What a week. Sheesh.

Okay, so first my commute is a LOT longer.
Ughhhhh.

Takes me a half hour each way. Yep, one hour in the morning, one hour in the evening, chopped up into half hour increments. Four half hour trips, each time checking with the GPS app to make sure of the best route.

So I've gone from getting three months to the gallon for the past 18 months to having to fill my economical little car every week.

::sigh:::

On the good side, I have plenty of time to listen to all kinds of music.

Time to do all-alone-in-the-car-karaoke-what-the-hell-are-you-looking-at-Buddy-haven't-you-ever-seen-a-fat-old-lady-belting-out-really-old-hits karaoke.

How can you beat that?

Short answer? You can't.

Slightly longer answer, I may not look like that pretty girl who used to get up on stages and sing, but I still SOUND like her, and when you are getting up there in years and lamenting the ravages of time and gravity, it's satisfying to know that the voice is still there.

Oh, and my hair still looks good. I have quite a bit of gray, but it doesn't really show much. Weird thing to celebrate, but hey. It's me... the list of things to celebrate is a little short at my age.

I got my hair cut yesterday morning at 9. Apparently she doesn't ordinarily cut hair that early in the morning, she made an exception for me. We had an appointment for this coming Monday, but my hair was driving me bugshit so I contacted her on Sunday afternoon and she offered me a Tuesday slot, which I accepted, only to realize I was supposed to meet a manager-type person at the storage facility to put the name of my site on a few cupboards and shelf units for my new site.

I drove out to the storage place and waited. And waited. Finally, after a half hour went by, I texted the manager person and said, "You *are* still coming... right?"

There was a delay, then my phone rang. She sounded terrible. Sick. And forgot to take her appointment book home with her so totally spaced our meet up. She offered to call person A or person B to get them out there, but NO... cuttin' into my nap time.

So I still need some shelves for the space we're in and will have to get that figured out soon.

The kids are really good kids. I have one who isn't accustomed to hearing the word 'no' from, well, anyone. He's a handsome kid, big and tall and athletic. Sense of humor. He's smart and outgoing. The issues I have with him are minor, I have just had to remind him that 'we don't throw things here'  and 'please pull your mask up' at least 4 times each afternoon. It's okay, he'll catch on.

Have had to explain the whole concept of cleaning up after himself, too. He almost always tries to sneak out without finishing the cleanup, announcing, "Well, I cleaned up my stuff." Which he has not. And I watch to make sure about what he gets out and what gets left on the table where he's working. I told him today that when he leaves a mess, he's saying to me that he doesn't respect me or my time and that I'd really appreciate it if he takes responsibility for his own stuff. I said that in front of his mom, actually, saying quietly to her when he turned away to finish his cleanup, "We've all been working on cleaning up after ourselves this week. We're getting there."  Then I told  her that he has volunteered to help the smaller kids with various tasks and that he is a nice kid.

He is testing boundaries, I frequently hear, "Well Axel let us do it last year!" To which I always answer, "Do I look like Axel?" Axel was the on-site person there for the last two years. Today he threatened me with, "Well, I know your boss!" when I told him that having computers out during program time was against our rules.

Boss, huh? Haha, that guy ain't the boss of me!

I didn't say that, though. I told him that Jim's last day with our organization was today, so it wouldn't matter anyway.

There are sound reasons that we don't have computers out during program time. Definitely don't want kids viewing inappropriate content or sharing it with others.

I bought a bunch of cotton masks and dyed them. They're not bad, they don't make my face feel slimy like the disposable ones. It's not fun to wear a mask, and I have a feeling all the schools are going to end up closed sooner rather than later, but no one has asked me what I think about any of it.

There is an air exchange unit in our room. One of the old fashioned kind built into the wall under the windows. Today the kids discovered that if you put a piece of paper on it, it will fly up into the air.

They began experimenting with tissue paper in various shapes and sizes. There were yells of delight, lots of changes and thinking about designs to try. They started that activity around the time parents began picking up. Quite a few of the kids didn't want to leave, they were having too much fun.

One of them kept saying excitedly, "This is better than OMSI!"

It wasn't causing any harm. It was a good use of some of the million pieces of tissue paper in one of the dirty plastic bins. It was joyful and once again a reminder of why I love my job... wherever I'm doing it.

It's starting to look better in there, but it's still not what I want it to be. Not what it WILL be as soon as I have a chance to go through all my things.

Bob leaves on Sunday. It's been a good visit, and I'm so glad he was here for Lyssa and Mason's sort of wedding. :)

Meanwhile, off to dreamland to dream of tissue paper dragons flying around our dismal-now-but-constantly-getting-better classroom.