Informant 9

February 23, 2016

Just spent one hour on this diary and lost it all when I copied and saved it. An earlier “copy and paste” printed and I lost the recent one which was my long worked on diary. ARGH! I will do it again.

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2:30am

geriatric dog bolted upright in bed and woke me up, settled back down, but I was not able to fall asleep well.

4:30am

Dogs in dining room woke me up and I got out of bed to let everyone out, then tried to go back to sleep, but did not sleep well.

5:35am

alarm went off, but just fed dogs right off the bat b/c they already went out an hour prior. NPR on radio as I do my AM routine.

6am

bathtub with coffee and relaxation

6:30am

out of tub and to office for computer time with rest of coffee NPR still on.

7am

Log off to get dressed, do hair, put dogs in crates, then off to work at 7:27am

7:50am

Clock in. Commute was harsh today as I was SUPER tired with less sleep than I needed. Walked to classroom and found a “penis-shaped” hair clip on the hallway floor. It was shaped like an intact male’s anatomy with appropriate organs on each side.  Cracked up and thought Why in the World would a company make a product for small girls shaped like this? It seemed to be missing a ribbon or some decoration and was just the base clip. Had “Disney” stamped on the back. Did their product tester not suggest it was inappropriate? Kept jokes about it out of early kids’ hearing. Next door to share my juvenile humor with those staff and they cracked up, too and had ideas of what fun to have with it.

8am

Rest of kids got off bus, lots of grumpy kids that didn’t want to say “good morning” back to me.

8:20am

kindergartner gets to do “calendar” this week: required lots of redirection. Other staff being just as juvenile as I was and cracked up over the Penis Hair Clip. Surprising how little adults really “grow up.”

8:45am

started my spelling group with 2 kids. Older kids first who have grade level 3-4 words to spell. My little sis gave me a magnetic erase board and I brought it in to use for spelling… kids practiced writing words on it. Younger kids come at end of spelling time and still learning alphabet and how to write letters.

10:20am

Kids to gym. I run and play with them; creaky knees and all.

11am kids out to recess. Sun with stiff wind. Non-verbal  boy is happy and jumping and hugging.

11:20

back inside and line up for lunch.

11:30

thru lunch line with kids. I had not brought my lunch b/c we had planned a carry in for a staff with a birthday, but she called in, so we postponed the carry in- I do not have a cell phone so could not get the text.  I had to order “taco triangle” which were rubbery and gross, but I ate it all. I don’t believe in wasting food.

12pm

My personal lunch over. Back to class. Had to get more mileage out of the Penis Clip, so took it down to the “lost and found” table at the office and showed it to a normally straight laced employee who cracked up. Also another employee whom had already seen the circulating photo of it commented that it was “just an upside down elephant!”

12:15-12:45

Assigned to play a game with kids that teaches about community transportation and community workers. One kid pronounced “helicopter” as “hel-i-ture”. I love his pronunciation–Everything he does is cute!!

12:45pm

Kids from neighboring class come over for science lesson about renewable and non renewable energy. Our kids take an alternate to the ISTEP and there has been a question on their testing about this subject, so teacher chose to teach on it. Interesting video from Youtube. I learned that nuclear energy is non-renewable.

1:20pm

Other class leaves and our kids do “jobs” and rewards.

1:50pm

Teacher asked me to take the kindergartner to the nurse to get ear ache medicine and I notice on the lost and found table that the Penis Hair Clip is now gone. Back to original owner or just shared for more joking?? I’ll never know.

2pm

Kids leave on bus. I clock out at 2:05 and head to car .

2:20pm

Hit Target for cat food. Get a $5 gift card for the cat food by first buying 2 jugs of Arm and Hammer laundry soap. It works well on the dog laundry.

3:05pm

Home from work and target. Let dogs out, MUCH mess in one crate, so start cleaning and gathering laundry.

3:30pm

ate dinner of chicken noodle soup and a slice of cheese/roasted red pepper pizza (red peppers were form last summer in my garden; roasted and put in freezer.. this is the extent of my culinary abilities and as good as it gets.).

4pm

hung dog laundry outside on line, spray painted kitchen decor letters

4:15pm

walked 2 dogs one block north and 2 blocks east to the Castle.

4:30

dogs in crates so I can go to do errands. Cunningham Optical to buy glasses frames and to credit union to deposit checks… checks for doing my Dad’s laundry each week (my sister, his POA, pays me $10 to do his laundry each week.) and a refund check for cancelling my subscription to Organic Gardening which has become too pretentious for my taste. I used to love all of the thrifty tips in it,. but not anymore. Now it has articles about $$$$$ Christmas gifts and $7,000 “eco-friendly” chairs.  I found some RayBan Wayfarer frames that fit my narrow face. $122 is my out of pocket price. I have vision and dental insurance thru work for only $1 a year, but I cannot afford their medical coverage which would run me $200 a month out of my $16, 500/ year salary. I buy medical coverage thru the Marketplace for $40/month. MUCH more affordable. Full time staff and teachers get better coverage than I qualify for. — I put the $122 balance on my HSA card from a previous job from 2013. I still have $1,000 in that HSA, so used it for this. I do not NEED new glasses, just like having different style options. I prefer glasses to my soft contact lenses which do not allow me good up-close vision.

6:30pm

Back home and let dogs out to start feeding routine. NO messes this time. Take laundry on line down, almost dry, so hang in basement. Bring in  stuff I was spray painting  out back.

7pm

computer time, snack at 7:30pm –decaf soda and pretzels.

8:30

had diary typed all out, but lost is on a “copy and paste” kinda thing, dammit. Had to retype, felt like Groundhog Day by reliving the day as living, then in typing, then in typing again.

9pm

done with diary for the second typing. going to save and head to bed. will send  IF all gets saved. if not, then I am going to scream and go to bed.

9:15pm

Put geriatric dog in kennel to sleep so she might not wake me up at 2 am again. Just had 2 dogs in bed with me, rest in dining room. Kicked out cat Monsters so they would not wake me up over night. watched a PBS show on heroin that was really interesting, but I got sleepy and fell asleep at 10:15 pm before it was over.