grr
Okay, I admit it, my life is, on most days, pretty sweet. I have an awesome husband, wonderful family. We have a nice house, stable jobs that allow us to afford a moderate lifestyle. We have a new car and are going to Australia in the summer. We get to sing and to teach Sunday School. We have good friends and are relatively healthy.
But the past two weeks have sucked.
And so, I feel the need to write about it, because keeping it all up inside is making me physically ill.
It started about 2 weeks ago with a parent who was upset about my global warming lessons. Now, it does not bother me that she has a different opinion than I do. And it does not bother me that she is very involved in her child's education. It makes me glad that she has values and want those values taught to her kid. The part that sucks is that, quite frankly, I do not have the time to deal with it. The marking period ends next week, I am up to my nose in assignments to grade (when I counted last night, I had 1100), and I bust my butt every day to create a high-school appropriate microbiology lesson from scratch based off of my college texts and notes, as well as scientific journal research papers that I read for information. It can take me 5 or 6 hours to make one of those lessons every day. And the other two? Answering emails, answering messages, doing a billion other little things like professional development or meetings or phone calls or whatever. I just simply do not have hours to spend discussing global warming with someone who is very philosophically different from me. Do I want to? Yes! Do I have time? No!
I pushed it off on the principal of our school, and I am glad I did. The day after this happened, I had to proctor PSSA tests in Philly for 2 days. 2 days of not working on my lessons. 2 days of not grading. 2 days of messages building up. Do you know where that put me when I got back to work on Thursday?
But let's not forget the PSSA dramarama...
A family of 3 girls, 2 of whom are special ed, are scheduled to test Tuesday afternoon. I had called them several times leading up to the test, without an avail. Tuesday afternoon comes. They do not show. Finally, I get in touch with mom, she says the older two are coming, the youngest is sick. Okay, fine. Waiting... waiting... 40 mins later, the eldest daughter calls. They are walking. And they are lost. Oh, and she is 4 months pregnant and has to pee.
Sigh.
Well, I told this 17-yr-old 8th grader (that's right!) to come tomorrow at 8 and they will get all of the testing done.
Wednesday, 8:15... not there. I call. No answer. I call at 9:30. 10:00. 10:30. 11:00. Not only was I calling the girl, but her mother. I send the girl a text because, hey, everyone answers texts. She responds - we are coming. Great, I say, when? Because I live an hour and 15 minutes from here and if I wait around for you to show up and you do not show, I am not going to be happy.
11:45, they show up. Fantastic, I am super happy. I tell them they are going to take the whole test today. Quite frankly, I am not sure if they will show up again if I let them leave. The eldest girl says, Oh, by the way, do you think you might be able to drive us home?
...
The next two hours were filled with being on the phone with school, being on the phone with mom, being on the phone with grandma. Mom and grandma do not have a car. The girls are to go to their aunts house and she will drive them 5 miles home. She texts that she is not doing it. Mom says, they are just going to have to walk home. 5 miles. Through West Philly. Oh really? Pregnant girl who is wearing slippers is supposed to walk 5 miles home???
The cousin is going to come get them. No, they are to walk to their uncle's house. No, the mom's boyfriend is coming to get them. No, he is not, it is the mom's boyfriend's dad... and oh, by the way, the girls have only met him once so they may not recognize him.
It gives me an ulcer re-telling it.
Meanwhile... the girl gets a cup of coffee. One of the women at the school says, aren't you not supposed to have caffeine? "Oh, my doctor says I can, but only one cup a day."
Later, she sees a friend and goes to bum a cigarette. This time, we all comment. "Actually, my doctor said that if I have been smoking for more than 2 years, that I should not just quit because the baby can go through withdrawl." OHHHHHhhh, guess this is modern medical wisdom I was not aware of.
The shame of it all is that this girl is stunningly beautiful. If she had grown up where I did, there is no way she would be in the situation she is in right now. It is amazing how where you live can really affect who you are. I am VERY thankful for my education, holy guacomole.
So, anyway, Thursday and Friday were rounded out with me back at work, working like a dog... while everyone else was sort of playing around, not really doing anything, or still out at PSSAs. How nice for everyone to get a vacation while I am staying late to get my lessons finished.
Meanwhile, on the home front, Jon and I have been, uh, renovating. We took apart our closet and added more racks and painted it... which took several late nights and a lot more time than we thought. We also have painted the bathroom... and caulked the tub... and we found some weird cracked area over the doorframe so that had to be sanded. It is in progress. But while this is going on, construction dust is everywhere (which, by the way, I am allergic to) and you can barely walk around without stepping on a tool.
Monday was nothing to report except me still working hard AND having to make an alternative assignment for the kid whose mom is on a global warming rampage. So I am supposed to take 3.5 hours worth of lessons and just throw something together for him? Another hour of my life used up to do that...
oh WAIT, it got even better... we got our taxes. FREAKIN AWESOME. Guess what? The hospital did not hold ANY federal taxes back for 2010! Thanks hospital! That means we owed 1450 dollars to the fed! Fantastic!!!! I really want to pay that right now! On top of that were a bunch of other bills, so I think I wrote maybe 7 or 8 checks to the tune of maybe $2000. GREAT.
Tuesday was even more lovely because I GOT INTO AN ACCIDENT.
I went to pay off Australia. And when I pulled into the parking lot, I thought to myself, "This parking lot really sucks, everyone drives fast and all of the parking spots are all over the place. Totally dangerous."
I pay off the trip (gulp, bye bye lots of money) and go back to my car. I am parked next to a big black suv on the driver's side with dark tinted windows. I am in my little mazda protege, so there is really just no way I am going to see around it. I do not have my phone. The radio is off. I look over my shoulders and check the mirrors. I slowly start to back out and make it maybe 2 ft out of the spot and BAM, my driver's side rear bumper connects with the back drivers side panel of her 98 subaru legacy. My first thought: You've got to be freaking KIDDING ME.
She is a little shaken up, or at least unsure. She calls her husband. We call the cops. We exchange info. I had a long conversation with her 6 yr old daughter, who was cute as a button. We shake hands, all seems fine except for the UGLY ft and a half long scratch and tiny dent on my back bumper. Fabulous. Just what I need to do this week.
I cry on the way home.
Wednesday, I get my period.
I call my insurance agent wednesday morning, because that is what the card thing tells me to do. The idiot tells me that before anything is recorded, I should get an estimate on the damage (if its less than our deductible, I do not want to make a claim, DUH I know that!)... and to call the lady I was in the accident with and see what she plans to do. WTF?! Isn't the insurance supposed to do that? I call her and let her know what he said to do, she said she had just talked with Progressive and they were going to call her back. I think I made her angry by calling. And I think she had no idea what to do either, she was deferring to her husband.
I talk to my dad later in the evening, he tells me the agent was stupid, I need to call Merchants. Oh, but wait, it is 7 and they are closed now.
Progressive calls and wants to chat. I call them back, leave a message. They call me back, I tell them I want to talk with Merchants first. They say that is fine, and I can call tomorrow (today).
I basically felt sick most of the day yesterday and could not do anything because if I did, I started feeling worse. So I had to leave Jon to work on the bathroom, which made me feel awful. No win situation, I guess.
Also yesterday, I call in to a meeting our science teachers are having about... you guessed it! Global warming!!!! The curriculum coordinator wants us to put together presentations for each other of the "sides" of global warming. I am on the "pro" side. And my team elected me information validator! BECAUSE I FREAKING HAVE TIME FOR THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!
Today...
Still feeling sick.
I call Merchants at 10. I call the office I thought I was supposed to (Buffalo). The lady says no, you are supposed to call Mount Laurel, but I will take down all the info and fax it to them. Great. Me: "Well, the damage is on her driver's side back panel" Lady in Buffalo: "Okay, so let me get this straight, the damage is on her back passenger's bumper." WTF??!?!??!?! REALLY?
Oh, and then she calls me Nicole.
3:15 - I call Mount Laurel to see if they go the report from Buffalo. Nope. Really, it has not been faxed over, I talked with them at 10 am? No. No fax here. AWESOME!
"Well, here is our fax number, send over the report"
"I do not have access to a fax machine."
"Oh, well, how about I give you an email?"
"Ummm, I do not have a scanner."
"..."
"..."
"How about I put you through to intake and they can take all of the information again."
"Okay"
and then I got put in to VOICEMAIL! Freaking voicemail. Really?
I take a shower. I get out of the shower and think to myself, she is going to call back while I am naked. She does.
"What happened?"
"Um, did you get the fax of the report?"
"I have the report."
"You do.......? The lady earlier said you never got it."
"Oh, it is right here, I have not looked at it yet."
".....Oh, okay, I am glad it made it to you."
"So tell me what happened."
AGAIN?! Really? Because let's see, I have already told it to... the police man, Jon, my mom, my dad, my brother, the agency office, the lady in buffalo (like twice), and now you? And I am going to have to tell it to Progressive later? Great.
So I tell her.
She says, well, it is your fault.
OH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! So despite the fact that I am an extraordinarily good driver (1 fender bender in 2005 which was not really my fault bc a lady started pulling out on to the highway and stopped short, 2006 one ticket for rolling a stop sign one mile away from my house at 11:30 at night after working at the hospital), and I clearly was doing everything I should to be a cautious driver, and the fact that she was a) going too fast (it took her 6 parking spaces to stop) AND b) was driving too close to my side of the aisle (I only was 2 ft out of the parking spot), you are just going to tell me point blank it is my fault. THANKS LADY. Way to put the cherry on top of my already super rainbows and kittens day.
And did I mention my f-ing PERIOD?!?!?!?!
And that is snowed this morning? Snow. It is practically the end of March. GO AWAY.
So. All that being said, I realize I am a very lucky girl. My thoughts really are going out to the people of Egypt / Libya / New Zealand / Japan. My life is nowhere near the hell that all of those people are going through on a daily basis. I am thankful for my loved ones and my usually spectacular life.
But if we could, say, get back to normal, I would really appreciate it.
But the past two weeks have sucked.
And so, I feel the need to write about it, because keeping it all up inside is making me physically ill.
It started about 2 weeks ago with a parent who was upset about my global warming lessons. Now, it does not bother me that she has a different opinion than I do. And it does not bother me that she is very involved in her child's education. It makes me glad that she has values and want those values taught to her kid. The part that sucks is that, quite frankly, I do not have the time to deal with it. The marking period ends next week, I am up to my nose in assignments to grade (when I counted last night, I had 1100), and I bust my butt every day to create a high-school appropriate microbiology lesson from scratch based off of my college texts and notes, as well as scientific journal research papers that I read for information. It can take me 5 or 6 hours to make one of those lessons every day. And the other two? Answering emails, answering messages, doing a billion other little things like professional development or meetings or phone calls or whatever. I just simply do not have hours to spend discussing global warming with someone who is very philosophically different from me. Do I want to? Yes! Do I have time? No!
I pushed it off on the principal of our school, and I am glad I did. The day after this happened, I had to proctor PSSA tests in Philly for 2 days. 2 days of not working on my lessons. 2 days of not grading. 2 days of messages building up. Do you know where that put me when I got back to work on Thursday?
But let's not forget the PSSA dramarama...
A family of 3 girls, 2 of whom are special ed, are scheduled to test Tuesday afternoon. I had called them several times leading up to the test, without an avail. Tuesday afternoon comes. They do not show. Finally, I get in touch with mom, she says the older two are coming, the youngest is sick. Okay, fine. Waiting... waiting... 40 mins later, the eldest daughter calls. They are walking. And they are lost. Oh, and she is 4 months pregnant and has to pee.
Sigh.
Well, I told this 17-yr-old 8th grader (that's right!) to come tomorrow at 8 and they will get all of the testing done.
Wednesday, 8:15... not there. I call. No answer. I call at 9:30. 10:00. 10:30. 11:00. Not only was I calling the girl, but her mother. I send the girl a text because, hey, everyone answers texts. She responds - we are coming. Great, I say, when? Because I live an hour and 15 minutes from here and if I wait around for you to show up and you do not show, I am not going to be happy.
11:45, they show up. Fantastic, I am super happy. I tell them they are going to take the whole test today. Quite frankly, I am not sure if they will show up again if I let them leave. The eldest girl says, Oh, by the way, do you think you might be able to drive us home?
...
The next two hours were filled with being on the phone with school, being on the phone with mom, being on the phone with grandma. Mom and grandma do not have a car. The girls are to go to their aunts house and she will drive them 5 miles home. She texts that she is not doing it. Mom says, they are just going to have to walk home. 5 miles. Through West Philly. Oh really? Pregnant girl who is wearing slippers is supposed to walk 5 miles home???
The cousin is going to come get them. No, they are to walk to their uncle's house. No, the mom's boyfriend is coming to get them. No, he is not, it is the mom's boyfriend's dad... and oh, by the way, the girls have only met him once so they may not recognize him.
It gives me an ulcer re-telling it.
Meanwhile... the girl gets a cup of coffee. One of the women at the school says, aren't you not supposed to have caffeine? "Oh, my doctor says I can, but only one cup a day."
Later, she sees a friend and goes to bum a cigarette. This time, we all comment. "Actually, my doctor said that if I have been smoking for more than 2 years, that I should not just quit because the baby can go through withdrawl." OHHHHHhhh, guess this is modern medical wisdom I was not aware of.
The shame of it all is that this girl is stunningly beautiful. If she had grown up where I did, there is no way she would be in the situation she is in right now. It is amazing how where you live can really affect who you are. I am VERY thankful for my education, holy guacomole.
So, anyway, Thursday and Friday were rounded out with me back at work, working like a dog... while everyone else was sort of playing around, not really doing anything, or still out at PSSAs. How nice for everyone to get a vacation while I am staying late to get my lessons finished.
Meanwhile, on the home front, Jon and I have been, uh, renovating. We took apart our closet and added more racks and painted it... which took several late nights and a lot more time than we thought. We also have painted the bathroom... and caulked the tub... and we found some weird cracked area over the doorframe so that had to be sanded. It is in progress. But while this is going on, construction dust is everywhere (which, by the way, I am allergic to) and you can barely walk around without stepping on a tool.
Monday was nothing to report except me still working hard AND having to make an alternative assignment for the kid whose mom is on a global warming rampage. So I am supposed to take 3.5 hours worth of lessons and just throw something together for him? Another hour of my life used up to do that...
oh WAIT, it got even better... we got our taxes. FREAKIN AWESOME. Guess what? The hospital did not hold ANY federal taxes back for 2010! Thanks hospital! That means we owed 1450 dollars to the fed! Fantastic!!!! I really want to pay that right now! On top of that were a bunch of other bills, so I think I wrote maybe 7 or 8 checks to the tune of maybe $2000. GREAT.
Tuesday was even more lovely because I GOT INTO AN ACCIDENT.
I went to pay off Australia. And when I pulled into the parking lot, I thought to myself, "This parking lot really sucks, everyone drives fast and all of the parking spots are all over the place. Totally dangerous."
I pay off the trip (gulp, bye bye lots of money) and go back to my car. I am parked next to a big black suv on the driver's side with dark tinted windows. I am in my little mazda protege, so there is really just no way I am going to see around it. I do not have my phone. The radio is off. I look over my shoulders and check the mirrors. I slowly start to back out and make it maybe 2 ft out of the spot and BAM, my driver's side rear bumper connects with the back drivers side panel of her 98 subaru legacy. My first thought: You've got to be freaking KIDDING ME.
She is a little shaken up, or at least unsure. She calls her husband. We call the cops. We exchange info. I had a long conversation with her 6 yr old daughter, who was cute as a button. We shake hands, all seems fine except for the UGLY ft and a half long scratch and tiny dent on my back bumper. Fabulous. Just what I need to do this week.
I cry on the way home.
Wednesday, I get my period.
I call my insurance agent wednesday morning, because that is what the card thing tells me to do. The idiot tells me that before anything is recorded, I should get an estimate on the damage (if its less than our deductible, I do not want to make a claim, DUH I know that!)... and to call the lady I was in the accident with and see what she plans to do. WTF?! Isn't the insurance supposed to do that? I call her and let her know what he said to do, she said she had just talked with Progressive and they were going to call her back. I think I made her angry by calling. And I think she had no idea what to do either, she was deferring to her husband.
I talk to my dad later in the evening, he tells me the agent was stupid, I need to call Merchants. Oh, but wait, it is 7 and they are closed now.
Progressive calls and wants to chat. I call them back, leave a message. They call me back, I tell them I want to talk with Merchants first. They say that is fine, and I can call tomorrow (today).
I basically felt sick most of the day yesterday and could not do anything because if I did, I started feeling worse. So I had to leave Jon to work on the bathroom, which made me feel awful. No win situation, I guess.
Also yesterday, I call in to a meeting our science teachers are having about... you guessed it! Global warming!!!! The curriculum coordinator wants us to put together presentations for each other of the "sides" of global warming. I am on the "pro" side. And my team elected me information validator! BECAUSE I FREAKING HAVE TIME FOR THIS RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!
Today...
Still feeling sick.
I call Merchants at 10. I call the office I thought I was supposed to (Buffalo). The lady says no, you are supposed to call Mount Laurel, but I will take down all the info and fax it to them. Great. Me: "Well, the damage is on her driver's side back panel" Lady in Buffalo: "Okay, so let me get this straight, the damage is on her back passenger's bumper." WTF??!?!??!?! REALLY?
Oh, and then she calls me Nicole.
3:15 - I call Mount Laurel to see if they go the report from Buffalo. Nope. Really, it has not been faxed over, I talked with them at 10 am? No. No fax here. AWESOME!
"Well, here is our fax number, send over the report"
"I do not have access to a fax machine."
"Oh, well, how about I give you an email?"
"Ummm, I do not have a scanner."
"..."
"..."
"How about I put you through to intake and they can take all of the information again."
"Okay"
and then I got put in to VOICEMAIL! Freaking voicemail. Really?
I take a shower. I get out of the shower and think to myself, she is going to call back while I am naked. She does.
"What happened?"
"Um, did you get the fax of the report?"
"I have the report."
"You do.......? The lady earlier said you never got it."
"Oh, it is right here, I have not looked at it yet."
".....Oh, okay, I am glad it made it to you."
"So tell me what happened."
AGAIN?! Really? Because let's see, I have already told it to... the police man, Jon, my mom, my dad, my brother, the agency office, the lady in buffalo (like twice), and now you? And I am going to have to tell it to Progressive later? Great.
So I tell her.
She says, well, it is your fault.
OH THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! So despite the fact that I am an extraordinarily good driver (1 fender bender in 2005 which was not really my fault bc a lady started pulling out on to the highway and stopped short, 2006 one ticket for rolling a stop sign one mile away from my house at 11:30 at night after working at the hospital), and I clearly was doing everything I should to be a cautious driver, and the fact that she was a) going too fast (it took her 6 parking spaces to stop) AND b) was driving too close to my side of the aisle (I only was 2 ft out of the parking spot), you are just going to tell me point blank it is my fault. THANKS LADY. Way to put the cherry on top of my already super rainbows and kittens day.
And did I mention my f-ing PERIOD?!?!?!?!
And that is snowed this morning? Snow. It is practically the end of March. GO AWAY.
So. All that being said, I realize I am a very lucky girl. My thoughts really are going out to the people of Egypt / Libya / New Zealand / Japan. My life is nowhere near the hell that all of those people are going through on a daily basis. I am thankful for my loved ones and my usually spectacular life.
But if we could, say, get back to normal, I would really appreciate it.
posted by FireWithin at 3:19 PM
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