Things that Bug Me!

Warning !!! Angry Rant!!!

Ok, so not all of this is going to be an angry rant, but as you can see from the title, we are going to be discussing things that bug me. (I should add that these are things that are bugging me from the last week only...) To help I figure that I would just alphabetize the list and I will color code them depending on level of angry rantiness...yes, that is a word, I just made it up.

A stands for Ankles

As Beki mentioned last week, I had a Teacher vs. Student basketball game last Friday. The teachers had practice earlier in the week, and to mix things up, we brought in some students from the aftercare program to play against us. Now, not to brag - ok to brag a little bit - but students like me. Probably because I treat them honestly, respectfully and don't yell at them (See T stands for Teachers and U stands for Unions below). Anyway, the problem with being well liked is that all of the students want to guard me. Now, you must remember that these students are 4th, 5th and 6th graders, so they are small, and have a tendency to get underfoot, which is how I turned my ankle the first time. It wasn't too bad, I went home and iced it and wrapped it, blah blah blah. I played in the game on Friday - where we destroyed them of course - and I was a little sore, but not bad.

The problems began on Saturday. We were working on the yard when I stepped wrong and turned it again, pretty bad this time. I spent the next day and a half with my foot either in the air, or in a bucket of ice, and only managed to make it to work because the Bishop brought over a walking boot and crutches. Of course nothing cool like this can come into the house without the boy immediately needing to play with it, so here you go:

He loved the boot, but life got really good when he discovered...

Crutches!!!!!

C stands for Cabbies

What a job...you get paid to drive poorly, cause traffic hazards when you stop in the middle of the road to pick up/drop off people, and just generally impede traffic. Nice. I hate you.

G stands for General Mills

Let's talk about Cheerios. How could I possibly have anything bad to say about Cheerios? How could I despise the cereal of my youth? How could I ever think of talking bad about the simple goodness of Cheerios? Well, the picture speaks for itself.

This is against everything that the Cheerios of my youth stood for. They have been pushing the envelope for sometime with their yogurt Cheerios and their fruit Cheerios, but this is a total sell out. You're dead to me Cheerios!!!!!

I stands for Immigration

Regardless on how you feel about what is happening in Arizona, and no matter how the media and famous people in Hollywood try to misconstrue the facts, just remember that it is not against the law to be an immigrant in Arizona, or anywhere else in this country. It is against Federal Law to be in this country ILLEGALLY, and now it is against State Law in Arizona as well. Sure there are some provisions in the law that may lead to racial profiling, but 70% of the people in Arizona are sick of nothing being done about it.

R stands for Recitals

Yes, this one is in green, because it is not an angry rant, in fact it is the exact opposite, it is A Rant of the Awesome!! Then why is it being included in a list of things that bug me you ask? Because it wasn't the fact that I got to go to a Tuba Recital that bugged me, it is the fact that I don't have a Tuba of my own that gets it on the list. (Plus I need to give you some back story to explain the picture.) We have some friends who moved to another part of Maryland last year, but we take turns visiting every month or so. Frank - the dad - is a Tuba player in the Marine Band and he was giving his Master's recital this weekend. So we loaded up with Dean and his family in their "Van of Awesomeness" and all traveled down.

Their van has a DvD player, so the kids watched cars, while ridding in the car! The recital was awesome (not sure what the non-tuba playing crowd thought about it, but it was awesome), but it just reminded me that I want a tuba to play as well. Come on Ebay!! (No really, there is the tuba that I want on eBay - it ends on Monday, I hope I win...) And if you are wondering why this entire section was labeled T is for Tuba, remember that above I already stated that T stands for Teachers. Which brings me to...

T stands for Teachers

Now the temptation here is to make sweeping generalizations about teachers in general, and while I frequently have lots to say about that I will save such comments for our next section about Unions. I want to bitch (I apologize to my mother for that one, but I'm not taking it out.) a bit about how I am treated by my fellow teachers. The nature of my current position forces me to rely on classroom teachers allowing their students to leave their class to come to mine. Even though I have a memo from the Superintendent stating that such is the case, frequently teachers decide that they are working on something and the students can't come. Even better is that I have teachers telling students that coming to my class is a waste of time because music is not going to get them anywhere in life. Yep, elementary school teacher's crushing children's hopes and dreams - welcome to the public education system.

The most frustrating part about it all to me is that these same teachers are always nice to me in the teacher's lounge, and then talk behind my back - all except the one teacher who likes to send me emails about how I am rude and none of the other teachers like me - but at least I know where she stands. Anyway, teachers are just as petty, mean spirited and vindictive as the students they teach. "But wait," you say, "if I were petty, vindictive, sub-par at my job, and yelled at the customers all day I would be fired, why are there so many crappy teachers crushing the dreams of children?"

U stands for Unions

Yes, I belong to the union, I don't have much of a choice in that matter, I have to pay the Union money either way. I understand that Unions have played an important roll in creating better working environments, etc... But today I really question the modern purpose of Unions. Consider the following:

-On the first day of School next year I will be tenured. That means that regardless of how well I teach, as long as I show up for work on time, and enter my grades on time, I can't be fired.

-I get 10 paid sick days and 4 paid personal days every school year. That means I can take off 14 days per year - that is almost 3 school weeks.

-I pay $33 per month in Union dues. Where does all of that money go? In return I get a magazine every month that is full of cartoons making fun of administrators.

I could continue, and start going on about the metro union (Really, you get paid more than me to sit in a booth and NOT help people?), the garbage man union (You can't lift over 50lbs? Really?), and the barbers union (I did not make that up).

I am sure I could think of lots more things to gripe about, but it is getting late. We will take more pictures this week so that we can have a better post next time.