I’m going in tomorrow. And I made sure of it, because I made arrangements to meet another “volunteer” and let him in the building. (I have an alarm key, he doesn’t.) That way I can’t decide I don’t want to bother, and end up never getting there, like last summer.

But tonight, I’m reveling in the freedom.

::dances wildly about the room!!::

* “two whole months means I’m not scheduled back until July 30th. But pretty much always, they call be back before I’m scheduled. Which is sad for my vacation, but very good for my bank account.

I shall be around more soon. I WILL. Three more days of work…

Joss demanded a story, so I wrote it. It’s f-locked on lj (yes, I have one of those, to make it easier to read the fanfic to keep up with the interwebs) but let me know if you want to read it and lj hates you. (it hates me. A friend had to make the lj for me. I live in fear livejournal will figure out I’m the owner of *censored for the protection of my lj*) Two thousand words, and it’s actually pretty good.

But, just to throw out some controversy–apparently Barack Obama goofed, said his great-uncle was there to help liberate Auschwitz when it was actually Buchenwald. The Republican National Committee is saying that “Obama’s frequent exaggerations and outright distortions raise questions about his judgment and his readiness to lead as commander in chief.” (here)  Leaving out all mention of the outright lies of the current commander in chief (okay, that’s as restrained as I can get.  I’m sorry.)

‘kay. Obama got his camps mixed up. A shame it might be, but it’s hardly an exaggeration. Buchenwald was a large concentration camp where it’s estimated fifty-six thousand people died, and his great-uncle was there. Is the Republican National Committee suggesting that Obama deliberately lied because liberating Buchenwald isn’t as good a thing as helping free Auschwitz?

Hillary Clinton remembers being shot at in Bosnia when no such thing occurred. I’d think that would be something one would remember, especially as it happened (or didn’t happen) in her lifetime.

And McCain…McCain says Iraq is safe–but when he goes to visit, he’s protected by body armor, a hundred soldiers, and five helicopters (two of them Apache gunships, swoon!) (bad fangirl! Down!)

Come on, people. Put your politics aside and think for a moment?

So most people seem to think eighth grade promotion is a big deal. I don’t know; I don’t see it that way. But I know I’m different. So I’m willing to accept that to others, it matters.

That said, some of them sure choose strange ways to celebrate.

A father comes into the office at 8:45 this morning to complain that since his daughter got suspended last week, she isn’t allowed to participate in the ceremony. She can’t walk onto the stage and get her certificate. He’s very proud of her–she’s a smart girl, plays the violin and everything.  He wants her to walk.

Unfortunately he’s so proud of her he’s stinking (literally) drunk. Can barely stand up. He’s so freaking proud he has to be taken off campus by the police, with his poor daughter trailing behind in her pretty dress, crying.

A mom comes in to sign her younger son out of class so he can watch older son walk. Problem is, mom doesn’t have the right to take him out of school according to our records. Dad has to give permission.

Dad knows this. Last week mom called, and I immediately called him to get permission to let her take the child. He sent her in to humiliate her–so I’d have to tell her no. So he could then come in and take care of it.

She still can’t pick up her children without his permission. He let the record stand as is.  I wonder if he told her that.

And then there’s–call him Martin. Martin and his mom apparently were so astonished that he was actually getting promoted–not only that, but he hadn’t been in trouble for the whole nine weeks so he was able to walk!–that they had a party before coming to the school.

Martin was so effing shit-faced that his mom had to hold him up. So damned drunk he threw up, right there in the courtyard in front of all two hundred sixty of his classmates, their parents, his teachers…all of them. So freaking soused that when the pigeons, err– (euphemism ahead!) cleaned up his mess a bit, they got drunk. Passed out, possibly dead of alcohol-poisoning, drunk.

So much for Martin walking.

All I can say is…wtf?

Eleven hours yesterday; twelve today. (and six bucks–that’s what it cost me to get the kid to help me. Yes, it was so stupidly worthless it took me ten seconds to teach a nine-year-old how to do it.)

But. That stupid report is done.

Can we get someone with a brain moved into that department, please? If the fifteen or so kids who were legitimately on that report could be singled out (as they were with a different error code) then why in hell do I have to go “mouse-clicky” six times on every single student for ninety-eight pages? I’d helluva lot rather just fix the fifteen.

Which I still have to do, after hours and hours of clicky-clicky. Make-work, anyone?

If you have any way at all of getting your hands on it, the BBC’s Planet Earth is incredible. Think chimpanzees are peaceful vegetarians? Planet Earth will show you another side. Want to see lions hunt elephant? Planet Earth has the footage. A penguin backing off a fur seal? A spider that carries an air supply so it can go diving? A six-foot salamander?

The Diaries section alone is worth getting hold of an episode. Ever wonder how they get those incredible shots? A man named Simon tied himself to the boat so he could put his all into filming Great White Sharks jumping completely out of the water without fear of falling overboard if he leaned too far. A man named (I think) Paul spent some 100+ hours in a blind to film the courtship dance of Birds of Paradise. A team spent, IIRC, six months in the Himalayas, trying to get footage of the snow leopard hunting.

And did they ever get it!

Watch this show. I’m getting it a disk at a time from Netflix, but it’s not hard to find.

Watch this show.