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Okey-dokey, so much has happened in the past week that I don't know where to start.  I guess that I will start with work.  I had just started to feel like we were in a good spot with schedules prior to school starting when we get a phone call from the school administration center saying that they needed a few teachers at some of the other schools, and our numbers look like they were low enough that we could give up a couple of teachers.  This is 3 days before school begins that they make this decision.  We had to go into the master schedule, rearrange as much as we could to lose a business teacher.  We also shifted students around to make sure that all of our classes were at at least 15 people, which is the pre-set minimum for a viable class.  There were three of us that stayed until 9:15 that night to make the adjustments to hopefully appease the higher ups.  The next day, we get another call that our numbers are low enough that we can lose a math teacher and our chorus teacher could go part time with us and part time at  a middle school.  I'm not surprised or upset about the chorus teacher.  Moving her students wasn't a huge deal because she had so few signed up to be with her.  She is a thorn in my side, telling me to put kids in her classes, but the big problem is that she has ruined the choral program at our school.  We used to have tons of students that wanted to be in chorus classes, but no one wants to take the classes with her because she doesn't teach.  She sits in her office and lets the kids run the halls instead.  She also expects them to be able to pay $200 for a choral outfit without fund raising to try to offset the costs.  Oh, and she swears that she can hear individual voices out of a choir of 75 people.  While there may be some people that can do that, she would base where she wanted students based upon that.  She lost a lot of students because of that crap.  She definitely played favorites and gave grades arbitrarily, which she NEVER recorded in her gradebook.  Enough ranting about her.  I could go on and on about her because she is a lousy excuse for a teacher.  Back to what I was saying before, the head honchos decided that we could lose a math teacher because our classes were at 17 - 20 people per teacher.  They expect us to have all of our classes at 23-25.  Ummm...  Doesn't that fly in the face of all of the research that says that smaller class size leads to more individualized education, thus creating better understanding of the subject matter?  It also is directly opposite of what our illustrious superintendent had said the last time that he came to the school, which is that a goal of the school system is to lower student to teacher ratio.  Despite all of that, we had to rearrange our master schedule yet again to lose a part time music teacher and a full time math teacher.  This is 2 days before school starts, so yet again, I stayed until 9:00 with my compadres to change schedules.  If they would have decided that we needed to do this a month ago, we could have shifted easily, but at this point in time?  That was what exhausted me completely for two days.  Then on Friday, we had almost 20 families come in to register their children for school.  Only 3 had appointments.  Most everyone else had attitude and was nasty about everything, so we had to register them as well, or at least as many of them that had all appropriate paperwork.  About half of them came in and said this:  I need to get a student registered.  Here's the situation...  When I hear those three little words, "Here's the situation", I know that it's a weird one and they don't have what they need to register.  There was only one of those families that got registered on Friday, but it was because they were nice and I tried to help them out.  (The student lived with his grandmother and she died.  His other grandparents were taking custody of him and had no idea what needed to be done.)  Most people were nasty and gave me attitude because they didn't have shot records (required by OSHA) or weren't the legal guardians (state law) or didn't live in our school zone (district rule).  When I left work on Friday, I wanted to cry because I was so fed up with people being rude and nasty and out of sheer exhaustion.

During this week, I also found out that my great-aunt Esther has aggressive cancer and there is nothing that can be done for her.  It is all in her stomach, intestines and kidneys.  By the time that she would actually consent to go to the doctor, it was too late.  My mother and I sent a flower arrangement, which she loves, and we sent her cards, which she has gotten the most enjoyment out of reading.   Esther is one of my heros.  She was a devoted mother and wife until her husband died and her children were grown.  Then she started doing things for herself.  She would go on senior citizen trips all over, and she has been to 49 of the fifty states.  She never went to Hawaii because she wouldn't fly or sail there.  She could piece together a beautiful quilt by hand in a matter of days.  She has always had such a zest for life, and now, at the age of 87, she has accepted her fate with a quiet resignation that makes me sad.  I know that she's had a good life, but I will miss her.

I had looked forward to some relaxing time over the weekend.  I did do a little retail therapy and bought a few tops and skirts for work.  I also bought a completely frivolous pair of red fabulous shoes that are so far removed from practical, I debated on returning them.  I decided to keep them because putting them on makes me happy, even if I am just walking around the house in them.  They weren't really expensive, and a price can't be given to that kind of happiness. 

I did some house cleaning, which made me feel accomplished.  It was tiring, but when I am done, I can see the fruits of my labor, which is really nice.

Then I get a call from my father this morning, which worries me because he doesn't call in the mornings.  He called to tell me that my step-brother, David, was killed in a motorcycle accident last night.  David had gone to a bike show in Ohio over the weekend, and he had called his wife last night around 10:30 to tell her that he was on his way back.  She gets a call around 2:00 in the morning to say that he had an accident, the bike flipped and killed him.  This was his third major bike accident.  He was torn up in the first one but made a quick recovery.  He shouldn't have been able to walk after the second one, but miraculously did.  I guess his luck was out.  I don't know how I feel about it all.  I knew David and he was always good to me.  However, he was never really a brother to me.  I'm sad for his wife and daughter, and my heart really goes out to his mother, my step-mother.  My father said that I shouldn't worry about trying to come to the funeral because there isn't anything that I can do, and he knows that this is a busy time with work.  That being said, I still am thinking about going to the funeral, if for no other reason than to lend support to my father, who is a lot more upset than he is letting on, and to my step-mother.  I guess that it will depend on when the service is.  I defy anyone at work to say two words about me taking the time to go, not that anyone would say anything anyway.  It's a lousy time to do it with work, but I just feel like I need to be there.  We'll see how it goes.  I wouldn't put it past daddy to not tell me about things until too late because he knows that I would come up for the service.  That's just the way he is.

I need to run.  I am supposed to be going to my mother's house for a cookout and I have the dessert, banana cream pie.  I also want to stop at the store and get some condolence cards to put in the mail regardless.