simple and to the point.

This blog entry will be simple and to the point, how I prefer to do things these days. I'm not even going to add a picture to it, though I've managed to tag it. Also, I have to leave for work in 30 minutes, so I can be a team leader. I'm leading a team this year. I'm a leader. I'm leading others. This year. I'm responsible. For leading. (I'm saying this over and over again so you and I and anyone else who accidentally pops in to read this can really, really marinate in both the irony and horror of that.)

So my classroom is (mostly) put together. Until the children come and take it apart. I can't find my 5 personal CD players I use(d) as a listening center for books on CD that donorschoose.org (and my sweet cousins Kathy & Bill donated, hi Kathy & Bill!) bought for me/my students. This is a summertime problem at our school; things going missing over June and July. We've never been able to figure it out. One year, a 3 drawer plastic box thingy of mine was taken. Other people have been missing personal trash cans and other things, the most upsetting items have been things that aren't worth much but have great sentimental value to them. 

I find taking things from teachers (and, thus, children) to be incredibly reprehensible behavior. But it's cool, whatever. Enjoy your school contraband. Have fun being part of the problem not the solution. (In all fairness, I may have packed the CD players up really well and will eventually stumble upon them...and a friend told me to check in the Library. There was a massive retrieval of old media equipment over the summer - no one uses overhead projectors these days - and so they may have been taken by mistake.) (Except for the fact that a very large boombox remained in the room, untouched/unwanted.)

I'd go back to donorschoose.org asking for more stuff, but it was too much work. I had to follow like 10 steps to say thank you, and...jesus christ, I'm teaching the future of the world! I'm playing a part in creating a civilized, educated society. (A) why must I even beg for the things I need to do this, and (B) where are MY thank you's??

I apologize if that sounded really ungrateful. I'm just in a weird mood today. Smarties Candy donated most of the stolen/missing personal CD players. Please go buy some Smarties Candy today, because they're awesome people. And thanks to donorschoose.org. You're great people, too. I'll figure it out.

I'm working on a short story about a family caught between time; every 3 years the mother disappears somewhere to the past for an extended period of time (sometimes a week, sometimes a year) and the dad and children have to cope with never knowing if she'll come back. But every 3 years she does, and when this particular story begins she's come back pregnant. That's as far as I've gotten. Should I add pirates to it? I really feel like swashbuckling pirates should be part of the plot.

One day, I'll find someone to publish my inanity. For now, I just write for me. Ditto this blog. Ditto all my social media status updates. I think that's how we should do everything, all of us. If you're doing it for someone other than yourself, you're doing it wrong. Do it because you love it, or don't do it. 

And STOP taking things that don't belong to you. 

(I'm done now. Carry on.)