August 15, 2014

Two things I keep forgetting. The first, I came back to a marker-covered desk. Permanent marker. All over the place. It was obviously done by the hand of a small, unsupervised child. I'm assuming one belonging to Boys & Girls Club. I was pretty annoyed. I borrowed some cleaning stuff from the librarian and it managed to fade the marker a tiny bit but that was about it. I think it may have worked on a desk with a laminate top or something similar, but my desk is metal. I think powder coated metal. I scrubbed with great fervor but the paint was starting to lighten so I gave up. I just try to ignore it now.

The second thing. The other day a couple of classes went to a nearby park for recess. While the kids played the teachers were approached by an angry mother and grandma who were there with seven kids. The grandma wanted to know why they were there and one of the teachers explained that the playground at school was currently under construction. The grandma told them that the kids could have played in the grass next to the playground. And the teacher explained that they couldn't because the whole area was a construction zone with dangerous equipment. The grandma didn't like that and told the teachers that this was a public park and it wasn't meant for them. Um... so it's a selectively public park? The grandma told them that she was going to call the principal and the school board. I don't know about the school board but she did end up calling the principal and complaining. The principal thanked her for the call. It would be nice if the grandma ended up calling the school board because maybe it would speed up work on the playground.

I spent a good portion of my day yesterday getting Type To Learn 4 ready for classes to use and today we had the first test. And it was a complete failure. By no fault of my own, thankfully, but it was still incredibly frustrating. When the first kid tried to log in, they couldn't. I tried it just to make sure and it didn't work. Then I logged in as an administrator and when I clicked on the management button I was greeted by an empty student list. There wasn't a student in the entire district. What the crap. They told us last year that scores would be wiped at the end of each year but I didn't think they meant they were going to delete all the students from the system. There is a button in the student management section that wipes the scores, you don't actually need to delete the student and start from scratch. I am hoping that today was some sort of transition period and they're just moving the database to a new location or maybe updating something. I really don't want to have to manually create accounts for a couple hundred kids.

On a more productive note, although at the moment pointless, I got Type To Learn installed on one of the fourth grade laptop carts and seven laptops in the other cart. Not bad considering it takes for freaking ever to install the program. And then almost as long to delete the one gigabyte install file from the laptop.

I made a short trip out to the preschool trailer today to install a printer. I couldn't get wireless to work without plugging the printer into the network, and the network outlet was in an inconvenient place, so the preschool teacher decided she was fine with just plugging the printer into her computer when she needed to print.

Most of my afternoon was spent making a few sheets that have pictures of all the teachers and staff, with their names and position. I nearly finished it but I need pictures of the new paras, which the secretary said she would try to get on Monday.

Tonight I agreed to dog sit for my friend's mom next weekend. She texted me yesterday, and I thought it was her because I recognized the dog's name, but it also could have been a complete stranger. I texted my friend to see if that was his mom's number (because I only have her home phone number) and never heard back, so I looked it up on the internet and was able to confirm it was her. She texted again today to say it was her, because she had forgotten that part, so all my research was unnecessary. She said in her first text that she had heard through the grapevine that I was a really good dog sitter. I have no idea where that rumor started but it has been persistent. Last year the librarian and one of the paras became convinced I was a good dog sitter. I have no idea why but they got it in their heads. There have always been dogs in my house, since the time I was born until the present, but I have never once looked after someone else's dog. It's just a very random rumor to have about oneself. I guess it's better than having salacious ones floating around. Anyway, I agreed to it and I'm going to go over Tuesday to get instructions. It will apparently also involve the watering of flowers and putting water in a fountain. I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of staying at someone's house when they aren't there but I'm always trying to push my comfort zone, though I am rarely successful. In the past couple of days I have actually made an effort to carry on a conversation by asking questions, rather than just waiting for the other person to talk. So minor successes have been made.

Tomorrow will hopefully be another success, when I have to drive down for my graduate school orientation. It's a pretty straightforward drive, and I there recently with my mom and sister when I had my interview, but sitting in the backseat on the drive is a little different than actually driving. I am notorious for psyching myself out and taking exits way before the one I should be taking. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.

I spent tonight looking at directions and I not only printed them out but also saved them on my phone. I plan on taking the “familiar” way down, which is how we went for my interview, but then coming back a different way, which should be slightly faster. I want to go down that way because it brings me into town right by the university, rather than having to drive through town with the other route, but I don't want to risk missing a turn and getting there late. If the new route coming home is a success I think that is the one I'll probably use when I have to go back during the semester for classes.

I'm feeling pretty anxious about the whole thing. Not just the drive but also finding my way to the meeting room and then interacting with strangers all day. I am more often than not a solo person but I also don't like engaging in new experiences on my own, hence why I don't engage in a lot of new experiences. But this will be another perfect opportunity to go way outside of my comfort zone. So far into uncharted uncomfortable territory. I am also really looking forward to it though, because this is the long-awaited start to grad school and hopefully a future I will be happy with. Or at the very least a job that requires a college degree. The ultimate goal.