YAYAYAY.

Yay, amyth!!! That is an awesome feeling.

Dag, girl, you're gonna end up on the boat, at this rate. Or Evidence Control.

I don't know what either of those mean. But I'm gonna guess not good things.

Gurl, you know I feel you on this.

I know you do. And @@ at P and ORS. I talked to my supervisor this afternoon, and he agrees with me that the drama llama is a major part of the issues going on, and he and I and the whole crew are going to meet with our interim ED to talk about safety, and about her. SUCK IT, DRAMA LLAMA.

Our company pushes safety big time, from field work to office work. We are supposed to report near misses in addition to actual reportables. They figure near misses are learning opportunities that will help prevent an actual reportable.

Exactly.

ION, after twelve years, I have a car!

OMG amyth, I am so excited for you!!! That is fab. Is your mechanic friend DE by any chance? And if so, how are they?

amych--I should come to Durham. Let's go get a beer at Fullsteam or something. I'm DRUNK WITH FREEDOM!

Ahahaha, just don't get drunk with drunk. (I know you won't, it was just funny)

Also, I know you want to start small and all, but.... ROAD TRIP TO NOLA. IJS. Bring my sister, wouldja?

YAY NEW CAR FOR AMYTH!!!

BOO DRAMA LLAMA FOR SMONSTER!!

Suck it, sucky people!!

My day - let me show you it:

1. Woke up to finding that the cat has peed on Emeline's doll clothes. And personalized Land's End bag. Great. Called Joe, yelled at hom for not cleaning the litter boxes often enough (not really justified). Yelled at Emeline for not taking care of her AG doll stuff or unpakcing properly when she got home from her weekend at Gramma and Grampa's (mostly justified), went to school in a hateful mood.

2. School was fine, mood improved. At lunch (11:15) I get a call from the office that I need to call Emeline's teacher. I do and find out that despite being told EXPLICITLY NO, Emeline has taken my old Blackberry to school and then had the AUDACITY to take the damn thing to group time with her and proceed to pretend to text. I asked her how she got it to school considering I check her backpack every morning for just these types of items. Turns out, she HID IT IN HER BOOT. This is paired with the fact that she stole $20 off the dinig room table that was Girl Scout registration money for a new Girl Scout and then lied about where she got it (she says grampa gave it to her for doing work at their house when she stayed there last weekend.). Her world is basically over. No sleepover this weekend, no tv for a week. If Joe or I want tv, she gets to go in her room. She has added chores that she will do when she is told. She will do extra whatever I damn well choose for her to do.

3. Had an all para-pro meeting with the district HR person and find out, basically, that the district KNEW that we were losing funding for several para positions because the federal grant was up and there was no renewal and so they are eliminating a bunch of positions. So, basically, I could be out of a job in about 5 weeks, because while my position may not eliminated, I could lose it to someone who has higher seniority whose pocition WAS cut. It was a horrible look into how my school district works and the HR director actually said, when asked why on earth they kept these paras whose funding got cut LAST JUNE she said, "You could also look at it that we let those people keep their jobs for an extra six months." WTF??

OTOH, I have taught myself how to download an audio recording, convert it to MP3, and upload it to my class's iTunesU site for me big project due this evening. Yay??

Oh, Aims, WTH. Can the clothes and bag be laundered? And as for your district, may their cats pee on them. Why not tell people that their funding is running out, and you'll lose some to attrition? I mean, I can see why not, but that would be the decent thing to do.

Nature's Miracle. Terrific for getting out cat pee smell.

Emeline! You are in so much trouble.

Aims, that is effed up. I hope you don't lose your job.

Is your mechanic friend DE by any chance?

Idk who DE is.

My mechanic friend is actually a friend of a guy at work. I'll just call you later. This initial thing isn't working out.

The clothes and the bag have been washed; I need to put them in the dryer after seeing if it worked.

As for the district being decent, decent doesn't seem to go hand in hand with school districts a lot fo the time. Anf fuck anyone who wants to say that educators are protected by their unions. My union effed me today. There's NO WAY they didn't know those positions were going, too, when they talked us into ratifying a contract that caused 2/3s of my paycheck to go to union dues and health benefits. Along with a 6% cut in pay. All in the name of saving jobs.

Damn, Aims, that is foul.

My mechanic friend is actually a friend of a guy at work. I'll just call you later. This initial thing isn't working out.

DE, husband to V, father to E, from church! But call me anyway.

Never let it be said I do not have girlnads of adamantium.

I meant to comment on this earlier. So proud of you, Erin! I love watching you flourish doing what you love.

I have to share this. My sister got the following message from a guy on OKC:

After a detailed yet brief overview of your profile, I would like you to know I have already married and divorced you in my mind. I'm sorry it's hard to be with someone with better hair than me.

PS I am keeping the dog and the Lady Gaga CDs

Hilarious.