November 13, 2013

Turns out today was an early-release day. I had no idea until I got to work this morning and was informed by one of the kindergarteners. I have a little magnet with the district schedule on my desk but I obviously never look at it. So it was a pleasant surprise. But also kind of annoying because Wednesday is usually the day I have the most open time and I planned on making a lot of progress on sixth grade storybooks.

This morning I gave a spelling test to second graders. And almost ended it halfway through and sent them back to their room because they wouldn't stop talking. I am not good at being a stern authority figure.

Shortly after that I went down and helped with kindergarten literacy centers because the parent that was supposed to help didn't show up. It is surprising how often a parent doesn't show up and doesn't call or email or give any acknowledgment.

When I got back to the lab after that I talked to one of the paras about the monkey she owned when she was a kid. Apparently back in the day you could buy spider monkeys out of magazine. The monkey's name was Cindy but the para found out later that Cindy was actually a dude. But his name remained Cindy and was still referred to as a she.

And then it was time for second grade reading groups. The first group I had was good because it was the higher level group and are fairly self-motivated. Then I had the lower level group and it all went downhill. Or more accurately, right off a cliff. They were supposed to listen to a story on CD and follow along in the book. Then listen to it again but read along with it out loud. It took me five minutes just to get them to all sit on the floor. It was like Whac-A-Mole. I'd get one kid to sit down and two others would pop up. It grew quickly frustrating. And in the end the teacher came over and got them all to sit down. Which lasted for about as long as it took her to walk back across the room. We eventually made it through the first round of the story but the second round was a lost cause. Much like trying to keep them all seated. Half of them were never following along, one kid was reading aloud from the wrong page (purposefully), some were laying down not looking at their book, they would randomly close their books, one became obsessed with taping the ripped pages in her book, and in the end only two actually read aloud, but only for one or two pages. I was glad to walk out of their.

Before and after lunch I got a little work done on sixth grade storybooks but not as much as I would like. I also took a look at a laptop that the teacher thought was broken but that was only because she wasn't patient enough. All she had to do was wait ten minutes to get to the log-in screen, ten minutes to actually get to the desktop, and then another five minutes for the computer to not feel like molasses. Totally reasonable for a newish laptop in 2013. And then I figured out another printer issue (maybe) and an iPad thing for the gifted teacher. I could have used a few more hours in my day.

On my way home I stopped by Auto Zone and bought a regular tire gauge. I found my digital ones but I wanted a regular one in case of an emergency so I wouldn't have to rely on technology. I texted my dad to let him know I was done with work early and he ended up getting back to me right as I pulled in my driveway. So I backed out and headed over to his house.

He was on the phone with my uncle when I got there but my sister and brother were their so I talked with them for a bit. Then my dad and I headed out to get tire gauges for him. He wanted to get a couple regular ones to replace the ones my brother had lost, and he wanted to get one that would work on his air compressor. Our first stop was Car Quest but they were way too expensive. More geared towards someone who is going to use the stuff much more frequently than the average consumer. Even their regular tire gauges were almost twice as much as the one I got. So we went to Auto Zone. My dad got a couple regular gauges and then one for his compressor that was forty dollars less than the one they had at Car Quest.

We found out when we got back to the house that the forty dollars was probably a warning sign. The little nub thing inside that mixes with the nub on the tire to let air in kept getting stuck, and the gauge didn't really work. It kept reading 40psi regardless. On the plus side the little lever on it to operate the compressor was pretty nice. We ended up using several different gauges (the two regular ones my dad bought and the two digital ones I had) on the first two tires just see and we got slightly different readings on all of them. So we picked the regular one that seemed to show a fairly consistent reading.

After finishing we sat and talked for a bit before I had to head out. I stopped and got gas on my way to Chipotle. The place I usually get gas shutdown and my secondary place recently changed from Conoco to Cenex. Kind of annoying because the only reason I got a Conoco card was to build my credit. Whatever. The new computer system is a little confusing because you have to put in your card information first but the information from the last person to get gas is still displayed so it feels like you are paying for that. And then after I filled up a message popped up saying the sale had been canceled and I needed to go in and talk to a clerk. But it seemed to be a little glitchy because mixed in with that message was a 'Yes' and 'No'. So I hit 'Yes' and it printed out a receipt. And then the screen eventually flipped back over to the welcome screen. So I drove off. I just checked my bank account and it shows the transaction so I think I'm good.

I made it to Chipotle shortly before 5:30PM and ended up having to take several laps around the block before getting a parking spot. Then I waited in line for close to a half an hour to order my food. This is why I usually go right after work and put it in the fridge until dinner. The burrito is better when it is just made and not reheated but it's not really worth the hassle of trying to find a parking spot and then waiting in line. And speaking of burritos, mine was really good tonight. The brown rice didn't have even a hint of brown rice taste, which is always a good thing.

The rest of the night just kind of happened. Pretty fast it seems. I watched a show on PBS about parrots because they were talking about it on NPR today and it sounded pretty interesting. And it was. Depressing and uplifting and informative and other things, all at the same time. My favorite part was the story of Lou. I like happy endings.

I also looked into more phone cases and ended up buying a new one so I can replace my current one. It was a nice case until I dropped my phone last night and a piece broke off and my phone got a nick in it. Kind of defeats the purpose of a protective case. My new one should offer a lot more protection.

And here we are once again, past my bedtime.