This post is a straight up rant, so buckle up. I will be honest: I LOVE my job. I think my boss is the best, and I get along with my coworkers really well. The kids are so sweet, and I love the random hugs and cute little faces. Most days I come home in high spirits, and I am excited to finally have a career, not just a job that I trudge through. And then there's days like today...
So...you know how you feel kinda crappy when allergens are high? Well guess what! When you work in a school, those days suck hard. (So do full moons. Scientists say the moon doesn't affect us, and I say they're full of crap, but that's another post.) I don't have to check the weather to know when allergens are high. I just have to go work!
I am the school secretary for a very small school. That means that I am also the registrar, the (untrained) school nurse, the cafeteria moniter, and all around good American. What that usually means is that I have to do all those jobs while being interrupted approximately every five minutes, and I do it with a smile on my face and a chipper tone. Today was not only a high allergen day, it was something of a perfect storm of crapitude. Here's what went down:
I sent out lunch account notices on Friday, so today I had a huge crowd of parents in my office first thing in the morning either trying to pay on their child's account, or arguing with me about their child's account (They filled the paperwork out wrong, just fyi.)
On top of that, today we started a new bus route. There were two groups of angry parents for me to deal with: the ones who hate the new bus route, and the ones who didn't get the note somehow and so were angry because the bus wasn't when and where they expected it.
Thirdly, it's really impressive how much paperwork is generated by a child transferring schools. Guess who does all that! It's me! We had two students transfer in recently, and three transfer out. Of course, the ones transfering out want to get everything taken care of right now (understandably so, I mean it's their kid after all.) What that means for me is that they AND the new school each called me a minumum of three times per student today.
Of course, I haven't mentioned yet that the day started with one girl who threw up and then laid on the floor in my office crying while I tried to get ahold of her parents. (This was a girl who was old enough to know better.) When the mom finally calls me back, she reams ME out about how she can't be taking off work to pick her daughter up all the time if she's not really sick. Like I'm the one who's supposed to make that decision.
In the afternoon, a teacher threw up and had to go home! FUN! I had all the standard paperwork combined with a bunch of end-of-the-six-weeks paperwork and of course the afore mentioned transfer paperwork. And of course, with it being a high-allergen day, I had about a gizillion kids come in to have their temperature taken. (Not a single one had a fever.) Also with it being a high allergen day all the kids were cranky, all the parents were cranky, most of the teachers were cranky, and I was cranky. BUT I'm the school secretary, so like I said at the beginning, I have to smile and pretend that everything is awesome.
I came home exhausted. But the lady who lives a few doors down from me was getting baptised tonight, so I needed to go to that. Baptisms, for those of you who don't know, usually take about 30 minutes. This one took 1 1/2 hours. It was amazing and spiritual, but not terribly relaxing. Especially since I am fully aware during all this that my son has homework he's not doing.
So then I go home. I look at my son's homework. Algebra 2. Which to me might as well me ancient Hindu. My brother usually tutors my son, but he's gone out of town. My brother calls and tries to explain to my son what to do. My son hangs up and immediately has a melt down. I know that this homework is SUPER IMPORTANT because the six-weeks ends on Friday, so he won't have extra time to get it in. I finally send my son to bed, homework undone. I text my brother trying to figure out this math. He texts me more Ancient Hindi. Then he calls. And I lose it. It's 10 pm and I can't smile anymore false smiles or comfort anymore angry people (not that my brother was angry, but anytime someone tells me that math is simple I have a tiny aneurysm. So I guess in this instance I was the angry parent.) In short, I'm done. I have nothing left. You see, I have bad allergies, too.
So now I've ranted my rant, and taken my shower and I'll go to bed and believe that tomorrow will be better. It HAS to be.
