February - Def. 'Neverending Month In The Middle Of A Long-Ass Winter'.

[dodger_sister]

Has it really been a week since I posted last? Damn. Uh, let’s see…I felt pretty crappy on Tuesday, but then I slept 11 straight hours, completely out cold and I felt great on Wednesday. I managed to get a bunch of stuff done, some things that had been piling up. On Thursday, I went for my monthly labwork and the girl there - (yes, she was a ‘girl’, she seemed so young) - stuck me twice and couldn't get it. Normally my rule is to give them two sticks and then ask for their supervisor, but I've had the supervisor draw me before and she never gets it either. Thankfully The BFF (awesome as she is) was staying the night and offered to bring me back the next day when my normal tech was there. My tech is in her 60s now, so idek what I'll do when she retires. After the lab, it was off to the eye doctor, which is an hour away. From the time I got up and started getting ready until we finally got home and collapsed, it was an almost seven hour day, which is way too much for me. So the rest of the day was a complete wash, and also my eyes were dilated so I couldn’t even get on my Ipad!

On Friday, I ran errands but I started getting this killer headache. Then my sister took us out to dinner, which was nice as we rarely do that, but by the time we got home, I felt like I was underwater and everything was moving in slow-motion. Even my sister was like, "Are you okay? You are walking really slow." I went to bed early that night. Saturday I felt pretty good, but this time it was my sister who was sick. She's started coughing again and it has gotten to sounding really nasty. She saw a doc and they said nothing was wrong with her, but doctors are idiots as she's clearly sick. So I watched TV with her all day, but I figured one day of sitting around being lazy, after that week, was fine.

I really intended to do something on Sunday, I swear. Yet somehow I ended up doing nothing on Sunday as well. bugeyedmonster linked to all these fascinating articles that I ended up reading all day. One interesting thing is that one of the Phelps children has left the Westboro Baptist Church now. I was also interested in the article about why families with beliefs like the Duggars - (19 Kids and Counting) - don't believe in adoption, because every time I see them on TV I get kind of pissed off. If you can afford to have 19 kids, maybe you should try helping some who don't even have a home or a family. But apparently they have some reasoning behind their belief. I still don't agree with them, but it was an interesting read. I ended up reading a bunch of stuff on that blog and before I knew it, it was dark outside. bugeyedmonster always links to such interesting articles, it makes up for the fact that I don't listen to NPR. Then I guess I was in a 'social issues' mood because I ended up watching a documentary about street kids in Romania, titled Children Underground. Apparently when it was a Communist country, birth control was outlawed in an effort to produce more of a work force, which resulted in an overflow of unwanted children. When Communism fell, all of these kids were turned out on the street. I highly recommend this movie, but just don't watch it right before bed.

Once I was in bed, my lower back starting hurting and then I cramped up and bam, I got hit hard with my Awesome Time of Month like out of nowhere. Usually I can tell when it is coming but this one snuck up on me. On Monday, I found myself literally doubled over at my computer desk with cramps. So I basically spent the whole day with my friend, the heating pad. Today the cramps are much better, but my throat feels like an army of red ants marched through it last night. It burns, precious, it burns. And I have a nasty dry cough to go with it.

But I broke through my writer’s block on my Johanna/Annie fic and today my sister brought me chocolate and I got my Valentine’s Day cards for the kids in the family sent out and Buddy snuggled with me all last night. He even brought his own little baby doll (it’s a miniature Bert from Sesame Street) to bed with us for a cuddle.

So, that was my week. How were yours?

Comments

[vikingprincess]

HOw was my week?

Me: (to the four worst kids in one of my classes) Let's be perfectly clear, here. If you do not take this practice test, which WILL count as a grade for you, seriously; if you disrupt the room in any way, I will be referring you to the office.

Them: Okay, we understand.

(ten minutes later during test, students are poking, kicking, calling each other names, out of seats, talking, and throwing things.)

Me (at end of test): All right, you will all be receiving referrals. (Explains why, shows list of notes taken during test time as they ignored being told to stop ___ annoyance over and over again.)

Them: Why? We didn't do nothin'.

Me: (serious fantasies of murder)

One of them: I didn't say that.

Another of them: She just gonna lie about you anyway, don't bother tryna talk to her.

Me: (You assholes have no idea how lucky you are to be walking out of this room instead of being tucked unconscious into an ambulance after my efforts to literally knock some fucking sense into your tiny pea brains.)

So yeah. My week.

[vikingprincess]

But YAY for you on breaking through your writer's block!

[dodger-sister.livejournal.com]

Yay, elephant on a trampoline icon! Thank you! That fic has been sitting around for six months now (wow, I just did the math on that and damn). It's nearly finished now though.

[vikingprincess]

Way to go, you!

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

This is where I sometimes say that if I had kids, I'd would really definitely think about sending them to a school with nuns. We would never dare talk to the nuns like that. They ran those classrooms like drill sergeants.

My sister's BF is a BP/resource teacher. Not sure what else that position would be called. He hated teaching in Dallas, because all the kids can't see their problems for their hand in front of their faces, and if you tried to talk to the parents about their kids, the parents would just get defensive.

Then he became a teacher out in a some tiny town in West Texas. He likes it better there, as the parents know how un-educated they are, the parents listen to teacher suggestions, and the kids are all little and puny so it's a bit easier to intimidate them. (Apparently their parents see nothing wrong with feeding them chips and soda all the time, that's why they're undersized. I was wondering if some of the kids' educational problems might be nutritional related.)

Another friend of my sister's (also a teacher) was relating about the difference between working in a wealthy side of town and a poorer side of town.

Wealthy side; when he tried to explain things to parents at parent/teacher conferences, the parents would say "Oh, my little darling would never act up/do anything like that."

Poorer side; After he just told parent about their child backtalking/daydreaming /what have you in class. Parent: "What have I told you!" *pow* "I told you not to be acting like that!" *slap slap*

It surprised him the first time, but after that he thought it was great that he could count on the support of the parents with any issues. (I think there were a few who gave him their phone numbers so he could call them and they could run down to the school right away.)

[vikingprincess]

You get both the "my little darling would never" and the "how dare you not work, you're on punishment" parental attitudes at my school, probably because we have the extremes of financial situations and levels of education among the parents here. Unfortunately, even having the phone numbers of these four kids' parents, and their emails, and many conversations, has not changed the kids' behavior in the slightest. So... yeah.

[dodger-sister.livejournal.com]

Babe, ugh, no. That sounds dreadful. Stupid punk ass kids. I think about the kids I used to hang out with and then I see other teengers around now and I think, "Were we that foul-mouthed and ill-behaved? Why did no one beat any sense into us?"

I do not relish your job. See, this is why I was more interested in early childhood education. Sure those kids threw tantrums like nobody's business, but I never got so disrespected that I had the urge to knock out anyone's teeth.

/valentine's hug/

[vikingprincess]

Thanks - wrote another one of them up yesterday for using the word "Fuck" twice in two questions during class. Loved doing it, too. That's TWO referrals for him from me this week... and I used to MAAAAYBE write two referrals a semester total.

Guess he'll be invited to leave the school.

Yay, hugs! :D Have one back. *hugs*

[ceitfianna]

*hugs you* That sounds like an awful week. Mine's off to a rocky start but once I get through it, there's break. The real hump is the Thursday review and I can do that, I know I can.

Then on Saturday, I will come visit and bring movies and possibly banana bread or muffins or something as I bought too many bananas. I hope the sun comes out soon as this is a grey month.

[dodger-sister.livejournal.com]

Thank you, darling. It feels a lot like we were talking about last week - that this winter has dragged on for so long and everything feels so 'blah'. I know, it gets like this every February but the addition of this nasty cold does not help (bring your vitamins this weekenbd, we'd hate to get you sick!)

Hey, the sun came out yesterday for a bit! I even let the cats go out on the porch for about an hour.

[bugeyedmonster.livejournal.com]

I should also recommend the rest of the articles and essays on No Longer Qivering. I had no idea that there was such a thing as "spiritual abuse" until I started reading that. I'm wondering if I really really want to read "To Train Up a Child" because it sounds creepy.

I so have to go look up that Children Underground. I'd heard about how Romania outlaws birth control and abortion, and had a ton of orphanages. When communism fell, all those orphanages had their doors 'opened'. I remember seeing stuff about them on 20/20 and Frontline (was Frontline around back then?) but a good google search might turn up the early links.

I think most of those kids were born because every woman was *required* to have 5 kids for the state. So they were just given up to the state by the mothers.

PS... hope y'all start feeling better soon. Being sick is no fun.

[dodger-sister.livejournal.com]

I actually ended up reading a ton of stuff on that No Longer Quivering site. I just kept following link after link from one thing to the next. Have you read the articles on Bill Gothard and his inappropriateness towards the young girls who intern for him? That creeped me out. Before that I just took him as this business man who saw that he could make more money selling to conservatives if he added all these 'values' and 'morals' to his home schooling program. I think that's all crazy, but I did see that it was a sound business plan and he has made money off that. But now I think he may be buying into his own hype, you know.

Frontline, lol. That is a show I haven't heard about in a long time. Yes, do watch Children Underground. Be prepared to have your heart broken though.

Thank you, I do feel a little better. I am sneezing like crazy and my throat is still sore but the coughing has gone down to a minimum now. Maybe it'll pass soon. /xxx fingers/

[shirebound]

Oh noes, that's an awful week and no mistake.

*tucks you back in with chocolates and soft kitties*

[dodger-sister.livejournal.com]

Thank you, darling. It was a never-ending week for sure. I am still sick but other than that, things are going better this week.

*tucks you back in with chocolates and soft kitties*

Chocolate and kitties are the perfect remedy!