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Thursday, August 16, 2007 

Unda presshah!

You know what I'm sayin'. Da da da d-d-dumdum! Da da da d-d-dumdum!

Earlier this week, I received a message saying that I had to report to the central office on Wednesday between 3:30 and 4:30. Since the kids leave at 4:00 and I can't get out until 4:10, I was going to be rushed. Then I got a memo telling me to be at a meeting in our school library the same day at 4:00. Something had to give, so I asked one of the many administrative folks which meeting they wanted me to attend. Going to the central office wasn't optional, since it was because my fingerprints had not scanned correctly the first time.

So I went to the central office. At that point in the day, my feet were aching so bad that I wanted to cry. I really must invest in a better wardrobe, including better shoes.

When I finally got to the central office, I wasn't sure where to go to be re-printed. I saw a bunch of people in one room, and figured that couldn't be it. I walked to the personnel desk and asked. The lady said to go back to that room. So I hobbled there again. When I got there, someone told me to go back to the front desk and get a number. A number. At the front desk. Why not just keep the numbers where the people are gathered? It was designed to cause me pain, I tell ya. I hobbled back to the front again, and got my number. Sixty seven. I hobbled back to the room where the 80 or so people were gathered, and waited to see what number they were on.

Twenty eight.

Every single person was taking more than five minutes. The worst part of it was that I already sat through this exact same agony once before. That day, I was number ninety something, and I was there until after 7:00 p.m. waiting to be finger printed by a giant black cop who tried to pull my fingers off.

Anyway, yesterday I waited again and was finally reprinted. I got home around 6:30 p.m. Then this morning I had to be back at work at 7:00 a.m. for another meeting. Then during my planning period, I had another meeting. There is not a minute of the day that I'm not hustling my ass off. If I didn't have so many meetings sucking up all my non-class time, I might get caught up on grading and planning, but they're too busy meeting with us to make sure we're planning and grading to let us plan or grade. I actually had to go find someone to watch my class while I went to the bathroom.

I'm tired, y'all.

Sounds like bureaucracy is alive and well at this place. You may have to employ some of the techniques you learned at your last one - bet if you threw a chair at some of those 80 people, they'd skedaddle and move you right up to the head of the line.

Probably not the line you wanted to be first in, though.

At least tomorrow's Friday. The kids will probably be extra-hyper - something to look forward to. On second thought, better hang on to that chair.

When is it that we are supposed to remind you that you were going crazy when you weren't working?

DY-- It is alive and well, but it beats total chaos I guess.

Bates-- Now is as good a time as any. In fact, it might be a good idea to tell me that once a week or so while I continue to adjust to the new responsibility.

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