Today was a perfect illustration for why vacations and time away from co-workers is a good thing.

We had a paid workshop today to go in to school to try to finalize schedules for the coming year. We had done most of the work back when school was in session, so today what we needed to do was cross check all the different schedules and make sure that all copies looked the same.

It’s just a tedious job that can be a pain in the neck if we find mistakes, because we have so little room for movement.

Once we have them finalized we then make master copies. Each teacher gets a copy of when they’ll have an aide or a specialist in their room, and what it is we’ll be coming in to work on (reading, math, writing etc.). Then we make a copy of each aide’s schedule as well as our own schedules. Those are often nightmares to keep straight because we go to so many rooms and it’s rarely uniform from day to day.

Well, the Pink of Perfection, who has recently promoted herself to Empress was at full sail and directing everyone as to how she wanted it done and when it was to be done, etc., etc., while we did all the work!

I finally told her that I was going to deal with my schedules and the schedules of the teachers I’d be working with and that she should just leave me alone. I think she was stunned.

Part of what we do is copy the profiles of the kids who are on educational plans and give them to the teachers. Well. Experience has shown me that putting these things in mailboxes now is a big mistake. Things get moved around and lost over the summer and as a result we are all going crazy trying to find things when school starts.

I decided to hand deliver these things to the teachers on the first day of school. The Empress wasn’t at all happy, but I stuck to my guns.

A break from this person is a good thing. I have no need to see her for the next eight weeks!

I know she’s got a new "administrative" type of job next year, but that is NOT in our building and we are not her underlings. It’s going to be a very long year next year if that’s what we have to put up with on a daily basis.

The workshop was a four-hour deal, so that more or less took care of the day. I had to run errands on the way home, so it was an afternoon of things like getting gas in the car ($1.69 a gal - the cheapest I could find!), going to the post office, getting an orange mocha chip frappucino at Starbuck’s, doing the grocery shopping. All those things that are totally boring and take forever.

I did make a quick trip to the craft store. I got a new ink pad that is scented like licorice. I didn’t need it, I just thought that it came in a cool tin. I’m not sure I’m going to like the scent all that much, either.

I also got a couple of new prints for the walls. One is a Sark cat print, which will go in the bathroom (I have a bunch of cat prints in there) and the other is a Sark inspiration print. Which is supposed to go on the wall of the second bedroom, the so-called workroom.

Which in actuality is a junk room and has so much stuff crammed into it that I can’t even walk across the floor. I have NEVER managed to get that room put together and I’ve lived here for almost five years now.

I really wish I could figure out how to make the room work. I feel so overwhelmed by it.

I’m bound and determined to get that done this summer.

Yeah.

Right.

I never get anything done.

At least I mailed the 4th of July cards that I made. That means they’ll reach their destinations in time for the holiday.

That might be a first.