redpencil

correction, i have to do this for about 20 days. but at least now i can say "two down!"

just graded about 100 papers - short response, math problems, science journals ... and i still have so much energy it's scary. i've been getting up at 5.45 to get to work before 7 a.m. ... was beginning to think i'd have to start taking speed or something, but good old fashioned java still does the trick for me.

in other news, i'm now completely out of money. you ask what, in this case, am i then doing at sbucks? well, every so often i check under the sofa cushions and under my seat in the car, and sometimes i shake the kids down for their lunch money (just KIDDING! put that phone down!!). today i ate a carrot for lunch. at least i'm getting vitamins a and c (c for caffeine) even if i'm not getting much else. oh yeah, and people are always leaving pre-halloween candy around so i've been eating, i am sorry to say, truckloads of chocolate. i told my c. i was starting to remind myself of elaine in that episode of seinfeld where she starts to boycott the office parties until she realizes that she misses the sugar rush she was getting from all that cake. except that there isn't hundred-years-old chocolate in our fridge. c. did not see the humor, but that's seinfeld, some people just don't get it. lucky them.

department guy came to talk tonight ... according to him, the department is extremely snotty and has the right and the means to be so. according to department guy, we should all go out and buy expensive suits, take meditation courses in preparation for the cattle call interview, and lick our interviewers' boots once we're invited in to that sacred space and that we should jump like idiots at the first sign of interest we are given. oh, please. if i interview at a site where the Boss tells me that his or her philosophy of education is to beat the kids into submission, and then he or she offers me the job, i am going to refuse it, and department guy canNOT tell me that that is not okay. that's an extremely improbable example, but my point is this: DG can't make me believe that we should accept and be grateful for any and every offer that comes our way. no, it's not like shopping at safeway, we won't always get to pick and choose. yes maybe we'll miss out on that opportunity and subsequent others, but i guess you have to decide what's important to you. i personally would think THRICE before working for a principal like the former boss at my kiddiepark site. she was a gun-toting, kid-hating, parent-ass-kissing bitch whose sole mission in life was to make other people feel as small as possible. okay, so she didn't tote a gun, but she was hideous. when i went to her with a sexual harassment complaint, she told me i was imagining things. my point: it's ridiculous to say that we HAVE to grab the first thing that comes along regardless of the situation. f*ck you, is what i really wanted to say. he made some good points tonight, but then, he made some really bad ones.

(i'm not saying it's going to be cake. i'm saying that mutual respect is not too much to ask for.)

'kay, going to grade the next hundred papers ... ta.