Sistah Pat

I think DH is cooking something up. Yesterday, when I got home from work, he asked if I had any plans for this weekend. I told him I didn’t and asked “Why?”. He did some dodging and weaving and said, “No reason. I was just wondering.” A couple of hours later, I overheard him talking to DS and he said, “Don’t say anything to her because I don’t know if it’ll work out.” Me? I do not spoil surprises. I enjoy them too much. I’m content to leave it alone and have that pleasant little feeling that something nice might be in the works.

I went to water aerobics by myself yesterday evening but I didn’t really enjoy it. I didn’t call Pam. She knows when it meets and I figured she’d let me know if she was going. The other sistahs never seem to meet us anymore. I don’t think they even make it to the gym at all. We may need some new blood in the group. Requirements: fun, wants to lose weight or get healthier, willing to get together for workouts, enjoys going out with the girls and trying new foods and restaurants. Willing to give me their cash when I win the competition to lose the most weight.

I’m still kicking ideas around about keeping my gym membership. I really prefer working out at home but will keep it if I can get someone to go with me a couple times a week or if I can get to a point where I enjoy going by myself. One of the reasons I didn’t enjoy it very much yesterday evening was because my tailbone started really hurting again yesterday. What’s that about? I’m on it! I’ve decided it has to be my bed, my chair at work, or my workout. To address it, we turned the mattress (although it’s a really good one and I don’t think that’s the problem), I changed my chair at work, and I’ve been doing different workouts the last few days. Yesterday evening, I had a long hot soak in the tub, DH massaged my lower back, and I took a pain pill before bed. I’m going to continue to try to deal with it this weekend and make a doctor’s appointment if it isn’t better by Monday.

Now: off to the shower.

6:10 - Mr. Scale is whispering “167″. I never know what kind of surprises he has in store for me.

3:30 - What a nice day at work! I’ve been really having trouble with getting the laptops out to teachers this year. As I said before, they have to be reimaged and bound and then I have to set up carts of 30 of them and string chargers through the cart to keep the laptops charged. The problem is, the state would not allow us to charge kids or their parents for “lost” chargers and the kids really took advantage of it. Over the last four years, we’ve purchased more than 5,000 chargers at $75.00 each and the kids act like they’re asking for a pencil. “Mrs. R, I need another charger.”

“What happened to the one that came with your laptop?”

“I dunno…I think someone stole it.” or “I dunno…I think it’s in my Mom’s trunk.” or “I dunno… I think the dog ate it.”

We were REQUIRED to give them new chargers during the first three years of the project and I know for a fact that a lot of kids have half a dozen chargers lying around in old backpacks, the trunk of the car, or the back of the closet. Some kids even kept a collection of them at Mom’s, at Dad’s, at the boyfriend’s, in the car, and in their lockers so they wouldn’t have to carry it with them. Long story short…the project is over, the school gets to keep the laptops and we give teachers classroom sets of 30 laptops but I can only give them 10 chargers because that’s all I have. Of course, the teachers have been raising Hell about it because they have to constantly rotate the laptops to try to keep them charged and some of the chargers have gone bad. Most have been very understanding but a few have gotten downright cranky about the situation. I truly feel their pain. I understand. Really. But what can I do? I just don’t have anymore and there’s no more funding for the project!

This morning when I walked into the library, one of the teachers asked me to come with him. He took me to a well hidden area in the back of a large storage room full of old textbooks and pointed out some boxes and said, “Why can’t we use these chargers?” OMG! There were at least ten large boxes full of chargers! We’re talkin five or six hundred chargers! I was in heaven! After I hugged, kissed, lapdanced, and otherwise showed my appreciation to the guy, I floated around all day like the good fairy dispensing chargers to teachers. I don’t know where they came from. I don’t know who put them there. I don’t know why they were moved back there and I don’t care! Teachers were throwing rose petals down the hallways where I walked! It felt so good to be able to give them enough chargers to alleviate the problem. I suspect the boxes were moved to the storage room two years ago when they redid the entire heating and air conditioning system in our school by some of the workmen and never got returned to their rightful place. I really don’t care. I’m just so happy! Isn’t it pathetic to think that we have such a sorry state in education that I can be thrilled to the tips of my toes by just being able to give teachers some of the necessities they need to be able to teach?

5:15 - DH just came home with a bag full of warm Cuban sandwiches and popped a beer. Said, “You know what? I planned on coming home and us hopping in the RV and taking off somewhere for the weekend but I don’t really feel like doing it now. I’m too tired. If you want to, we can get up in the morning and take off for the rest of the weekend. Do you want to go to that RV park up there in Edinburgh where you like to shop? We can relax, just the two of us. I know you like to go to that Coldwater Creek Outlet. You want to go up there in the morning?”

Oh yeah. I wanna go up there in the morning.