Baby Baptism

Tomorrow is Shane's baptism.

Wednesday was the baptismal 'class' at Christ Church. Mom was kind enough to watch Shane all day long. Carrie and I rendezvoused after work at my parents to chat and see our boy before running off to it. I really like Pastor John. He radiates energy and passion and obviously cares about people. He told us that they'd had a picture of Shane up on their bulletin board for the past couple of months too! That won him extra points with Carrie.

My first week of work has been pleasant, but discombobulating. There's always a million things happening at once, and in some ways it felt like the first week of school all over again. The difference is the kids are already united and the shy, testing the waters phase is long gone. The students tried to regale me with stories of atrocities committed by the sub. Naturally, I wanted to hear all the dirt, but it's not a good idea to let kids harp on another teacher, so I shut it down quickly (we' adults are all supposed to be on the same team after all). The amount of drama and gossip never ceases to amaze me. If there wasn't that whole confidentiality aspect of Special Education I could have a ton of stories to tell. Maybe I'll write some memoirs one day...

I did learn of one bad turn of luck for me. My sub happened to be the sorority-sister of my new assistant principal. The AP would visit the class while I was out and talked about what a wonderful job her friends was doing. Unfortunately, her friend didn't know how to do the math (joy). That meant her instruction was lacking, but she was extremely well organized and decorated my classroom nicely. I'm not very well organized physically. Electronically I have all sorts of goodies stashed within easy reach, but I'm sure it didn't give my sub the best first impression. Any of her worries/complaints would go straight to her friend the AP, so I'm breathing a small sigh of relief that this wasn't an evaluation year. I feel like I kick butt when it comes to the instruction, relating to the kids, and instilling the seeds of confidence in them, but if the AP had got it into her head that I wasn't a class act because of her friend's complaints/difficulties I would've been out of luck.  The other ironic thing about the situation is my IA friend, Jenn, told me stories about all the disastrous starts for long-term subs in the building. I was the only teacher whose sub was a close friend of an AP who wanted to bulldog for her. I don't think anything will come of it, but it makes me extra-happy I'm back at work and earning my keep. I don't know if I can teach for the rest of my life, but job security is paramount right now with the baby, mortgage and economy the way it is.

Getting back into writing-writing has been much harder than I thought. Sure, I'm keeping up this journal, but this is pure stream of consciousness and my large posts probably scare off the ten or so odd hits I get a month. Most of my time goes into the baby black hole and takes my energy with it. I did sit down and try to look at my book-attempt again one time. It was intimidating. I couldn't remember all of the little details of what I'd written or remember exactly where I wanted to re-enter the writing. The story is still in my head, but 90 pages of a word document looming before me was discouraging. Ironically, I think it would've been easier to pick it back up if I hadn't been so productive before. I still feel the urge to create something instead of endlessly consuming other people's creations, so I know I'll pick it up again at some point.

I should start winding down for the night. Shane and Carrie are both in bed and I'm going to be doing the night feedings and the caretaking tomorrow while Carrie is at work. Plus, Commissar Cain is about to get neck deep in trouble again in my book. Best to get to it!