The last day of school

Here we are at the end of another year.

There hasn’t been much about my work, because all year, I’ve had to endure a social media blackout because  a few years back, a group of insane parents  decided to go on Facebook and slam the school, administration and pretty much everything about it.

I can say that it has been one of the hardest years I’ve spent teaching. Hey-this year, I didn’t do much teaching,because of the way the boss wanted to do the technology curriculum. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what people wanted and doing things that were originally not in my job description. Like making slideshows on short notice for the school board. Doing the web registration because the people that were supposed to do it flaked out.

It was a job that became harder as the school year went on and was thankless from the start.

I’m not saying this school is bad-on the contrary, it’s a VERY good school.  The academics are amazing.

But for me? Not the place for me to be, on a lot of levels. So, it was a mixed blessing when the enrollment dropped enough (the curse of the private school) for them to cut a position. Oh, that position?

Mine.

I’m ok. Seriously.

I’m really feeling about 10 tons lighter and not worried about how I’m going to survive next year at this place.

On the job front, I have some irons in the fire, and I’m not going to chat about any of them right now. I don’t want to jinx anything that could be in the works.

As for my darling Shrimper, I now have a 2nd grader!

He survived first grade and he now is happily situated in Mrs. Gr’s class, with a few of his friends and a good mix of the other kids from the other classes. This whole group of kids is very nice and accepting, so it should be a really nice mix. As for the TA, Mrs. P is going to be his TA. From what I hear, she’s almost just like Mrs. V, who we were completely in love with this year, and were so unopposed to having her glued to Isaac for one more year, but we understand…another child needs her special brand of love and sea of calm.

From the conversations that I’ve had with Mrs. F, the nurse (she has the BESTEST intel..) Mrs. Gr is a really nice, natural transition from Mrs. J.

So, we’re up for a good year.

And now,

LET SUMMER BEGIN!!

I went to the movies and…

I sat in front of some of the most obnoxious people ever.

 

I have this track record at movie theaters of getting in front of the most idiotic people on the face of the planet. I swear. I must have a “IDIOTS SIT HERE!!” sign over my head pointing either in front of or behind me at almost every movie I go to. I don’t know what it is.  My knack for sitting in front of the idiots dates back long before movies were extremely expensive to go to. Doug and I still joke about the one time that we went to a movie and we sat in front of this group of ADULTS and they yakked through the previews (not a problem) and then continued their yakking into the first 10 minutes of the movie, where the final straw was when the one woman blurted out, extremely loudly, “I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THOSE LAMPS!!!’

That was when I lost my snot. I turned around and let her have it.

 

so, this trend has never stopped.

 

Saturday, Doug and I went to the theater to see Super 8. I needed to have a bit of a day off from a lot of things that have been swirling around here. From work to summer plans for Isaac to my conference plans for the summer, it’s been a whirlwind of intense activity. I was already on low tolerance, and I figured that Super 8 in all of its retro-ness, would be a fairly easy going audience.

Therefore, I was not in any way worried about the two teens and their adult guardian plunking down behind me.

Yeah, I should have been.

 

Now, the teens were teens. I was expecting their adult guardian to keep them in line. Yeah. No such luck. She was just as bad as the two of them. She spent time having conversations with both boys and then when she was asked nicely by the gentleman sitting one seat over from me to please pipe down, she got nasty, but got quiet.

10 minutes later, she decided it was high time to hand out the snacks she had brought with her to the theater.

Now, I’m all for bringing your own snacks, because theater snacks are massively overpriced. BUT, please do so in a quiet, non intrusive manner! SERIOUSLY!!

What I heard behind me was the sound of a TRIPLE BAGGED load of snacks from Hannaford being unleashed on the two teens. The sound of crinkling plastic in my ear almost overshadowed one of the key moments of the film.

It was then I lost my snot on this woman. I whipped around in my chair (and since you couldn’t see my glare in the darkened theater) I said to her:

 

“I didn’t pay to hear crinkling plastic bags. Stop it now.”

She stopped dead in her tracks, and got all snotty and put the bags down. One of the teens had the nerve to start talking to her and I whipped around again and shushed them.

Not even 3 minutes later, the gentleman one seat down whips around and says, loudly to one of the teens,

“SIT STILL.”

Yeah.

 

So, after that, we didn’t hear a peep or a movement out of any of them. I think they were afraid that we’d get the theater personnel to kick them out.  One more thing, and I honestly would have gone and gotten someone.

 

See? My bright arrow shines down again. I hope it doesn’t do it the next time I’m at the movies.

 

But seriously-Super 8 -all I can say is  OH MY. Very well done, awesome film! Go see it!

From the “You’ve GOT to be kidding me!” Files

Isaac’s school is awesome. The teachers, the principal and the support staff are phenomenal, even with the issues that I have with the OT and PT staff. It’s why I signed on to be a room mom for Isaac this year-I figured that it wouldn’t be too bad, and my co-room mom, Amy is a joy to work with. She coordinates the parties, I do the rest-like gifts, sending out all of the emails, ect. It’s an awesome team.

Last week, the first grade team sent home an “end of year” picnic form, and I got to emailing the parents to bring things in. Normally, Amy would handle this, but hey-she’s in the middle of a move (and I can totally empathize) and has a million boxes all over God’s green Earth in her house and she can’t find her way out! So, I took over on this one. No biggie!

The items on the picnic list:

Watermelon

ice pops

juice boxes

ice and coolers

(and the usual clean up items-they’re heading to a park!!)

No biggie! I got most the items signed up for in one shot. I ❤ the parents in my room this year!!

I figured we were all smooth sailing until….

this email came flying through from the “School Spirit Committee”

Hello Homeroom Parents!

Thank you for all that you have done to support our school this year.  On Monday, 6/20, in our A-Z countdown, the students will receive an “x-tra special treat.”  As we have in the past, we are hoping to serve sliced watermelon to the entire school.

If you are unable to purchase, and/or deliver SLICED watermelon to the school on this date,  please feel free to “recruit”  another parent in your child’s classroom to do so.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation, and support of the Rosendale School’s A-Z countdown.  Have a great summer!

Excuse me?

Provide and deliver sliced watermelon? Recruit parents?

I began to SEETHE.

Here was my carefully controlled response:

That is the day the first graders are having their picnic with watermelon. I don’t know that the first grade is 1) going to want more watermelon and 2) we can ask parents to deliver a second, sliced watermelon. Do you have any alternatives to watermelon?

It took them 11 hours to get back to me with garbage.
Ice pops?

fruit snacks?

Really? That’s not a treat! They’re having ice pops in the morning!

And fruit snacks? No. Not happening.

So, why am I seething here?

First off, I don’t understand WHY we, as room parents are being required to provide something we had no hand in planning nor did we budget/bargain for at the beginning of the year.

Second, being asked to “recruit” parents (their words, not mine…see above!) at this time of the year is just not cool. All of us are tapped out. We’re done. We’ve given (especially this group who has done a baby gift for Mrs. J, and a SIGNIFICANT donation to the local food pantry in honor of Mrs. V (the TA)’s son who passed away unexpectedly during the school year.) generously to each of the causes that was tossed our way. I don’t see why a “school spirit” activity needs to be foisted back on the parents. I’m not comfortable with that.

I’ve emailed Mrs. M for her suggestions as well as sent an email back to the “committee”-it is 2 people-that’s hardly a committee-telling them exactly what I think of this whole thing, in a very controlled way. Considering one is a teacher I might end up with for Isaac in 3rd grade…I don’t want to be too mean here.

At this time of the year, when all of us are going insane in one way or another getting ready for summer, with under 2 weeks left in the year to ask for this, is just mind blowing.

Seriously.

School Spirit Committee- You’ve GOT to be kidding me here!

*Guest Ringmaster!* Gamer Moms Don’t Suck!

Today, I’d love to introduce you to Lindsay!  Lindsay is your Guest Ringmaster today while I go off to fight the good fight with Sears Auto. Again.  Lindsay is a girl near and dear to my heart- Gamer, Mom, and all around fun person!  Thanks for taking over the 3 Ring Circus today, Lindsay! 

Okay, you all know Laura, yes? I’m Lindsay from Lindsay Blogs and I share a bit of a kindred spirit with Laura. We are both gamer moms. There are many different levels of “Gamer Mom”ness and I’m here to clarify a bit. There seems to be a bit of a misconception that “Gamer Moms” are, by definition, terrible mothers who neglect their children and have tunnel vision aimed directly at their computer screens.

The following paragraphs may contain statistics and certain claims that are in no way scientifically proven. All percentages are completely made up and should not be used for a research paper or anything.

Mario Moms

Our first group of gamer moms to explore are what I like to call “Mario Moms.” These moms are your moms who think that Mario is still the #1 game in town. They say things like Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side:

“Put away that PlayBox thingy and do your homework!”

These moms try to be “cool” with their kids and attempt to play with them, but they think that jumping the controller will actually make the character on the screen jump higher. These are the “gamer moms” who are not really gamer moms in any way, shape or form.

Friday Night Moms

While there is probably another level between Mario Moms and Friday Night Moms, I’m going jump right into it. This group of moms really enjoy playing video games (real ones, not Mario Kart) on the weekends every once in a while and might even have a game night with their friends who also enjoy video games. Based on what I know, I bet Laura falls somewhere in this category.

Casual Gamer Moms

This is the category that I used to fall into. I’m currently a Recovering Gamer Mom (more to come on that later), but I used to spend  a few hours (or less) each night after the kids went to bed playing World of Warcraft. I didn’t play when my kids were awake and I still attended to their every need. These moms are the ones that gamer geek boys thing are super awesome (or sad, they might just think I’m sad) and most other moms simply can’t relate. There are varying levels of Casual Gamer Moms – some are more casual than others and some are more hardcore without being hardcore.

Hardcore Gamer Moms

That brings us to the epitome of gamer mom. These are the ones that give the rest of us a bad name. These moms spend hours upon hours every day chasing pixels on a screen in hopes of attaining gamer fame. These are the moms that neglect every obligation in order to keep playing whatever game they are addicted to. For the perfect example of this type of gamer mom, you will need to watch The Guild and look for the character named “Clara.” She is the absolute epitome of Hardcore Gamer Moms. Those poor kids.

Recovering Gamer Moms

This is my current categorization. I used to be a Casual Gamer Mom (I was a Hardcore Gamer before I was a mom) and finally overcame the addiction to World of Warcraft about a month ago. I have given up “the game” before (once for as long as a year) and always seem to relapse. This time, however, I have no desire to play again, so I don’t think there’s a worry of relapse this time around. Plus, I have too much other stuff taking up all my time! Now I might fall into the Friday Night Mom category.

Alright, so we’ve discussed the different levels of “Gamer Moms” and we’re clear that not all moms who play video games are negligent, right? I’ve seen far too many articles written about how bad “gamer moms” are and I think it’s about time we clear the air of the whole thing. It’s nonsense, really. Now, excuse me. I have some Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to play.

 

Thanks again, Lindsay! Wanna come over and play Street Figher? hrm?