Only 8 more class days, thank the Lord

I was just paying bills on-line when I discovered an unauthorized purchase on a credit card for $914 at Bloomingdales. Great way to start the day! Being conservative shoppers, Liberto and I rarely spend more than $150 on clothes at retail stores during the sales season and never use credit cards, only cash. We always come home with enough shoes, shirts and pants to last for six months. We would never spend $914 on clothes! So I called the credit card company immediately to report fraud, but learned that the Disputes Department is not open for another half an hour. So I'll sit here at the computer and write a few lines in my blog as I await the runaround I'll face, (and this only after meandering through a quagmire of dead-end menu options seeking a live human being).

An article in this morning's paper stated that the Georgia education budget will face more shortfalls over the next few years, and teachers will face more furloughs and lay-offs. With my sixth-sense antennae always tuned in to people and their motives, I can sense which way the wind is blowing at my own school: I believe I will be put out to pasture at the end of the year. After all, I am older than the rest and, with my advanced degrees and years experience, earn more than most of the others. I feel a red laser beam dancing on my forehead, even now. Yet simultaneously, I am not sure but that I might feel semi-relieved if that were to happen. I do feel burned out. Badly behaved 9th graders take a toll on a teacher. Yesterday, one of the students threw a red pen at the wall and splattered red ink all over it, and on the floor. This is the kind of crap I have to put up with every day.

What if I were to BE retired rather to TO retire? If money were no object, I would break out the champagne at this point. I think if we had to, we could live on L's salary now, with some modifications in lifestyle. And of course, I'd still probably be able to get hired on for part-time courses at the local colleges and put more hours into my SAT-grading, which can be lucrative for those who have the free time to devote more hours. Last week, I sent a vita to one of the local colleges seeking one part-time course. Not for the money, because the pay would not be impressive, but to establish a connection for the future.

Well, the Disputes Department must be open now, so I'll get started!