Quick Before I Lose the Connection...

As posted before, I have managed to break the power cord to my school laptop and have been relegated to the dinosaur upstairs. Well, the wireless signal comes and goes of its own freewill up here and I have to post quickly before I lose this signal. For some reason, it works for PrepGirl and BrownBear. I think it knows when I am trying to log on and it just likes to jerk me around.

I have been reading the e-mails posted by my principal from all those with: no lives, nothing better to do, no job (you pick) at the central office. Sorry, but it is true. I am not looking forward to this school year for a myriad of reasons, but the Curriculum Briefings from those clowns is one of them. Sweet Oprah, it was 11, yes, ELEVEN, pages long today. What in hell could possess them to put out a "briefing" that was eleven pages long? I couldn't tell you that either, because I stopped reading. At about page one.

Our school's enrollment is down this year, too, and I found out yesterday that my partner in crime would be the fifth grade scapegoat if people started getting transferred out because the numbers were too low. (I told you I didn't want to go back.)

Got PrepGirl's birthday cake ordered; she and my sister share a birthday on Sunday and sweet mother of Oprah, what a juggling act that has been for years. I never know who is going to be out of sorts - this year, however, PrepGirl is supposed to get her learner's permit. Well, guess what is closed on Mondays in this fine state? You guessed correctly. The Division of Motor Vehicles!!!!!!! She has to wait until Tuesday (7:30AM) to join the unwashed masses in the line for a permit. I hope she passes the test. I can only take her so many times and then I am done.

BrownBear got a call from her 6th grade buddy yesterday and was invited over for dinner and a swim today. You should have seen the palace I pulled up in front of this afternoon. (In my 12 year old Suburban, thank you very much.) But I only felt sorry for BrownBear because she was about sixteen inches taller than every girl there. Including the kid's mother. I wish I was as tall as that girl is going to be.

Tomorrow, I get to spend the governor's money. It is always nice to get free money, but I always wonder how he is going to be expected to be repaid.

And Ann Taylor Loft has a tasty little sale going on right now.

Too bad they'd take away my license if I used the governor's money there.

Exam Week

How do you know it is exam week in TeacherGirl's house? PrepGirl's bizarro behavior.

First, she gets to wear whatever she wants to school and this week, it is whichever pair of soffees she finds, paired with the first t-shirt she comes to in the closet (or on the floor - I don't want to know).

Next, her basic stress reliever is piano playing and cartwheeling down the hallway. I don't mind the piano - really, I don't- but that Chopin Etude is about to drive me out of my everloving mind. Thank goodness he's dead, because I'd be looking for his smarmy, white behind to kill. She plays it and plays it and plays it - right tempo, wrong tempo, right notes, wrong notes - whatever. When she tires of it, she launches into either a How Great Thou Art or some form of Shave and A Haircut. She always messes up How Great Thou Art in the same place and finishes it with "two bits."

Then, she freaks out. Launches into crazy talk about how she isn't me when I was a freshman "400 years ago." (I take exception to that crazy talk. It wasn't 400 hundred years ago.) However, I was an exceptional freshman. My freshman GPA carried me all through high school. I was a geek, however, and I have spawned a cheerleader. A devestatingly beautiful, talented and popular cheerleader.

Then she starts rapping. My response is that if she can remember all those rap songs, then by golly she should start remembering some ________ (fill in the blank right here. Geometry or Biology are high on my list.)

She wants me to help her study for Geometry. Geometry, 399 years ago, wasn't my best subject. She thinks that is hysterical. After all, she's in SmartMath. That's what they call it when they are accelerated. So, together, we plow through that massive pile of geometry and every so often, we hit the mathematical jackpot. Tonight, we are going to be plowing through that pile one more time. I have told her that really, I can't think of another time I have used Geometry in my life. Maybe once, when I painted that circular table. She won't ask LawyerBoy because one question turns into a twenty minute conversation. And when you have 20 questions, who has time for that?

So, after Thursday, we can put this freshman year to bed and begin studying for the driver's permit.

I think that's a thought for another day.