Evil Wrapped in a Fangirl Disguise

OMG you guys, a girl very probably broke her nose during dodgeball today.

Which totally confused me, since the balls we were using were kind of like Nerf balls only maybe a little softer. I found out from the school secretary at the end of the day that one of the boys had bent to get a ball and she got hit with his head when he straightened back up.

The swelling had gone down by the time I saw her again in the office 6th period and it didn't look too bad. She was still in tears, but heading out to get it looked at.

Geeeeez.

Also, who knew there were like fifty bazillion ways to play dodgeball?

God save me from 8th grade girls. Geeeez.

I mean, not all of them. (I was an awesome 8th grade girl, for example.) But the ones in first period PE are just...frustrating. Actually, that whole class is kind of frustrating.

But during the actual activities of the entire day, the other teacher put the radio on over the gym speakers and they played Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, Lady Gaga, and Muse practically in a row. I was very happy.

And got to be the woman in charge of the scoreboard buzzer. POWER, I HAZ IT.

I am disappointed that some of the worst kids throughout the day were kids that regularly use the library. Where they generally don't cause problems. Peer pressure. Ugh.

Two kids in my class got sent to the principal for wearing gang shirts.

Anyhoo. Project Runway tonight! May it be less boring than last season!

I feel a bit like I've been steamrollered.

When I sub at the library, I'm the only one there, I don't have a lunch break, and we're not supposed to eat in front of patrons. I don't think I was alone in the library all day. By the time four o'clock hit I was getting a little cranky.

Not that anyone would have noticed. I am that awesome. ;)

But I still feel steamrollered. There was never a huge rush, but it was definitely a steady stream of people.

The reason? The kids got a snow day and school was closed. Dad drove Mom and me into work. There was no way we were doing that with the fog and slick roads.

Oh! I got one of the really quiet kids that comes in to talk to me for an extended period of time! She's working her way through A Series of Unfortunate Events. I've read the first three, so I asked her how it was going. She elaborated on the series. It was great.

Same girl from this post, actually.

I have articles and fic to work on and absolutely no motivation. Blah.

You know what is awesome?

When a kid comes into the library and asks you if any of their ordered books came in. You tell them, "At least one of them so far. The fourth Lemony Snicket," and turn around to the hold shelf because you just scanned it in.

And then you hand it to them and their entire face lights up and they beam at you across the desk because they just finished the third book that day and you have just...handed them the keys to the kingdom, y'know?

You just know they're going to go home and devour that book.

When it's one of the more quiet kids and you make them actually grin like that just by providing them with a book they were looking forward to, well.

It's brilliant.

I lead a life of excitement and varied employment.

The '09-'10 school year started at the end of August. Today was my first subbing day. Got the call at 7:15 this morning from the school secretary and not the automated system. Which pretty much means I'll say yes as long as I don't have something else to do. I have a bad habit of hanging up on the automated system. ::shame::

But it was an emergency, so I went in. Subbed for a position that's new this year. I traveled around the school, going to one class in each grade (K-5) for 45 minutes doing Weekly Reader and Time for Kids. TFK was about the California wildfires and WR was fire prevention. I also got to lug around a 45 lbs. backpack to demonstrate how heavy some of the equipment a firefighter carries is.

I was sort of dreading kindergarten and first grade, the last two classes of the day, because filling 45 minutes with kids that age can be difficult if you've only been given so much material to work with. And thrown in there. But they were my favorite classes of the day. Definitely the most well behaved and quiet. I was super impressed.

One of the IAs in the kindergarten helped teach me in first grade. The first grade teacher taught my brother (now 21) in kindergarten. Crazy!

But it really was a pretty good day, even if I am now losing my voice. I saw a bunch of my library kids (haha, my library kids) and even got a drive-by hug from one of them, which was awesome.

You know, I really do not want to teach (because, wow, that is a lot of work and some crazy politics) and when I thought I did it was never elementary, but I do love being at the elementary now as a sub. Kids can be little punks and brats and loud and annoying, but they can be really great, too.

The principal wanted to know if I could do this again this week since now I understand what the position needs/asks for and the woman I was subbing for may not be back due to her father being ill. Unfortunately, Wednesday and Thursday I'm subbing at the public library.

I still have city council tonight. I'm hoping I don't actually fall asleep.

So far, this Dean/Castiel thing is the longest piece of fanfiction I've attempted. And I'm not even finished. Which I am really proud of. Still freaked out though. ginnith has been great for listening to me ramble and ramble about the fic and the show. And calming me down.

I swear one day I will stop posting about it. Right now, though, it's kind of the main thing on my mind.

Meanwhile, last year 101 kids signed up for the Summer Reading Program at the library throughout the summer. At three days in yesterday, 103 kids had already signed up. I signed up about eight more today. It's going to be crazy.

Today was better. I worked at the library and that kicked me out of my own head for a while. So. That's something.

Plus, kids like me. And when kids like you, that must mean you have something to offer. Enjoyed bonding over books with them.

Was freaked out by a guy who came in asking about the regular librarian. Like, warning-bells-ringing freaked out. But I think I was being paranoid.

Now I'm going to go watch clips of Misha Collins.

Today is the special election to adopt a resolution for the school district to issue $7.8 million in general obligation bonds to fund construction that will relieve overcrowding by expanding and renovating the schools.

They tried this before in February and it failed, for several reasons: the size of the tax increase, the amount of bonds, the amount of construction, discontentment with school officials. All of the reasons, while some of them were quite sound and understandable, frustrated me beyond belief. Particularly the discontentment with school officials.

Administrators will not be in the district forever. There will always be children in the community, though, and those children need school facilities. So suck it up, get over it, and do something about helping the students. Because where else are they supposed to go to school out here?

After the last time, the bond committee got together and sent out a survey asking people what the committee could do to make them change their minds. This new resolution is based on the results.

If this bond resolution doesn't get passed this time, I don't know what they're going to do. I know with the economy being what it is, people are worried. And farming can be odd. My dad's already spent the equivalent of four years tuition at SU on fertilizer and we won't be receiving any money for another couple of months. And you don't know how the market's going to change in the meantime.

But they need to do something about the school buildings or else they're going to have to start setting up those collapsible tents on the playground and start holding classes out there.

Or else they're going to end up with 40 kids to a classroom with only one teacher and maybe a TA/IA/parapro. Which makes me cringe for so many reasons, for the teachers and the students.

Friday was National Youth Service Day. AmeriCorps came out and painted a mural. The entire kindergarten in Royal came out (about 120 kids) and got to play games and add their handprints to the mural.

I got to spend the whole day outside talking to neat people and snapping photos that will hopefully be included in the paper.

I had to share these two. I mean, just look at how green that tree is! And the sky, so blue! It was a gorgeous day, especially considering it snowed/sleeted the day before. (Though only for a very short time.)



They did this mural in less than six hours. It was an amazing thing to watch.

Sometimes it feels like the newspaper is slowly chipping away at my soul. Or my will to...do anything. And this is only my third month!

It makes me go to tense city council meetings when I'd much rather curl up with a blanket and watch new NCIS. ::pout::

Subbed at the middle/high school library today. Some punk kid tried to pull a fast one on me. But I rule with an iron fist and put a stop to it.

She came in, was looking at the books on the hold "shelf" (right by the check-in/out computer) and while I was busy helping another kid, she wandered over to the shelves. Thirty seconds later she wandered back with the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid book and was ready to go.

I thought the book looked very familiar. Like, oh, wasn't that just with the other books on hold less than a foot away from me? Yes, yes it was. But I scanned it anyway and a prompt came up asking if I wanted to take it off of hold. I clicked no and explained the situation to the girl. She was all, "But books on hold are supposed to be over there," pointing at the shelf.

Instead of outright calling her on it (I'm not much for confrontation), I said that sometimes things get put in the wrong spot and, sorry, I can't check this out to you. So I wrote down the hold name and stuck it on the book and put the book back in its spot.

Straightening the books on hold before the end of the day, guess what I found? The original note with the hold request stuck to another book. I had thought about peeking in the trash that's right there, but she didn't even care enough to try that.

Hold request notes. Heh. They're sticky notes, people.

Anyway. The girl proceeded to check out one book, return it, and then check out something else in the ten minutes that followed. Weird.

And now city council. I expect DRAMA tonight. And will maybe even be a little disappointed if there isn't any, even if I don't want to write about it afterward.