zeptember

I just realised that I haven’t updated this journal on workplace issues since July 6, 2009.

This summer, I worked for 8 weeks back and forth between two campuses - the toddler school and the preschool. Thirteen years ago, I was a toddler teacher and had held that position for five years. After getting a taste of that again this year, I have to say, I really am glad to not go back to it full time. I rather like and prefer working with the four and five year old children.

On August 21, as I was finishing up my last week at the toddler school, I had no idea if I was to report to work at the preschool on August 24 or if I still had a job or what. I kept asking around and finally at the end of the day, I was told to show up at the preschool at 8:30am Monday the 24th.
I spent most of last week assisting the head teachers setting up for back to school - Autumn curriculum. We were told all of Monday and Tuesday that they did not know if any teachers and/or assistants would have to be let go. They said that enrollment was really low this year. They said to be patient and we’d know by the end of the week.

On Wednesday at the end of my shift, a phone call came in to the room I was working in. The head teacher called me over. I drew a deep breath and said, ‘hello?’
It was the director. She said I’d be in a new classroom this school year. I smiled and thanked her. I was told to report to that new teacher first thing on Thursday.

On my way out of work Wednesday afternoon, another assistant congratulated me on my new assignment. We talked about what rooms we’d been moved to for the coming school year. She told me that the teacher she previously worked for, as well as the teacher who got me, had “fought” over me! That’s so cool! I’m in demand! I’m well liked! Yay!

I got to work on Thursday and the director told me she needed to see me. She was super busy, preparing for a guest speaker to present. She told me to follow her to her office. I followed and endured all the interruptions along the way, then was sat down in her office when the director was called away repeatedly again. Instead of releasing me back to my classroom, she told me to stay right there, and she’d be back soon.
Anxiety was mounting by this point. Did I do something wrong? Will I be cut because of low enrollment? I must have had to wait there in her office for 10 minutes. Finally, the director came back in and closed the door. She said that she was moving me from the new classroom assignment to another assignment. She wanted me to help another assistant teacher set up and run an outdoor classroom. I quickly accepted, smiling. I wasn’t in trouble! I wasn’t shit-canned! Just an assignment change? SURE! I don’t know if you’ve heard, but the unemployment rate in California right now is at 11.9% (click here to see the Employment Development Department’s press release).
If all you wanna do is move me around, I’m fine with that. I’m your yes-man for awhile. I need the resume fodder and the steady income, however miniscule it may be.

After receiving my new assignment, I went to the room where the guest presentation would be. The teacher I had just been awarded to the day before came in and looked at me. We gave each other mutual pouty faces. I might have enjoyed working with her. Ah well, maybe next year.

After the presentation was over, we set off back to work. The heat wave was settling in on Thursday, so it was a hard work day outside, setting up the outdoor classroom from scratch. There’s already an outdoor classroom in use at the other school location, and it works really well - it gives the head teachers a break when the assistants can take half a class to a new area to do their assignments. It cuts down on noise and distractions and allows ALL of the children a better opportunity at focusing on their tasks.

By Friday, the heat wave was in full force. I wore shorts to work and was drip sweating within the first hour. Ugh.
Of course, Friday was Open House for new and returning parents. We worked our asses off until lunchtime, had a continually interrupted lunch break while last minute changes and finishes were applied to classrooms, and then from 1pm - 3pm we held open house.
By that time of day, it had gotten to be around 95°F outside! I was drip-sweating just standing there talking to parents. We had a portable air conditioner and four fans running, but it did nothing but blow hot air around, ugh.

By the time open house was over, my co-teacher and I were wiped out. We got to leave a half an hour early that day.

Oh, another thing this past week - on Monday it was a casual question as to whether I was interested in taking part of the teacher training course, happening on September 5th and 6th.
By Thursday, it was pretty much mandatory that I attend. The course work is for Practical Life, which is what our outdoor classroom is tailored to, along with art and dramatic play. So I understand why they want me to take the course.

Also, I and the other teacher are just assistants, and we are paid as such. Although my co-teacher has recently completed her teacher certification and is an intern, currently, she’s still on the rolls as ‘assistant’.
By enrolling piece by piece in the teacher certification program, I will also reach the point of intern and then teacher. Both of us will make more money when we can get that official ‘Head Teacher’ status. So of course I said yes.
I still have not been told how much this weekend course will cost me out of pocket, however. And honestly, I don’t feel like I have much choice but to do it. More certification on my resume is golden. I’ve been there nearly five months. I have seven more months to go before I reach my one year anniversary, and that too is golden on a resume, especially in this rough economy.

Lastly, a mention of insane teachers. That one horrible teacher I had to work with back in July has been demoted to Library resource assistant. She’ll have limited contact with the children. I found out from another co-worker who spontaneously dumped on me one day about how grueling it was to have had to work with that teacher. She described the exact experience I had with that wretched woman, and she didn’t even know I too had worked with her. I told her what I went through and we commiserated, heh.
The other insane teacher is unfortunately the one I’ve just been assigned to work with for the new classroom. She fits the bill for paranoid schizophrenia. During the last couple weeks of summer session, she was near constant hysteria over a three-and-a-half year old child who has behaviour issues. The child comes from an unstable household and acts out pretty violently, seemingly without remorse. Being at our school affords this child a chance at stablising and turning out right. However, this co-worker of mine got kicked in the face by the child one day, and decided the child was out to get her from an adult standpoint. This woman began talking to the child like an adult, in technical terms, such as, “You are assaulting me and that is illegal. People go to jail for that. I have my rights, stand back!” She then informed us that this child is not three-and-a-half, but is actually 15 years old, and knows exactly what she’s doing in a calculated fashion. She said she’s read about cases where an adult looks like a small child, and this child clinically fits the description, at least to her. She said she’d be willing to legally certify it.
At that point, my head teacher took it to the director and had a conference about this assistant. I know because she told me. She also told me that she put in a request to not have that assistant ever work with her again in her classroom.
Wheeee, and now I get to work with her one-on-one.

So that’s where it’s at. I’m sure I’ll have some more stories to share, soon.

Screenshot from Friday, after the heat broke around 4pm - it had actually gotten to around 95°F that day:

Screenshot from Saturday:

We spent part of the afternoon in San Francisco, where it was about 15 degrees cooler. Came back home for dinner and to open the windows and cool down the house. Then we went back to SF and hit up a new club night. Outside was nice and chill. Inside was a fucking sauna. I seriously thought I would pass out a couple of times. I went through five bottles of water and it wasn’t enough.

Today was SO breezy and cool. Finally. I hope the weather stays like this for the first week of school.

This is the 21st fucking century, people. I want to know why it is still so hard to predict weather.

Yesterday the temp outside was in the 90s. I was not expecting this, because wunderground.com had told me that it would be in the upper 60s to low 70s all week. As a result, yesterday was miserable at work, because I am now in charge of setting up an outdoor classroom from scratch. School begins on Monday. I drip sweated all day. Ewwww.

So this morning I checked the weather -

Wow 79°F eh? That’s a little warm but I should be prepared for it, right?
BUT WAIT, WHAT’S THAT I SEE BELOW THE FORECAST?
“Today is forecast to be nearly the same temperature as yesterday.”

Well yesterday wasn’t no fucking 79 goddamned degrees. That’s air conditioned compared to yesterday.

So I went and had a look at The Weather Channel’s webpage:

85°F today?!??! That’s quite a difference between a high of 79°F.

I have learned that when looking at wunderground, to ADD TEN DEGREES to their forecast.
Similarly, when looking at the weather channel, I have learned to ADD FOUR TO SIX DEGREES to their forecast.

Either way, today is going to be miserable again, AND it’s open house, so parents will be traipsing through, which means I can’t wear shorts.
I’m bringing shorts anyway, dammit, and seeing what the other teachers will be wearing when I get to work. I’ll have nice clothes and practical clothes on hand. Open house is just supposed to be for a couple of hours, anyway. I hope.

Agreeing to work in the outdoor classroom - was this me being a team player or them being mean? :p
The management, to their defense, IS trying to secure portable air conditioning units, and they did give me several cyclone and box fans yesterday.

Bleh. I hate it when it’s this hot.

Oh, and on the home front, did I mention we had two more large scale ant invasions through the interior walls? Yep, last night and this morning - they want what’s in the garbage disposal, which is only scent and fragments of food as far as I can tell.
We’ve opted to allow the landlord do a full scale toxic spraying because nothing else we’ve done has worked. We’ll have to take the cats out of the house for several hours, which means I have to be home that day. I’m not home at all this week during normal business hours, nor will I be home at all this weekend because I have to take a teacher training course again (going for head teacher cert at the insistence of the school director, which is good, means more pay).

I am not looking forward to today because of the heat.

Edward Kennedy, Senate’s Liberal Lion, Dies
Ron Elving and Brian Naylor
August 26, 2009

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts — the scion of an American political dynasty who became an iconic liberal legislator — died Tuesday night of complications related to a cancerous brain tumor. The 77-year-old Democratic lawmaker was surrounded by family members at his home in the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port on Cape Cod.

Kennedy’s malignant brain tumor was diagnosed in May 2008, after a seizure struck him while at home on the Cape. He underwent a lengthy surgery in June 2008. Aided by cancer treatments, he returned to his work in the Senate late in 2008, pushing for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system and promoting legislation giving the FDA regulatory powers over tobacco products.

“We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever,” said a statement released by the Kennedy family early Wednesday. “We thank everyone who gave him care and support over this last year, and everyone who stood with him for so many years in his tireless march for progress toward justice, fairness and opportunity for all.”

President Obama said that he and his wife were “heartbroken” by the news of Kennedy’s death. “I valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague,” the president said in a statement issued on Martha’s Vineyard, where the Obama family is vacationing. “I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I’ve profited as president from his encouragement and wisdom.”

Obama said “an important chapter in our history has come to an end,” noting that Kennedy had played an important role in “virtually every major piece of legislation” for decades.

Kennedy had hoped to be at the center of this year’s debate over a landmark bill remaking the American health care system. Even after suffering a seizure on Inauguration Day, he again returned to work. He took part in early legislative skirmishes on behalf of the new president — whose nomination for the White House he had given a boost with an early endorsement. But as his illness advanced, Kennedy was unable to take the gavel when the Senate committee he chaired took up the bill in June.

Universally known as Teddy, Kennedy had served in the Senate since 1962, making him the third-longest-serving senator in history.

Staunch Liberal

In nearly a half-century in office, Kennedy was known as a champion of liberal causes and a defender of the Senate’s traditions. While he served briefly as the Senate’s majority whip (the second-most-powerful position) in his first full term, Kennedy lost that job to Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia in 1971. He did not return to the formal leadership thereafter.

Instead, Kennedy made his mark with legislative work, earning a reputation as a formidable negotiator as well as a fierce floor fighter. His committee assignments included Labor and Human Resources, Judiciary, and Armed Services. He was chairman of the Judiciary Committee in the 1970s and later shifted to the gavel he held this year on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Over the years, he saw the agenda of the Senate change from the civil rights debates of 1964 to the war in Vietnam to Watergate to the struggles against Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Republican President Ronald Reagan. As a member and later chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he participated in the confirmation proceedings for every member of the current Supreme Court except Justice Sonia Sotomayor, from Justice John Paul Stevens in 1975 to Justice Samuel Alito in 2006. (He left the committee at the end of 2008 and did not participate in the hearings on Sotomayor’s nomination.)

Kennedy had been seen as an inevitable presidential candidate almost from the time he was old enough to run, following in the footsteps of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and their brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated while running for president in 1968.

But an early grab for the brass ring, expected in 1972, was scuttled after Kennedy drove off a bridge at Chappaquiddick Island, Mass., in July 1969. The young woman who was with him, an aide named Mary Jo Kopechne, drowned. Though charged with leaving the scene of the accident, his two-month sentence was suspended and he was not punished further. But Kennedy never entirely escaped the incident’s shadow.

When he did run for president in 1980, it was as an intraparty challenger to Carter, the incumbent. Kennedy saw Carter as squandering an opportunity for progressives to guide the nation, but Democratic primary voters gave the nomination to Carter. Although Kennedy initially positioned himself for another try in 1988, he took himself out of the running early.

A Political Dynasty

Attraction to the pinnacles of power had made the Kennedy family the best-known political dynasty of its era.

Its patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy, was a Wall Street financier and political power broker who served as the first chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission and then as ambassador to Great Britain. The eldest of his sons bore his name and was killed in World War II. Teddy was the fourth son — and last of nine children. He was born to the elder Kennedy and his wife, Rose, in 1932, the year Franklin D. Roosevelt won his first term as president.

The youngest Kennedy graduated from Milton Academy in 1950 but was dismissed from Harvard the following year for having another student take a Spanish exam in his stead. He enlisted in the Army during the Korean War and was sent to Europe.

In 1953, he was readmitted to Harvard, graduating in 1956. He received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1959 and, after working as coordinator of Western states for his brother’s presidential campaign in 1960, became an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Mass.

That job was just a holding pattern. Bay State Democrats could scarcely wait to move the president’s telegenic and well-spoken brother into statewide office — specifically, the Senate seat the president had vacated. But the younger Kennedy first had to turn 30 to meet the constitutional age requirement, and the party had a family friend, Benjamin A. Smith, hold the seat as an appointee for two years. In November 1962, Kennedy was elected to finish out the two remaining years in his brother’s term.

A Key Figure In The Senate

Kennedy’s early years in the Senate were marked by ambition and strong commitment to his brothers’ causes and the Great Society programs of President Lyndon Johnson.

He was an advocate for labor unions and a higher minimum wage. He was involved in the civil rights and voting rights debates at mid-decade, and he pressed for an expanded role for the government in health care. He supported the creation of Medicare in 1965 and of a national system of neighborhood health care centers as part of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1966.

In the 1970s, Kennedy continued to press a national approach to health care and health insurance, negotiating with Presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter but never reaching the agreement he wanted on systemic change.

Although he came up short as a presidential candidate in 1980, Kennedy redirected his energies and became a legend in the Senate. He immersed himself more than ever in health care and labor issues. Among the legislation he helped to pass were the Family and Medical Leave Act, the WIC nutrition program, job training programs and AmeriCorps.

As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Kennedy defended abortion rights and helped lead the effort that denied confirmation to President Reagan’s Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork in 1987. Schools were also a Kennedy focus, and in 2001 he worked with newly elected Republican President George W. Bush to pass the “No Child Left Behind” education program, helping win substantial increases in federal education spending.

But the two soon parted ways. Kennedy was an early and outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, voting against the 2002 resolution authorizing the invasion and calling it George Bush’s Vietnam. He also opposed Bush’s tax cuts — as well as Bush’s Supreme Court nominees, Alito and John Roberts.

Yet as partisan as he could be, Kennedy also was known for the partnerships and friendships he forged with Senate Republicans. Utah’s Orrin Hatch, Sam Brownback of Kansas and Mike Enzi of Wyoming all worked closely with Kennedy on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Kennedy was also known to work easily with the GOP’s 2008 presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. The immigration bill that Kennedy and McCain co-sponsored in 2007 had the support of President Bush, but it could not overcome objections from Senate Republicans.

Speaking on the floor of the Senate, Kennedy evoked some of the battles he had voted on in that chamber in earlier decades.

“It was in this chamber a number of years ago that we knocked down the great walls of discrimination on the basis of race, that we knocked down the walls of discrimination on the basis of religion,” he said. “Here in this Senate, we were part of the march for progress, and today we are called on again.”

Leader Among Democrats

While Kennedy made just one run for the presidency, he was an influential voice in national party politics for decades. In 2004, he campaigned extensively for fellow Massachusetts Democrat Sen. John Kerry’s bid for the party’s nomination and helped steer the Democratic National Convention to Boston.

In 2008, Kennedy made a timely and somewhat surprising endorsement of one of his Senate colleagues, Barack Obama, over another, Hillary Clinton. Having Kennedy in his corner helped candidate Obama cement his hold on the party’s liberal bloc and paved the way to his nomination.

Kennedy had three children with his first wife, Joan; the couple divorced in 1982. He also had two stepchildren with his second wife, Victoria Reggie, a Washington attorney he married in 1992. His son Patrick J. Kennedy represents the 1st Congressional District of Rhode Island.

Kennedy was passionate about his beliefs, a tireless worker for his causes, and he loved fighting the good fight.

In 1980, having failed in his challenge to Carter, Kennedy addressed the Democratic National Convention. He was talking about his campaign, but his words are an apt summation of his life:

“For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

Click through the title of the article to also hear snippets of Kennedy through the years.

I am so proud of Mr. Kennedy. I supported him for as long as I was aware of politics. We are all better off for his hard work, and are left vulnerable by his passing. Rest in peace, Senator.

The vet called this afternoon and informed me that Kiki’s kidney enzymes are higher this year than last year. I was asked to rehash what all had been done in the past year and if he’d been put on any medication thus far.
I relayed that last year, I was told to put Kiki on a low protein diet, but he was not given any medication. I was given some prescription kibble and was told that if I find over the counter kibble that’s low in protein, I could also do that, along with low protein wet food.
The vet told me that last year, Kiki was on the high end of normal for kidney enzymes, but this year he’s fully in the ‘high’ category. She told me that there’s still time to manage the renal illness, and in time he may need subcutaneous fluids on a regular basis. She said that she will get together some medication and prescription cat food, and that he is not to have any further kibble.
I asked if I should have stopped giving him kibble a year ago - that I’d found lower protein kibble and cleared it with the vet - and she replied that there’s just no way of knowing if that would have helped or not. Basically, “don’t beat yourself up over it.”
She then approached the subject of his dental cleaning, scheduled for Friday. I told her no way, no how. I told her that I’d told the front desk person yesterday that if his enzymes were high again this year I’d not risk putting him under anesthesia ever again. I told the vet that I am aware that I only have a few years max left with my cat, and I definitely don’t want him to be taken away earlier than that. She was relieved and told me as much, and said she’s so glad we’re on the same page with this.
I told her my husband is working from home on Friday and can pick everything up, then, cuz I’ve got appointments before work this week, and I work past the time the vet is open.

There’s been a lot of cats crossing the river styx in the past 18 months: my ma’s cat, my chosen sister’s cat, my friend G’s cat, my friend A’s cat, my friend JA’s cat, my friend W’s cat, and by tonight, our neighbor J’s cat will be gone, too, having to be put down.
That’s a lot of grieving parents going around. Looking at it one way, you could say we may have all gotten our cats around the same time in life, and it’s just natural that they’d be passing on around this time. But still, even though we know one day our kitties will pass on, we still must grieve.

Kiki could be with me for a few more weeks, months or years. Who knows.

And I still haven’t even gotten Zenaide’s baseline blood work done - she wasn’t the one having health issues to prompt the blood work in the first place. Kiki had been throwing up repeatedly in April 2008, that’s why I took him in for baseline blood work and that’s when they found the high kidney enzymes.
Now I have to get her tested, too, and if her kidney enzymes are also high, I have to get enough prescription food for two, for the rest of their lives.

I’ve been trying to reach my husband but he’s not phoned or texted back. He must be stuck in more meetings at work.

For the past year, I’ve been sensing the finite time I have with my babies, and I’ve been trying to shower them with as much love as possible. I’ve even let them into the bed with me, especially when I’m bedridden. We’re supposed to be vigilant in keeping the cats off the bed - my order - because of the dander, which upsets my husband’s allergies, and because I don’t like cat litter on my bedding. But they still get their way pretty often and end up on the bed with momma.

Meh. I never even got them a tall cat tree like I’ve been promising all of their lives. I can still do that now.