August 26, 2014

Currently, Tuesday is the day of the week where I don't have a class until 1:30PM. This will change soon when literacy centers start in kindergarten because I will be helping out down there for at least a half hour in the morning. But for now, I've got nothing. Today I spent my morning continuing to cut word cards for the second grade teacher. I did that most of the day actually. I started around 8:15AM and cut until noon. In the afternoon I had three classes in the lab but other than that hour and a half in the lab, I was in the workroom cutting. It made for a long day. Also a relatively quick day. I kind of just zoned out all day and got lost in my head. I can't remember what my schedule is like tomorrow but I might be able to finish the cutting phase. With some rough math I figure I've got about an hour and a half of cutting left. Hooray for that. But then I've got to move to the hole-punch phase. I foresee that being a bitch. It almost definitely will take me longer to complete than the cutting. And be worse on my wrists. My plan at the moment is to use some masking tape to make guides on the three-hole punch in the workroom so I can use at least two of the hole punches at a time, doubling my output. Three would be nice but I'm not sure about that. I also hope I can do more than a couple sheets of cardstock at a time.

I had a lot of interaction with fellow staff members today thanks to being in the workroom every time they would come in. I spoke with many of them several times throughout the day and they were always surprised that I was still cutting paper. And glad that I still had all of my fingers. One of the first grade teachers was telling me yesterday about her son cutting himself and having to go to the hospital. Today, one of the SPED teachers told me that when she was a para she lost her concentration for a second and cut off the tip of her thumb. The teacher she was talking to drove her to the hospital and after the nurse at the ER chewed her out about not having the missing piece, two of the teachers back at school dug through the trash (because the custodian had already cleaned up the mess) and found the tip, bringing it to the hospital so they could reattach it. It was successful but she said she doesn't have any feeling in it anymore. I hope I maintain my clean record. I didn't even get a paper cut today. One of the fifth grade teachers cut only a few sheets of paper today and managed to get a paper cut. Let's hope I can keep the streak going.

One of the paras brought up my cross stitching today because she is interested in having me make something for her. She said last year before she even knew who I was she heard about my inappropriate cross stitching. I told her to come up with what she wanted and I would make up a pattern. At first she was thinking about something for her kitchen, and came up with a phrase but I can't remember it. When we were looking at possible borders in the lab I ended up coming across a cross stitch that said “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, you're fucking disgusting.” That became an instant favorite so there is a chance I'll end up making that one.

The last class in the lab today was third grade and they seemed to be a ticking time bomb of illness. One kid threw up in the hallway on the way to the lab, one went to the nurse during lab time, a few others weren't feeling well, and the student intern felt sick. All that leads me to believe sickness is in my near future. I even started feeling a bit flushed by the end of the day but I think it was just from standing all day in the workroom with the air conditioning blowing on me, freezing me out. I feel better now so I'm going with that.

After work I stopped by the bank to deposit my dog sitting money and then went to Target to buy stuff. I got food and orange juice and wanted to get a planner or calendar of some sort to keep track of school stuff but couldn't find one.

I packed a little bit when I got home but it was very halfhearted. Didn't even come close to filling a box. I blame getting distracted by some of my old cellphones. Those of the flip variety. There were so small and compact. I miss them. I liked being able to carry more in my pocket than my phone. Two of the phones were by Samsung and I discovered something interesting. The rubber on the oldest one (the cover for the headphone jack and the bumpers, had started to dissolve. It had basically become a thick, sticky liquid. Very weird. The rubber bumpers on the slightly newer one had also started to dissolve but wasn't completely liquified yet. I've heard of old batteries leaking but not rubber dissolving.

I watched the first official lecture for one of my classes tonight. Later this week the instructor is going to post a discussion based on the two chapters we are supposed to read this week. We will then need to write a response as well as respond to two other students' responses. I made it into the second chapter this weekend but I will probably end up re-reading everything because I can't remember it off the top of my head. I also need to continue reading the book for the other class and see if I can figure out how to do the reading journal. I am hoping the instructor will post an example.

Right now I am listening to some Me First And The Gimme Gimmes because they released a new album this year and I just learned about it last week. I'm a fan and they've still got it. At the moment I like the old stuff better but that is almost always the case. Nostalgia makes everything better. Also, it seems that in general, myself and maybe most people, will always like what they originally fell in love with better than what comes after. Even if the band does get better with each new album. I can really like the new stuff but the old stuff has a deeper connection.

But enough of that. I wanted to get to bed earlier tonight and it is already 11:30PM. Not what I wanted. So I'm going to stop now so I can at least beat midnight.