another day

September 1.  So that sounds like it should sort of be fall.  But not really. 

Today started off nicely enough.  Kid #1 got on the bus at 6:30.  I thought Kid #2 had to be at school for 6:45, but he thought it was 6:30.  Still don't know for sure, but he got there about 6:40 and there were other parents dropping off, and the bus for the field trip wasn't there.  They headed to the State Penitentiary. 

That left me kid-free by 6:45 a.m.  I have to be signed in by 8:20.  So, you know what I did.  I drove to a church I sometimes attend.  They have Mass at 7:30.  I was there plenty early.  The Rosary was just starting.  So I prayed.  Then there was a little time for quiet before Mass.  There is a retired priest who says Mass at this parish on Wednesdays.  They hear confessions 15 minutes before daily Mass here (and at my church as well) and he didn't get any reading done while he was in there today.  I think maybe he had a coffee pot set up in the reconciliation room, because it seemed to be a rather leisurely pace.  The Rosary and Mass was a good start to my day.

When I got back out to my car, there was a message from my dear husband to go by the house and turn off the coffee maker.  What do you think my parting words to him were when I left the house at 6:30ish??  Yeah, you know it.  "Don't forget to turn off the coffee maker."  Well, I have enough time to leave church by 8 and be at work before 8:20, but I don't have enough time to make a detour by my house and be at work on time.  But I detoured anyway.  Otherwise I would have had to go on my lunch break, and instead of wasting 7  minutes or so, I would have wasted 20. 

My laptop (which attached to my Promethean Board) would not boot in my classroom.  This is a crisis, because I can't function without my Promethean Board.  I took it to the lab to show our computer person, and it booted. Took it back to my classroom, hooked up 8 various cords to it, and it failed to boot.  Unhooked, took it out in the hall, turned it on.  It booted.  I carried it back inside and hooked up everything.  No further problems.  Arggghhhhh!  It left me perplexed.

I love my first hour!  Four sixth grade girls and one boy.  They are awesome.  My second class is my sweathogs (breakfast club) from last year.  I had a new student in that class today, and they were in RARE form.  Two of them have been accepted into a program at the career center.  Sept 1 was the target date for them to attend, but it is not ready.  They were NOT happy campers today, and took it out on all of us.  My seventh graders are pretty good kids, but with the attention spans of fleas! 

It is playground duty that gives me the blues.  Not the duty, so much, because it really is somewhat refreshing to watch them PLAY.  I have duty with fifth grade, and there is still a shred of childhood innocence left there.  But getting them off the playground and into lines at the end of recess, is horrid.  I emailed my principal today that they really do not deserve recess until they can follow the proceedures.  So tomorrow, the little darlings will not have recess.  They will receive remedial instructions on how to get off the playground when the whistle blows, not throw rocks, and line up with their classes.

I came home today and did nothing, save for putting a load of clothes in the washer.  Some days are like that.  I probably ate way too much for my level of non-activity, though.  Yesterday,though I had energy left over, and worked out.  It was good.  But now I am falling asleep at the computer.  That is a sign that it is time to get off.

Tomorrow will be a no-Mass day at this point.  My pastor cancelled the 6:30 Mass for tomorrow, and I have a faculty meeting at 7:30, so that negates Mass at that time.  Pray for me!