04 January, 2007

Anybody want to buy me an ice cream?

Today:
1) I went to work. My best friend was absent. She's really very sick. She never gets a chance to get better because we work in an environment where people start sniffing for a corpse if you're absent more than once. So she goes to work sick the next day.
2) I get to work late. Henry needs me to give him a little more water because he's not yet used to how much he needs to drink. No problem. It makes us both happy.
3) Once I get to work, things are almost okay. I didn't have time to stop to get lunch because of the lunacy of my job. I was ten minutes late. I am very hungry throughout the day, but the school lunch person gives me apples. So far, so good. The apples would have been thrown away anyway -- they're extra from last night. We get new ones every day. What we can't give away gets trashed eventually. So, I'm not stealing these apples and if I get a sandwich I PAY FOR IT. I would have bought a sandwich, but some Einstein decided not to order PB and J. All the kids like PB and J. Who would cancel PB and J?
4) The day goes mostly okay until 4th period. I come out of my room to bring in the kids (I pretend to fish and reel them in. It's corny, but they let me.) And I come face to face with my principal. She moves quickly away.
5) 5th period is my free period. I catch the attention of one of the security guards.
"What was __________ doing outside my room?" I figure she was snooping on me.
6) Surprise, surprise: She wasn't snooping on me. She was cursing at one of my colleagues. Apparently there is a rumor going around that our school will close before June 2007.
7) In that same mood, the principal called security and asked for MORE OFFICERS. For what? She can't see any officers on the floor. She did this while standing next to an officer....she was flustered, I guess.
8) Back to the rumor: an unamed individual who WOULD KNOW told one of my colleagues that WE ARE NOT ASSURED that we will be open until June. She told someone, and so on and so on.
9) Actually, I DIDN'T HEAR A THING. I was busy, I don't know...teaching.
10) Then our lovely union representative and another colleague TOLD THE PRINCIPAL that the FIRST COLLEAGUE WAS SPREADING AN UNFOUNDED RUMOR.
11) So as not to get the individual WHO WOULD DEFINITELY KNOW in trouble, my colleague said she must have misunderstood what she was told and that she was sorry. Later, that individual thanked her.
12) All of this happened AROUND ME. For once, I had nothing to do with the problem.
13) Moral of the story: stop playing fisherwoman with the students. If I had stayed in my room, I could have been in complete ignorance. Now I know something I am not supposed to know and that my principal is actively trying to cover up.
14) CODA: As she left, the principal was still cursing a blue streak, talking to MY UNION REP about people having "no connection with reality." I guess...No, I'll stop there. I DON'T WANT TO KNOW.

3 comments:

Pacian said...

Bliss is ignorance, that's what I always say.

Rachel Grynberg said...

i just didn't want part of the drama, this time. there was no bliss to be had, though.

Pacian said...

there was no bliss to be had, though.

Of course. You're not ignorant.

;-)