new school year

it's that point in the new school year where i look around and go 'i have nothing to do'. this is because now i have a reasonable amount of work to do as opposed to an insane amount of work to do, which is my workload from april until september. this is the week after the first payroll closes, and before we level, which is a school district term for looking at how many kids actually showed up as compared to our projections, and we tweak the budgets a little and move around a couple dozen teachers. next week will be levelling, and the attendant wailing and crying and nashing of teeth. then that will be over in early october and then i settle into getting ready for next april.

my life is very predictable.

to tie this to what i see on my walks to work, and still make it about the new school year, there is a charter school right next to my subway stop. as i work for the public schools, i have a chip on my shoulder about charters. i think they drain our resources. but, this one has the best principal this year. every morning, she stands outside the door and starts yelling as she sees kids walking down from the subway stop. 'ms. carter, you're late! mr. thomas, it is past 8:30 already, hurry it up!'

it seems to be working, because every day there have been fewer kids getting off the 8:30 subway. today i noticed a kid walk past the door, looking gulitily inside, as he tucked his shirt in. evidently shirts must be tucked in and he was wearing his outside his baggy pants to look cool on the subway ride.

maybe one of these days i'll actually post some pictures on this blog. i have a fabulous iPhone now, and i love to take pictures of random things. i went from having a pay-as-you-go cell phone that usually just sat on the kitchen table to not being able to have my iPhone out of sight or i get twitchy.