May 21, 2015

 I ended up not getting out of bed any earlier than usual this morning but I did gain some time because I forgot I didn't have to make a lunch. So it all worked out.

Today was very reminiscent of past last days of school. When I got to work I worked on cleaning up my desk for awhile and then I went down to find the librarian. I copied the slideshow file to her laptop and then we went to the gym to help set up the projector with the music teacher. It took a little while to get everything positioned just right but we got there.

When it was time for the assembly I sat up front with the librarian, just in front of one of the kindergarten classes. I ended up have kindergarteners randomly sitting on my feet or messing with my watch chain. Kindergarteners have a short attention span. This was my first time sitting up front since probably the last day assembly last year. It is an interesting change from standing in the back.

When it came time for the slideshow the principal had some nice things to say about me but I didn't hear most of it because I was in the presenting zone where I kind of shut down to the outside world. Presentation-wise, the slideshow went really well. I saw the slightest of a stutter on one slide that was probably imperceptible to everyone else, but everything else looked and sounded great. And everyone seemed to like it, so that was cool. I'm glad I decided to go with just the video file and not the DVD.

After the assembly I went and shredded a bunch of papers, once again jamming the shredder in the process. This time I think it was more related to there being too much shredded paper in the bag and that blocking the paper being shredded, so it backed up and got stuck. I spent a long time trying to get all the paper unjammed and I wasn't entirely successful. I managed to get enough free that the shredder was useable but there was still a blockage on the left side that I couldn't do anything about. So I called it good.

From there I went out to the playground to watch the sixth graders play kickball against the adults. I stood and talked with one of the substitutes for awhile and then sat down at one of the tables and talked with my mom and one of the kindergarten teachers, and the substitute again when she joined us later. I'm not sure how long I was out there but it was definitely the most sun I have gotten in awhile.

When the game was over I went back in and printed out MAP reports for the math enrichment teacher because she needed them for Boys & Girls Club. I had completely forgotten about that. I remembered when I first started downloading reports but then in the process of waiting for tests to be deleted and reports to be updated, along with all the other end of the year stuff, getting the reports for the teacher completely slipped my mind. But she has them now.

I also made a certificate for one of the sixth graders. When I was sitting outside I overheard him talking with one of his classmates and he was bummed because he apparently never got a character award this year. It's kind of rigged so every kid gets one, but somehow he didn't. So I made a Certificate of Achievement that was “In recognition of only spilling your juice box on a keyboard once this entire year.” He was the kid a few weeks ago who had a juice box explode on one of the keyboards and I had to pop a lot of the keys off to clean all the juice off. I finished it with a few minutes before the final bell so I went up to the sixth grade classroom and gave it to him. He immediately lit up and started showing it to the other kids, so that was really cool.

After school a lot of the teachers and staff went to lunch at a Mongolian barbecue place. I think the last time I ate at one of those was on my roadtrip to Washington DC. At these places you grab a bowl, put noodles, meat and/or vegetables, and sauce and then give it to the cooks who make it on a big flat grill or whatever it's called. At this one it is a big doughnut shape and the cooks slowly walk around in a circle, each taking turns with their spatulas on each bowl of food around the circle, beating the crap out of their spatulas in the process. I was worried about the vegetarian thing but one of the para told me to tell them it was vegetarian and when I did they put spatulas on either side of my food and used different spatulas that weren't used for all the other food that had meat. And they clean the cooking surface after each bowl so I didn't have to worry about that. That was pretty cool. I kind of messed up on my initial food selection though because I just went with noodles, red potato slices, those tiny corn things, and Teriyaki sauce. I started with too many noodles, which didn't leave much room for anything else, and I completely missed the broccoli and green beans.

When I got back to the tables where we were all sitting my seat had been taken so I leaned over and grabbed my keys, which I had left to save my spot, and sat down at the next set of tables over, which had also been saved. My mom had left her purse on one of the chairs and I can't remember who it was but they took her seat and just handed my mom her purse. So that was nice. But it ended up working out because we had good conversations with the people at our table.

After lunch I came home and didn't really do much. I was going to start reading textbooks because I have all of them now, the last one arriving today, but I decided to take the day off. I can read textbooks tomorrow. Instead I watched YouTube videos.

During dinner I watched a couple Laurel & Hardy silent shorts that my sister told me about the other day so I was able to record them. I hadn't seen any of them before, which I found really surprising. And they were good. It is crazy how well they transferred their comedy from the silent era into the sound era. Their talking definitely adds to their shorts and movies but they could carry a silent short without a problem. One of them also had really good music. The short involved selling Christmas trees door-to-door and the music incorporated a lot of variations on Christmas songs, a couple bars here and there, along with some other noticeable songs. They were subtly incorporated into the regular music and I liked it.

After dinner I watched the Neebs livestream and played Minecraft. I added side walkway off my bridge leading down to where I started building my garden. I've got a lot of potatoes and carrots now. I will probably need to make some changes to the garden, mainly in the water situation, but I got a decent start on it and I am liking how it looks.

Tonight a Painted Bunting made an appearance at the bird feeders in the backyard. If you have never seen one, they are so brightly colored that they look fake. If you gave a kindergartener and handful of crayons and told them to color in a picture of a bird, it would look like a male Painted Bunting. They have a red or orange body, bright blue head, a yellow or green patch on their backs, and darker green wings. I've never seen such a brightly colored bird in person before. It honestly looked fake. According to maps we should be just out of the summer breeding zone, which might explain why I've never seen one before. Their normal residence is in Southern Mexico and Central America, which makes sense because the coloring seems to fit that area better than the Midwest. Hopefully it will come back so I can get some pictures of it.

Now, it is bedtime. As it usually is when I finish writing. Or even past bedtime as it is in this case. I've been up far too long today. But I get to sleep in, so I'm going to go get a start on that.