May 12, 2016

 In a job interview, if I ever get asked what my weakness is, it will be saying 'no' to people. I keep taking on more random side projects at work when I still have the two big projects. Those being the MAP spreadsheets and the slideshow. The slideshow is definitely going to have to turn into a take home project because there are only eight days of school left, not counting the last half day, which is the day the slideshow needs to be done.

When I got to work I went down to the library to show the librarian my leather notebook. The book fair was already up and running and she had a long line of kids by the time I got there. There was still a line when the kindergarteners came in to check out books. And she got the last kid through right as her kindergarten reading group came in. She did manage to look at my notebook and I was able to give her a donation for the book fair, that will go toward letting several kids pick out books that otherwise wouldn't have gotten one.

Today at work I worked on the spreadsheets but got sidetracked a lot so only made it up to the second fourth grade class. So I'm over halfway, not counting having to go back and calculate the change in score for each student.

My first distraction was helping one of the paras with the copier. It was misbehaving. The next distraction was the sixth grade play. As always, it was surprisingly good. And I mean that in the best way possible. It is no offense to the sixth graders but I am always thoroughly impressed with how well the play goes. This years play was one written by the sixth grade teacher twenty-five years ago. Afterward he sent out an email explaining that way back then there was an empty building near the school and he convinced the owners to let his class practice the play there. And on the day of the performance the entire school walked over and they watched the play. That night they had another performance for parents and after the show they passed a hat around and ended collecting $600 which they donated to what became the current arts center. So, this play actually performed there. That's pretty cool.

At the last minute the librarian found out she needed to record the play with her iPad because the video camera wasn't working. The last minute part meant she didn't have time to track the tripod and mount for the iPad. I ended up holding it for the first half of the play and she took it for the second half. iPads are deceptively heavy, especially when you've been holding one up for over twenty minutes. My arms got so shaky. I need to do more pushups apparently.

One of the kindergarten teachers asked me to help design a shirt for his childcare business. He actually already had the design he just needed a picture of a van that he could make different colors. I tracked down a decent picture and then started tweaking it to make it look more like a clip art outline than an actual picture of a van. I've still got some work to do but I made a decent start.

A few kids worked on MAP tests today but none of them finished. Tomorrow is the last day and I'm not sure either of sixth graders will finish. It's kind of frustrating because they've had several weeks to answer a relatively small number of questions. But at the same time, I do not like standardized tests, especially when so much time in school is now wasted on taking four big standardized tests per year, three of which are in the second semester.

I wasn't able to volunteer on Monday because the PR lady had a thing and she had to leave early today as well so I got the day off. I really want to finish the map project.

Tonight I borrowed the hand-held steamer I got my mom for the curtains and used it on my graduation robe. The results were shocking. I've had the robe hanging up in my bathroom since Monday and it was still completely covered in wrinkles. There was no way I was going to try and iron it because they thing is one-hundred-percent recycled plastic bottles. That also made me weary of throwing it in the dryer. So I borrowed the steamer and the wrinkles slowly but surely disappeared. I couldn't believe how well it worked. It was also really relaxing, just listening to the sound of the steamer as I slowly moved it back and forth across the robe.

I spent the rest of the night working on my penmanship and watching YouTube videos. I've made it through the first straight line and the slightly curved lines, both left and right. The next page combines the two to make a lowercase 'i'. Progress.

Now I'm going to go to bed. Tomorrow there is work. And then leaving work a little early so I can come home, change into my suit, and then head out of town with my mom to go to the induction ceremony. Oh joy.