Well...

How many diaries, emails, letters, blogs begin with "Well"? Talk about a word whisker! And yet, when I don't know to whom I am writing, when perhaps millions will read this, or, more likely, none at all, what other universally useless word could I possibly use in its stead?

Well then...

After a failed attempt to keep an online journal (the journal itself was not a failure, simply I never succeeded in making regular posts to it!), I am trying again this year. Labour Day weekend, the sun is shining (has been shining so much lately that when the seasonal rain finally does hit Vancouver, the local denizens may have forgotten how to complain about it!). This is the last weekend of freedom before the school doors open to trap teachers and students in ten more months of dreary monotony... Did I mention I am a teacher? no?

Oh well...

It's not that I hate teaching, and, as most people I meet remind me all too often, what right to I have to complain after having had two months all to myself? Of course, as I explain smilingly with clenched teeth, it takes the whole month of July to get school out of my system and recover from the burnout, before I can truly feel I am on holiday in August. Then, midway through that month, the September jitters start... What will I teach? How will the kids be? What if the parents don't like me and try to get me fired? Will I burn out this year? Where are those damn IRPs? Still, it's a great job... I am never bored, it's always different, I get to be in charge and make all the rules, and money magically appears in my account on a semimonthly basis! My mission is simple: if I can make the school year that much less similar to dreary monotony, I am a pro!

This year I have much to stress over and much to rejoice over... I was laid off in June, rehired in June, bumped out of my position in June, and sent off to another school in June. But I am in a higher grade (4/5 instead of 3/4). It's a brand new division, which means that I get all new furniture and computer. It also means I have absolutely nothing in there to teach with, other than about three sticks of chalk I found laying around the empty shelves! But... wait a minute! Here I am again talking about school!

This does not bode well!

Hmmm... I think I will end here for now... I heard there are some Back to School sales to check out!