Old Dogs and Spinning Plates

Some people are simply amazing in their ability to accomplish a ton of stuff in less time that it takes most of us to get dressed.  You have people in your life like this, I’m sure.  Maybe you are one of them.

For me, back in college, it was the sorority sisters who could hold an office in our house (a demanding and time consuming leadership position often requiring additional meetings outside our own membership meetings), work, hold student body leadership positions on campus, carry a 4.0 GPA in a fairly rigorous academic course of study (or maybe even two) and still manage to have a social life.

Currently, it is those folks who can juggle more things and accomplish more things in a day than I can even think about.  I’m a plodder.  I’m a deliberate person.  I have to plan then I can do.  I’m great as long as I don’t stretch myself too thin, but once stretched things start, well, falling apart. I can only keep so many plates spinning in the air for so long.

I’ve never been one of those people.  When overbooked, I tended to crash and burn…or I felt like it from my perspective.

Things are different these days. 

Currently, I’ve exceeded my limits, both in terms of number of plates spinning and the duration of the spins on each plate. 

In short, I’m kind of surprising myself.  I’m overbooked and I’m not crashing and burning.  I’m flying.  Okay, tonight I’m hobbling, but most of the time it is more like flying than hobbling so I can’t complain.

I love to work hard and have my game on.

I love to play hard and enjoy doing nothing related to work in the off times.

(I’ve been accused of not liking to go to work.  This is so not true.  I love the work I do.  I simply hate the process of waking up every day!)

And today, after an especially long day, where I slept fitfully, at best, the night before, I am glad to be home.  I am glad to be done.  I am also glad to have done it all, and I am pleased to have done it well. 

Tonight, I finished the seventh night of working with parents. 

My computer froze during the presentation.  (Last week’s presentation was even more humorous, but that’s for another time and place.) I had no presentation for the last half hour of the session and had to wing it once again thanking my experience in debate and theater for helping me to get through without appearing flustered though I felt very flustered.

My body cramped up and I could hardly stand. (I’m an ex-theater person so I can fake it through almost anything and I did tonight.)

All that, after a day with kids who have no idea the weather is gloomy and are experiencing Spring Fever anyway, in order to come home to more of the same with my own four children. (Who by the way, really were amazing when I got home tonight.) 

I’m exhausted.

My body hurts.  (Starting up a workout routine can really bite.)

But I read feedback forms from my presentation that were positive and encouraging in spite of the glitches I experienced.

It all goes to show that things are not always what they seem. 

Things you might think are bad are not always unpleasant.

And sometimes, we are quite capable of surprising ourselves.

This is why I will always believe that old dogs can learn new tricks if the dog is motivated enough to do so.

Sometimes, it just feels downright good to step out of the comfort zone and attempt something, to risk failing, to succeed instead, and to simply enjoy how good it feels to have done what you set out to do, in spite of frozen computers, aching bodies and too many spinning plates.

Some People

Some people are just real downers. 

These are the people who take everything happy and good and fun and find something wrong with it.

These are the folks who feel it is their duty to caution you.  It is impossible for them to ever rejoice with you…or anyone else.

They are filled with the worst possible scenario every minute of every day and they take precaution, caution and looking at life realistically to new levels.

They fill me with dread, doubt, fear and anxiety.

I worked with people like this for 8 years and was able to get along with them but the stress I endured was incredible.  I just wasn’t aware of it till I quit working with them. 

I simply can’t be around people who are over the top negative and cautious like this. Really, I am bad enough if left to my own devices.  I don’t need any help here.  I need to surround myself with “glass half full” types not “glass half empty and there’s nothing you can do to change it” types.

It’s just not healthy for me!  They stress me out.  Life is better than they say it is.  It is less dangerous than they suppose and for me to say that…well…that just tells you something!

Flagger Comedian Makes Me Seek Out Road Crews For A Good Laugh

Some people just know how to take a potentially stressful situation and turn it around so everyone around is laughing and relaxed. I was able to observe this principle in action this week in one of the most surprising ways. On Thursday, they were doing some road work at one of the busiest and most confusing intersections in our little city.  This intersection is not the busiest in the entire city, but it is the busiest and most confusing in the entire city.  It is one of those strange designs where three streets join and none of them are perpendicular, so there is no exact street corner.  Add to this the addition confusion of a couple of side streets joining this intersection, but not exactly at the intersection, and a mini mart sort of deal with a parking lot with exits and entrances to the main thouroughfares right in the middle of the mess and you have the potential for some really incredible accidents or backed up traffic.  I’ve experienced both.  Put a flagger and some road repair people out there and you have the perfect recipe for long waits, confusion, frustration, tempers and the like.  Of course, I would never become annoyed at a situation like this, because I just use it as an opportunity to a.) finish putting on make up if it is on the way to work and b.) text one of the kids about the afternoon plans if is after work.  I’m pretty good at making the most of those little minutes at stop signs in my traumatic 7-minute commute each day.  It’s just too bad I don’t do this with the rest of my day, but I digress.

On Thursday, the city had men out surveying this particular area of the roads and it created even more than the usual confustion.  As I pulled up to the flagger, who was directing three directions of traffic with a sign that only had two sides, “Slow” and”Stop”, I thought this could be interesting. I braced myself for a long wait and cracked my window a bit so I could hear his instructions if I needed to.

The first thing I realized was he was yelling at the commuters!  Not in an angry tone but in a theatrical type easily projected voice.  It really got my attention.  I rolled my window down a little more. 

“I’ll get you through in just a minute!”  He yelled at the guy in the oncoming lane as he frantically motions to the people in the other oncoming lane to hurry up.  “Hurry up!  We don’t have all day!” 

“Okay, your turn!”  He motions to me and I shift my car into first (I always forget to do that when I stop).  “Oh, too late!” the flagger said as he flips the sign facing me to Stop.  He looked over and smiled, “You’ve got to be faster than that!” 

By this time I was cracking up.  I eventually got through that intersection and headed on my way to work. 

Later that day for lunch, my student teacher and I decided to go out somewhere instead of eating the school lunch of the day. Of course, we had to pass the flagger again. As we approached the bizarre intersection I told her to roll her window down for a good laugh.  She did and sure enough Flagger Comedian was in full gear. 

“Hey!  Won’t be too long now!”  he yelled at us.  He was right.  We were on our way before we knew it in spite of the conjestion and confusion.  As we drove to lunch laughing at the guy I realized a really great life lesson:  People who are really  good their jobs and who make work fun really rock!  I loved going by that road work mess all day long!!!!  The longer I was stopped the better I liked it.  This guy was great.  Really!

That guy took a potentially tense and disastrous situation and turned it around just by having fun with it.  He didn’t change any of us.  He merely infected us with his humor and demeanor.  Not one person at the intersection while I was there was angry, ticked off or upset.  Traffic ran smoothly and no one waited excessively long. 

I wonder if he’s that much fun at home?

A Million Ideas

I have a million ideas just waiting to be penned, and no time to spare.

If I don’t get going, I’ll be late for work…and that would not be a good thing…especially today of all days. 

Sigh. 

It’ll have to keep for tomorrow.

75 Degrees & Crazy April

See Cat Stressed

Today it is a rockin’ 75 degrees outside.  This is the first in a series of really brutal weeks that will make up my April.  I’m calling it Crazy April. If  I make it successfully through this week, I will be nothing short of very impressed with me. If I make it through the month, I am going to celebrate.

First, grades are due this week, by the end of the day Wednesday.  I was busy straight through the weekend, unable to get much grading done and none today.  That means that tomorrow and Wednesday, are the only two days I have to get grades in and I can’t do this during school hours because usually I’m sitting back watching t.v. and eating bon bons teaching.  I say, usually, because I have a student teacher in my room who is doing her practicum and thus, I am relieved of most of my teaching duties, but none of my grunt labor supervisory duties. 

Today,  all by my lonesome, I had to make sure all the invitations to our Math After School Club for 140 students were printed, folded, labeled and delivered to classrooms so teachers could send them out today.  That Club starts next week and will run through the end of the month. I’m in charge of organizing it.  This means I’m scheduling nine teachers and four aides, coordinating schedules, gathering materials, training, communicating and basically running my butt off (this is a good thing) to make this thing happen. Oh, yeah, and I’m also responsible for coordinating the snack.  Yeah, this ought to be good!

Today, was the start of our After School Science Club which will run all week.  I am teaching a play with stuff and get pretty messy Hands On Science Inquiry segment.  This, like the Math Club, will take up all my after school planning time.  Fortunately, I can rely on my student teacher for some of that.  I’m glad she’s so competent.  This entire scenario would be a nightmare if she were not.  I must make a point to thank her and tell her how wonderful she really is.

The big finale is the Professional Development Class that I will crash and burn teach on May First.  This one has me in fits…well…it just does.  There’s nothing worse than teaching teachers.

Of course, in addition to all these things, life’s normal demands still exist.  For example, tonight, my second oldest daughter told me her play rehearsals changed from being over at 6 to starting at 6 and going till 8.  This completely wipes out the plans I made with my oldest daughter to go shopping for a prom dress after she gets off at 6.  Somewhere in all this mess I have to fit in dinner. 

So, it is a rockin’ 75 degrees outside and I am not able to be out in it grading papers.  Instead, I’m here, offgassing some of the stress of my week and celebrating the fact that I made it through Day 1 of Crazy April. 

When it is all over, I’ll have a few additional dollars in my paycheck and this will be a great thing.  I’ve already decided that I’m buying 2 tickets to the Special Olympics Wine, Food & Chocolate tasting event on May 2nd which is the day after all this ends.  I’m going to treat a special friend ( identity yet to be determined) and I’m just going to go and celebrate a month well done.  But I have to get there first! 🙂

Glorious! Glorious!

There are days that just go so gloriously well it can’t even be imagined.  There are other days that become so gloriously comical it can’t even be believed.  Then there are other days that just so beautifully and gloriously shine indications of summer upon you that you can’t despair.

Today was all of those for me.

It went gloriously well in spite of many opportunities for potential disaster.  No disasters.  All success.

It was gloriously comical in that after I completed the wonderful parenting presentation to parents…I went home and had immediate cause to implement everything I’d talked about in order to keep child 3 from destroying child 4.  Well, maybe destroying is quite and extreme term but if you are a parent, you know exactly what I mean.

And, as I traveled home for a brief break between school and evening presentation the sun hit my rear view mirror at just the right angle as to be blinding.  The entire late afternoon was swathed in gold reminiscent of a summer sunset. Had the temps outside been something other than the 50 degrees they were, even I might have mistaken this afternoon for a midsummer’s afternoon dream.  Sigh. 

I hate the months of January, February and March.  I’m such a summer and fall type person.  Today had every indication of being a beautiful summer day, except for the dismal number on thermometer. 

I am enjoying the longer days, the later sunsets and the increasingly warmer temps.  I long for summer. 

Summer is simply glorious!

It Feels Like Finals Week To Me!

Here’s when you know you spend way too much time on the computer:

This is me lately.  I’ve spent the better part of this last weekend glued to my computer.  Sadly, I do have to leave to go take care of bodily functions, and feed myself and the other residents of the household.

I have a big parenting presentation that I’m giving  tonight to the parents of the school I work for.  Well, it was supposed to be parents of just our school, but it ended up being opened to other schools in the district to offer to their families…and…well.  What was supposed to be a somewhat small trial run is turning out to be something a bit more than trial or small. I can only hope the numbers are small to begin with since it will be my first run through with this material.  I’m still nervous, even though giving speeches and public presentation was the focus of my entire undergraduate work.  The content of this particular presentation is the focus of my graduate work and of particular interest in my own home since just before my divorce.  In spite of being knowledgeable and practiced, for lack of a better word, I’m still nervous. 

I also have another big presentation on Friday and this one scares me more because I’ll be presenting to the worst possible audience: my own colleagues, teachers.  They’ll do everything the kids do only worse because they are less responsive than children.  I’m also teaching the worst possible topic: technology in the classroom and this week’s focus: web sites for teachers. 

So worst audience + worst topic = complete disaster.

or I could look at it more positively:

Worst Week Of School Year This Year (in terms of extra curricular stress)+ Worst Finale on Friday with Teachers and Technology= Great Excuse To Get The Heck Out Of Dodge This Weekend and Go To The Wine Pairing Seminar With The Beau, more wine tasting afterward, and yadda yadda fun fun!

Sounds like I’ll plan on looking at it more positively. 🙂  

It feels like finals week to me.  This is what I always told myself during finals week.  I said, “Self, there’s nothing you can do to change the time you’ve wasted, lost, not spent studying or preparing.  Your going to go through this week and what the grades are the grades are.  Look on the bright side, a week from now, no one will give a rats a** about any of it, least of all you.  Relax!”

So, that’s what I’m telling myself today. 

But now, I really do have to get back to that computer and get to work…wait…I never left did I?

The Good With The Bad…For Lack of a Better Title

I guess I’m living life in all its reality.  I mean, crap is happening…see my most recent post before this one about the drains in my house.  And the sewer incident was preceeded by my car blowing it’s engine this summer, which was preceeded by a year of trauma with cars, including the rear differential of my 4×4 dropping right out onto the street sometime just before Christmas of last year.  Due to my divorce a year ago…well…almost a year ago, finances have been tighter than I’ve ever known in my entire adult life.  Debt is gradually and consistently getting paid off, and I know I won’t be in this place forever, but because I have no wiggle room, it is nothing short of a crisis when things outside the budget occur.  So, that segment of my life is not the happy part of my reality. 

Along with all the stress associated with having to live so very spartan-like and not having the money for extras of any kind…heck, I don’t even have the money for some of the essentials, at times…life has its joyous elements and moments.  These moments splattered the crappy colors of my otherwise dismal financial reality with hope, energy, love and life. 

For example, due to the dismal situation with my drains, I had to call my first ex to take my three oldest children.  This resulted in them being gone for an entire week which was sad and very disappointing.  On the up side, though, it gave me some concentrated time with my youngest.  She slept with me every night and we were able to spend some fun time together in the evenings in spite of me having to complete some extra projects for work.  This was a very happy result of a somewhat stinky situation.

I also mentioned the plumber coming over and bringing dinner and drinks.  That ended up being very fun, and while it is still too soon to tell anything, he is definitely a decent man with a bit of heart and character to him.  And, he doesn’t have a problem communicating about himself or his thoughts…and even better than that…it appears he is capable of taking responsibility for his actions.  He’s continued to call me, we’ve gotten together one other time since the drain date, and while I’m not holding my breath, I think he will, at least, be a good friend if romance or reality doesn’t completely destroy us first. 

Finally, while I’m working some insane hours because I have about three extra projects I agreed to take on (no I’m not getting paid…yes, I am networking and padding my resume), I am loving every minute.  My students and I have this incredibly positive dynamic going in the classroom, the two other teachers I work with at my grade level are wonderful!  It helps that they are men.  There is no PMS-ing and the stress due to my colleagues having to have every little thing nailed down and signed in blood is completely gone. These two guys are nowhere near the definition of “control freak”.  If I screw up the world doesn’t end, if they need to adjust something I’m way relaxed and able to flex with it.  It soooo works for us…and it works for the kids too.  I enjoyed working with my old team and my other grade level…but…there were points where it was toxic.  Add to that the fact that I could have gone to grade level meetings for years (and did) and never have said one word and no one would have asked my opinion about anything, nor would they have cared.  That is not the case with my current team.  I contribute and they respect it.  I like that.  Plus, I really like the fact that they don’t PMS…

Living life in all its reality.  The good with the bad.  The tough times laced and threaded with really happy, nearly hysterically funny moments.  Moments like the writing session I had this week where a student announced that he was going to share his writing on “How To Kiss a Girl” and I told him and the class, “Wait!  First of all, I hope this will be rated G and in good taste.”  Hmmm, that was almost as bad as the time in my first year of teaching when at the end of the P.E. session I instructed the students to “Hold your balls!” Not so good….but very funny!  The kissing writing ended up being very sweet and very entertaining.  My kids are not afraid to laugh and enjoy our class.  This pleases me, no matter how backed up my drains are. 

The good with the bad.  Three of my kids had to live elsewhere this week and I missed them, but my second oldest got into the choir she tried out for as well as making it into the advanced drama class she auditioned for.  My oldest passed her written driver’s test with flying colors but failed the driving portion.  She’s taking it well and in 28 more days will be trying again.  My son is in cross country and the change to middle school is working very well for him, even though he still hates doing yard work.  At least I’m not having to harp on him about homework.  He does it gladly these days.  I can’t tell you how relieved I am.  One man who expresses interest in getting to know me, goes silent, two more step in to take his place.  The good with the bad. The bad with the good.  Life in all its reality.  It is never totally and completely a perfect fairy tale is it?