cough; cough; cough...

the voice came back, friday evening
followed by some stringey green stuff that made its way out of my throat.

i've spent the past 5 days hacking away
in and out of school
and just this morning woke up to crusted-over eyes that once washed,
were completely bloodshot and scary.

off to the doctor with me.
it wasn't pinkeye, which would have made more sense
but somehow this virus i have made its way into my eyes.
and so i'm out till monday and washing them with warm water.

meanwhile, i feel like the most disgusting mess ever
children flee when i pass and my own cat won't come near me.

my days are filled with research on solutions for post nasal drip, hacking dry cough, expectorants, and viral infections.

right now every time i lie down about every 20 seconds i get an insane itch in the back of my throat.

this virus is kicking my ass.

i'd like a replacement immune system please.

/bitching

reduced to a whisper

my doctor says if the laryngitis happens again , making a 3rd time, i'll have to see an ear/nose/throat specialist.

he was by far the nicest doctor i've seen since moving to brooklyn.

being voiceless is always eye-opening. at least, it has been in my now two times of experience. you have to find the shortest way to say something. you have to wait until it's quiet to speak, especially in public places. people quiet down for you, though i have yet to test this theory out with my students and somehow i doubt they'll quiet down for me.

which reminds me, i had to confiscate a 6th grader's PSP on wednesday. she left the thing playing music on a desk in the lab, and so i took it. they don't belong in school, i'd already asked her to turn it off and put it away and she didn't, so i snagged it. later, she threw pencil shavings and my classroom pass (a defunct wireless router) on the floor and shouted at me. while i'm not intimidated by 6th grade girls, i didn't like how close she was standing to me and i didn't like her tone. i decided to hang on to this coveted psp. at the end of the school day she came to my room to pick up the psp and again yelled and shouted at me. i contacted my AP and he took the thing away to deal with. my classroom door was vandalized, the world BITCH scrawled in purple lettering with a yellow border. a lovely end to a lovely day.

then i lost my voice.

monday will be fun if it doesn't return.

all bunny

i went to our state's capital today

on a cute omega bus

with a bunch of other teachers, many of them chapter leaders from brooklyn.

to my non-teacher readers, a chapter leader is your school's UFT rep.

the UFT is the united federation of teachers, or the NYC teacher's union.

we're a unionized bunch, which in many ways works for us, but in many ways keeps us down.

what other professions are unionized?

steelworkers, miners, teamsters, truckers, firefighters, police, transit workers, painters, etc.

what professions are un-unionized?

doctors, lawyers, stockbrokers, bankers, etc.

notice trends?

teachers have trouble breaking the 'professional' barrier and some say the union is to blame.

but in a profession where there is no standard cookie-cutter product, the union helps out a lot.

we pay them a little under $80 a month

they give us dental insurance, a free pair of glasses every two years, and the security that if something goes wrong on the job, they'll back us up.

they're on our side with just about anything just short of child abuse. they even back you up when the child abuses you. which happens - frequently.

so i went to our state capital today to lobby our legislators to keep their promises not to cut funding, to help improve class size by mandating it be made smaller, to keep a functioning SAVE room in all schools, to continue developing a technical program in addition to standard high schools, and to give special ed kids the supports they are mandated.

it was an interesting time to be in albany, due to all of the spitzer bru ha ha going on, in fact there was a joint session of the senate and the general assembly. spitzey was nowhere to be seen. i'm sure he's groveling to his wife right about now.

that's where i'd be anyway. not that i'd ever have to. cuz i wouldn't do it. but if i did, i would hope i wouldn't be forced to resign from my job for it.

yeah, i guess i'm all for the decriminalization and legalization of prostitution.

recession? what recession? we all have to make a living somehow.

who are you to judge?

need host monkey

i'm seeking a web designer and hosting service.

if you know of one, send them my way.

kthxbai

w

big days, big days

i once made a promise to myself that i wouldn't cohabitate unless there was a ring on my finger to make it real. and now there is. and i am. no, i'm not engaged - whatever that means. with over 50% of marriages ending in divorce, the only reason to do it is for the tax benefits. and i'm not even sure i need those, as my baby did my taxes and did them beautifully. and i'm happy, and she's amazing, and beautiful, and smart, and talented, and sexy, so thanks for all that.

but here i am, 3 weeks after the move, feeling pretty groovy. got a nice place, got it mostly settled in, trying to keep it neat. cable should be coming tomorrow morning so no more ganking on the neighbors' signals, and maybe i'll be back a little more consistently.

so i just noticed today that my little sister (my only sister) commented on the post about her a few posts down. this was pretty momentous to me, especially finding it after it had been left there for us about 2 weeks after the post went up. since i've been offline, i didn't even know it was there. why do the big events always happen on fridays????

so i apologize for airing my dirty laundry here, for all the internet to see. i feel like my blog is all mucketey mucked up now that that's out. maybe i'll be starting over somewhere else. maybe not. i have a short story coming soon. it's about a decade in the making, receiving a little facelift right now.

stay tuned to an apple a day, where the drama never ends.

xoxox
w