Half A Day In The Life Of HM

Thank the Gummi Mary we have another day off. Those 8 loads of laundry kind of took up my entire day. That's what happens when I don't have time to do some of it every night. Not that I enjoy it or anything.

Of course, I managed to pass the time between loads by watching Sling Blade. Mmmhmm. We used to have a teacher that the kids compared to Carl. Mmmhmm. They said he talked in a monotone just like that guy in Sling Blade. We told him at the lunch table, and Mr S rented it for him so he could watch what he sounded like. Mmmhmm.

Friday was a busy day at school, what with printing rosters and seating charts, and getting the last-minute grades put in and printing them for our not-gradebook. In fact, Mr S somehow beat me to the copier at lunch. That's quite a feat, as he is almost as far down the hall as Mabel's room. You can't go any lower than Mabel. She's the end of the line. But my room is the very closest to the copier. Mr S must have gotten a head start. Oh, and when I saw him at the copier, I laid down my papers and said, "I'm marking my territory. I'm next in line, in case anybody else comes in." He nodded. I went into the women's bathroom, saying over my shoulder, "Be sure anybody knows I'm next." I had no sooner flushed the toilet (so sorry if that's too much info for you) when I heard another of our lunchies come in and ask if Mr S was almost done. He said, "Yes." And that was all! Fie on him! I marked my territory! I call foul!

I came out of the bathroom to see Lunchie push the start button. "WHO has butted into my place in the copy line?" I bellowed. "Usurper!" Might as well get it out in the open. No use pussy-footing around with the lunch crowd. Mr S made a quick exit. Lunchie stammered, "Uh...I just have one set." I hounded her a bit more. We're related. Don't tell anybody. "Didn't S tell you? I put my papers right here because I was next." I picked them up and waved them. She looked nervous. I think I could take her. I think she thinks so, too. "If you leave them here, I'll run them for you and put them in your mail box," she offered. "No. I'll do them myself. But I won't have time for lunch." Which is exactly what happened. Oh, I tried to eat my lunch at my computer, as I finished printing yet a NEW seating chart and roster to add to my sub folder, which had been handed in two days early, thank you very much, because we were told three days early that not enough of us had turned them in, but somehow a new kid was added to the roster around 10:00 on the day the sub folders were due, so the info in mine was already obsolete, as they are to be kept current, and this just happens to be a kid who was on my roster to start with, but the computer dropped him, messing up my roster and seating chart the first time.

Anyhoo, that was just a side story, an added bonus, since what I really set out to say was that it was unheard of for three of us from our lunch shift to be trying to catch up at the copier during lunch. When you have the sub folder due, and the not-gradebook, then something's gotta give, and in our cases, it seemed to be the copies we needed for student instruction in the afternoon classes. Funny how this new gradebook system is so time-consuming when it was supposed to save us time. Not funny ha ha, but funny peculiar. Most of the teachers were scrambling to get those thingies printed for the not-gradebook. And I even stay after school for an hour or more every day. Soon, we will have to move in and live at school during the week.

And we laughed when we were told years ago that the school was going to serve breakfast. "Ha ha. What's next, feeding them supper, too?" Yeah. Our elementary does that now.

The times, they are a-changin'.