Last Hurrah Vacation, New School Year, and a Sort-of Lunch Date

Coming up on the second week of school here, and I still can't believe the new school year has started already.  I went into it thinking, well, it's my fourth year here, I'm tenured and I have my permanent teaching certification from the state--it's going to be a good year.

It's been a bumpy start.  But before I get into that, let me tell you about my lovely vacation spending time with Younger Sister and her family.  I spent some wonderful times with my darling littlest nephew.

They were in desperate need of a babysitter, as the young woman who usually cares for him while they're at work got married and went on her honeymoon.  So I had four fun days of babysitting the little guy and we did a lot.  We read books, played on the floor and in his bouncer, and went for stroller walks.  We spent an evening together so his mom and dad could have a date night.  He's just a generally happy baby--in spite of the teeth coming in, my goodness!--and even was cool with me when I messed up his feedings the first day (parent error communicating, not my fault).

He has deep convos with the animals on his bouncer.

My BIL teased me a little about messing up, but that's his style of banter.  (British people.) However, I started beating myself up about it until I realized that I was feeling intimidated. . . and I really didn't have to be.  But this is the story of my life: people watch for me to screw up, because it makes them feel better about themselves.  I never claimed to be perfect, so I don't know where anyone got the impression that I don't make mistakes.  So, once I named what I was feeling and got past it, things were fine and I had a great time.

In fact, the morning after I got home, I missed him so much I wanted to go back. And maybe I wanted to go back to Ford's Fish Shack and try more things on the menu, too.  That was a yummy dinner.

That said, Peep missed me, too, so I was happy to be home.  She was very good for Mom (maybe a little TOO affectionate with Mom, hmmmm).  She had another visit with the vet about her bad tooth and I have to figure out when we're going to deal with that, but for now she's content to play and cuddle.  I have to figure out what's going on in the litterbox department, but to date my attempts at cat psychology haven't worked.

Maybe she's adjusting to the new school year, too.

She might be feeling my stress and weariness.  We got our schedules at almost the last minute, because they were still registering students and hiring additional teachers (that's public education for you).  There was no room in the new schedule for the additional sixth grade, so now they're jammed in with the other three sections.  I'm not excited about teaching nearly 30 sixth graders at once, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

On top of this, all the elementary librarians and their assistants are up in arms, because one school's library assistant retired in June. . . and the district did not hire a replacement.  After leading us to believe they were going to.  They decided several other assistants should spend some time covering that library.  And the worst part of it all was that our supervisor told our principals we were all supportive of this without any of us even knowing this was going to happen.  

My assistant: If they ask me to go to another school for part of the day, I'm going to quit.
Me: Oh, please don't quit.  They won't replace you and we'll be in trouble. Think of the kids!

Needless to say we're feeling a bit demoralized.  Most likely there's nothing we can do to change this, but we can register our feelings on the matter and have an eye out for anything else that might be coming down the road.

My gut says they want to throw out the curriculum, turn the libraries into makerspaces, and make all the books digital.  Because all the money is going into technology now and the buzzwords (along with "makerspace") are "problem solving" and "STEM".  Will any of that matter if they're illiterate?  Just thinking about those pesky little standardized state tests they take every year.

But, you know, generally, the first three days of class went fine (only a couple kindergarteners cried and it wasn't anything I did).  Also, I'm really happy to see my co-workers again.  Even if the one person who was at our school about a year and a half ago, was moved to another school and then back this year, asked about Chef.  Hard to believe I was ever happily dating.

What's going on in the dating department? Not much.  I got "matched" with someone who lives in the area but he has yet to touch base.  My guess is because he recently relocated to head up one of the Archdiocesan high schools (yup, with that tiny bit of info I figured out where) he's too busy.  

Still talking to the guy who lives about an hour away.  We had lunch (!) last weekend and, yeah, he's nice to talk to, but I feel no attraction.  I feel as if I should give him a chance, but he's just so tentative.  He was referring to lunch as "meeting up," so I brought money and didn't get super dressed up.  He had gone in to work that morning so he was wearing a nice button-down.  Some things that came up in conversation didn't quite leave me with a good feeling.  Like, he seemed surprised that I thought we should reveal our last names! (And I can't believe I went to meet up with someone whose last name I didn't know.  That shows I'm rusty and that's not happening again.)

He did take the check when it came, we walked out together and ended with a side hug.  He thanked me via text when he got home and then again in a message a few days later.  I was thinking he'd never call me again and it would be nothing but texts and message, but he did message late Thursday (so late I didn't see it until Friday) asking for a good time to call.  I explained I was with family Friday--my aunt came from Mexico and my cousins came from Ohio with their kids and we had a blast with my parents and Older Brother and his kids-- and I had plans to go to the shore Sunday with one of my girlfriends.  Haven't heard anything since so who knows?  

You can see why all this is leading me to believe this isn't it.

Only five more weeks left on my subscription to this dating site.  I suppose anything can happen and not necessarily through there.

To sum up, I'm trying to look at everything positively.  It's not easy but I know things could be way worse so I'm grateful for my job, for Peep, for my family and my friends.  And I'm looking forward to seeing how the rest of the year plays out.

And how are you all liking September, my dear blogreaders?