Not so much the teachers pet (more like the anti-pet!!)

When can you dislike someone you've never met?  When it's your online professor.  I had it easy with my first two classes.  I am now in Essay Writing and Critical Thinking.  My Critical Thinking professor is a gem.  She's very helpful and encouraging.  The Essay Writing professor is the exact opposite.  If there was a way to be annoying and debasing in a forum, she wrote the book.  I am convinced she is premenopausal, menopausal or postmenopausal.  Whatever the stage when some women go off their rocker and act bipolar (to put it kindly). 

She virtually yells at her students.  Since she can't yell at us in a classroom, she uses lots of exclamation points.  This week she said I've done near perfect work, and then yelled at me twice.  I got in trouble because I added a P.S. to a comment I posted.  She said, "Can we keep it professional please!"  Then she yelled at me for doing my assignment wrong.  I finally had to say something.  In a forum that is just for her and I, I wrote, "In business communication, we learned that using an exclamation point can mean you are yelling.  Is that what you intended with your exclamation point?"  I should have added a few !!!! in there just for emphasis. 

 

The school year was just a bad dream...

Our family is settled into "summer."  I love it.  I love not getting up so early and not being on such a ridgid schedule.  Julian's not the only one that's taking a break.  Once he would get home, I would have the daunting task of keeping him on track with his homework while preparing dinner.  I have always been an anti-schedule person.  I'd love to be, it's just something I've always struggled with.  It comes much more naturally to take each day as it comes and enjoy it. 

I feel for those parents that don't get summers with their kids.  Growing up, each summer was filled with adventure.  My childhood friend, Justin and I would ride our bikes all over creation.  My cousin Kim and I would stay up late (or all night).  When we were about 11, we fondly remember taking a walk at 5:oo a.m. just to say we did it.  My mom stayed home with us and we were allowed a lot of freedom over the summer.  I want to give my kids a sense of that, or at the very least, a moment to feel bored after such a hectic school year. 

The last weeks of school this year were very hectic.  Julian did well overall on his grades and he is officially a fifth grader.  We visited Harrisburg for his class trip, which was more interesting for the adults than the kids.  We had a brief tour of the state capitol that included sitting in on the House of Representatives while they were in session.  You may wonder, what do they do all day?  Well, for our brief 15 minutes they discussed: Should firehalls that host bingo nights allow smoking?  Big issues.  After a lot of rhetoric was passed around, nothing got resolved.  I always wondered what Harrisburg looked like.  The furthest west I had been was Penn State twelve years before for a Tori Amos concert.  I found it to be clean for the most part and small compared to Philadelphia and Reading.  It looked like not a whole lot goes on there.   

I was shocked by how "mature" his classmates were compared to him.  Everyone on our tour bus had a Nintendo DS and spent the ride texting eachother.  Of course, Julian and another boy had just a plain old Gameboy.  It was a good thing for the most part, because some kids were texting inappropriate words to eachother.  It was just a shock how one year can change a class.  Last year on the third grade field trip, I found everyone acting age appropriate.  Now, there wasn't a day that went by when Julian didn't ask me what a certain curse word meant, or what did the punchline mean to an offensive joke they told on the bus. 

It's hard to see your baby grow up. So at least for the next couple months, he becomes all mine again.

 

A Strange Bedfellow

Bravo to the ones of you who have not abandoned my blog, especially after the last post.  As those of you know, I am not all doom and gloom.  There are periods that are worse than others and sometimes there is a need to express myself in my darkest moments.  Thanks for hearing me out and enduring with me.  Now onto bigger and brighter--It's been a full week!  It started out with me tearing my hair out because both of my final projects were do for my two classes.  I got the final grade for my Business Communication...A-.  Not what the A+ perfectionist in me wanted but hey--I'll take it!  The jury still is out for General Ed. 

The next day I was asked to do third shift for the wonderful couple I sometimes take care of.  I had told them I couldn't do third shift in the past  since I could sleep through any cry for help.  Since they were so desperate for someone to fill in, they didn't mind.  Also, a week before Marian was rushed to the hospital with multiple problems.  She was still in the ICU recovering.  So it was Don and I.  He has his mind pretty much in tact.  His wit is sharper than the average person. We watched the Phillies game together and talked.  He told me the story of how his own father was troubleshooting a submarine problem in WWI with Thomas Edison!  He figured it out before Thomas did.  I love storied like that.

Then we "settled" in for the night.  I was told by his daughter I didn't have to wake myself up throughout the night to check on him.  I just had to keep one ear open just in case.  I would sleep in Marian's bed which was the twin across from his.  I would've slept in the reclining chair in the living room, but I was afraid I wouldn't hear him at all then.  It was midnight and we said goodnight.  Then I heard whispers.  He was talking so low I couldn't make anything out.  He finally told me what he was saying and that was that.

Then he started whispering again, but this time in his sleep.  It became full fledged talking at one point like he was on the phone.  Sometimes he would actually answer me back.  I'd say, "Don, are you talking to me?"  He'd say, "No, somebody else."  I couldn't tell if he was trying to be funny, but then he'd just continue on talking.  This went on most of the night.  I would slip in and out of consciousness. I'm not sure how much sleep I really got. 

If there is one thing I've learned about (my) life, it's never say never.  There are things that I've sworn I would never do: waitress while pregnant, live in the town I now live in, and work in any capacity overnight.  I got through it.  For my next post, I know you want to hear all about the fourth grade field trip to our state capital.