Draft Posts That Were Never Published: Sleep (2012)

Getting the right amount of sleep is an elusive goal. I find myself typing this journal at a time I would not normally type.

I am awake.

Shane is asleep.

Normally, I don't roll out of bed in the morning until Shane sings out his morning song. My ears tend to pick up his chant between 5:30 and 6. On a rare occasion, my son will permit me to stay under the covers until 6:30.

I find myself in the curious position of being awake, waiting for my son to awake at any moment, and thinking about sleep. I have always been 'inertia driven.' When I'm awake, I normally don't want to go to sleep. I can always find something interesting to do. Maybe it goes with being ADHD, but I'm easily entertained. When I'm asleep, I never want to wake up. I can function easily on 6 or less hours, but I do not rouse willingly. As a teenager, I remember I could sleep for ten hours, be woken up by any number of reasons (an unapproving Nana, an alarm clock, visiting cousins, etc), and then roll over and go back to sleep.

.....and then I started to relate to something about Grandpa Vern's ability to nap because, of "clean living and a clear conscience." I'm honestly, not sure where I was going with it.

I'm glad that I average more than 6 hours of sleep a night now. Maybe that makes me more sane. I probably average a little over 7 hours now.

Draft Posts That Were Never Published: Oops (2013)

Foot in the mouth moment:

Carrie got me a pair of sandals for our anniversary. I thanked her, hugged her, kissed her, and suddenly felt the impulse to make a joke (It'd gotten too serious).

"What if I told you I talked to Dan about buying the vette?"

Carrie eyes lit up.

As her hope kindled, I realized my mistake.

It must have shown on my face. Carrie looked at me and her expression changed.

She was PISSED.

I'll probably be telling Shane about the bruise on my arm years from now (and look! I'm typing about it!)

Draft Posts That Were Never Published: Dictionary: Irish On It (2016)

Irish On it -
phrase

Add an excess of enthusiasm or energy. Hope for good or at least entertaining results.

Examples: "Igor didn't think Mike could make the shot, so Mike put some Irish on it."

Origin - English
Igor once used this to describe Mike's early attempts to play pool.

Draft Posts That Were Never Published: Comments and Questions (2015)

"You look like a teacher today!" my student said.

I was in a blue dress shirt. It had buttons. Nothing fancy. I wear khakis or black slacks every day.

"And what did I look like before?" I already knew the answer, but I asked anyway. My student was about to continue regardless. 

"A high-schooler."

"Well, I'm glad you still listened to me." 

Draft Posts That Were Never Published: All's not totally quiet on the work front (2012)

Today's "Huh?" Moment
One of my teacher-friends had a flat tire and I ended up covering his classroom for 1st period. Another teacher-friend was going to cover, but she had a teamed class 1st period. I told her I'd take care of it and heard some surprising news. She had had enough run ins with our AP and was no longer supposed to report to her.

How in the world did that happen?

We only had a few minutes to talk, but one thing really stuck out as odd to me. The AP had asked the teacher for a loan.

A loan.

How's that for odd?

Maybe turning down the loan was what started whatever chain of events caused the teacher to have her chain of command switched.

Weird.

Interview Update

Interviews round 1, take 2 is coming up next Thursday.  I got an email saying that my technical skills and portfolio all met their criteria, but my personal interview was not up to par. They wanted to give me another chance and listed a couple of dates and times.

It's discouraging and encouraging at the same time.

Obviously, I had hoped to be accepted right away. To be told I wasn't up to snuff on the interview isn't something most people would welcome. I felt like I established a good rapport with my interviewers, creamed the technical challenge, and my only worry was my portfolio. I felt like I'd done a "C+ Mike Job" or so due to time constraints with all the mayhem happening at home. I didn't have time to build a true webpage for the HTML part of the challenge. Instead, I made a quick webpage to access the different files in my portfolio and then put a link to my 'webpage file' that redirected back to my portfolio homepage. Half-ass, I know.  I even left a little snarky comment under the link saying "This may look familiar..." I'd done the whole thing while getting dressed and ready for the interview. How's that for last minute?

The encouraging news is that they wanted me back for a second spin. I left the interview wondering if I had been too succinct. Instead of rattling off everything I knew how to do, I know I answered one question by stating I got a degree in computer science and I know or can learn to do anything they would need me to do on a computer without difficulty (The job mainly employs the Microsoft Office suite, so it's not like I was claiming to be able to create my own high-level programming language).

Anyway, they must have liked me enough to give me a second try, so I need to learn from this opportunity. I haven't done any interviews in years before this one, and it was a different format from what I'd expected. A mistake is only a failure if you don't learn from it. If I can sell myself more strongly this time, I'll be more prepared for interviewing with principals when I get to round two. Besides, if I make the pool it will mean that much more to me, because I stumbled on the way. I want this job. I know I would be good at it, and I'm getting burned out in the classroom.

There's a fire lit under my butt, and I will get past this interview.

The new question is: Do I use a personal day or call in sick? No one's talked to me about the 'uncertain' I checked off on my plans for next year. If I use a personal day, how would my AP react to "I'm going to an interview?" There's enough drama going on around the department. I don't want to become the focus of any of it, especially when this is just a preliminary interview to get into a candidate pool. I would prefer to know some of my options before I start laying my cards on the table.

A Thought on Parenting
When I was in school and had trouble with a teacher, my parents' response was "What are you going to do about it?" If I tried to argue about the unfairness of the situation, I'd hear something like "Life's tough," and "You'll have bosses or coworkers you won't get along with one day. How are you going to make it work?"

When a kid in my class repeatedly doesn't turn in any work, his mom doesn't respond to attempts to contact her, and he ends up failing my class why do I hear "What are you going to do about it?" I can't help but wonder if that kind of parenting is what raised the Michigan woman who won $500k lump sum after taxes from the lottery and was still planning on using government aid for food stamps.

Thought #2 and I'm Done.
One of my co-teachers was going into a parent conference the other day. There was a kid on her team that was raising ruckus across all curriculums. He'd caused trouble throughout the year until he finally did something big enough to find himself in AIA.

His parents were furious.

Every time the student has done something he's gotten in trouble for, the parents have contacted the teacher or school to dispute it. My co-teacher said something to me that struck me as absolute truth. "Really, I feel sorry for them in several years. They're creating a monster. He'll be Hell when he's older."

All adults were kids once. Did you always tell the absolute truth?  I know I didn't. Even though I didn't outright fabricate stories, if I thought I was going to be in trouble I always found a way to justify what I'd done or at least put the best possible spin on the situation. It always amazes me when parents are willing to accept whatever their children say as fact as these parents were.

They're kids. You're their parents, not their peers. Support your child, but make sure you read between the lines and ask questions. If one teacher has trouble with your kid, it may be the teacher. If all of his teachers have something to say? It's probably your kid. It's not an indictment of your parenting. Get over it and help the teachers deal with it before you have a real problem on your hands down the line.

Old Draft: An Ode to Pop-Pop

Lots of Old Drafts tonight. I started to clean them out and this is what happened.

This draft was never finished. It's done it's purpose, though. It's another reminder of how blessed I've been to have the family I have. I'll have to update and finish this ode one day.

If I'm ever blessed with an overabundance of spare time I could do more odes.

(PS - If you're annoyed about the car post, Nana, then please note the link to the ode to you!)

"I've done an Ode to Nana, and Grandma, but they are not the only important people in Shane's life.

Today, I want to focus on my father: Pop-Pop.

When Shane wants to go outside at Nana's house, Pop-Pop is normally out there with him (especially now that it's gotten a little cold for Nana!).  My father retired in the summer, but "[he] doesn't work any less!" 

Whenever I pick up Shane, I normally find Pop-Pop working on some sort of project or out back with his grandson. The boys  like to walk through the woods with Indy. She constantly rushes up with a filthy-nasty tennis ball that Pop-Pop knocks around the yard to Shane's delight.; Pop-Pop pushes Shane in every swing available (and the boy likes to switch from swing to swing); Sometimes, I can look out the back window and I'll see them bouncing on the trampoline together.

Old Drafts: Resurrected Post: Exploding Car Windows

And old draft of a resurrected post.

Go figure.

I can see three reasons why this wasn't posted:

1) I wrote in the present tense. I've learned a thing or two since when I care to edit.
2) I was worried it would embarrass Nana.
3) My tone was a more "sensationalized-sarcastic" than I like. I was trying too hard to sound exciting.

I'm still a little worried about #2, but the truth is: it's really hard to embarrass Nana. As Pop once said, "Your mother's tough. She'll say she's embarrassed, but has that ever stopped her?" 

I'll still drop this back to a draft if Nana requests it. It probably happened close to 12 years ago. 

And as for the driving critique, I still joke that part of my faith in God comes from Nana's driving! She could get distracted, but she's never caused an accident. It's clearly a case of a guardian angel.

"Isn't it funny how most people can crap out any sort of writing that is nonessential? Take this LJ post and compare it to my take home final that's due tomorrow. My bad! I can't complain about being bored, because everything becomes more fun when you're supposed to be working! I'm having a blast! 

Anyway, the real reason for this post is to relate a funny mom story. Monday, while I was at work, my mom called me. 

"Mike? My rear window exploded at a stop light. Can they do that?"



According to my mom, she was sitting at a red light, minding her own business, when the back window on the van decided to hop on the back seat and take a breather. There was no wreck. No warning. Just....*CRASH!!!!* I meant to take a picture of the broken window, but my dad is too quick acting. I think he was ecstatic over the idea of work to do. He knocked that puppy out and vacuumed it all up in two shakes of a dog's tail.  Mom does not want to drive her car for fear of police and being carjacked through the now vacant back window.

That's the setup.

Mom asks me if she can borrow my car to go to the library.   I'm ok with this.   Most people wouldn't be with my mom's record.  She has a tendency to hit parked cars and root around in her purse while turning.  I cough up the keys and go back to procrastinating writing my paper (I've had a week to get started...whoops!). 

About ten minutes later I'm farting around on the computer and I get a cellphone call.  This time it's Patrick.   Mom can't get my car started.  DID SHE BREAK IT ALREADY!?!?!?  I'm about to grab Matt's keys and go find her, but she's still in THE DRIVEWAY!  She never figured out how to start my car!  

She was using the wrong key! 

After a belly-aching laugh, I return to my previously scheduled procrastinating only to get ANOTHER surprise!   Five minutes later, Patrick comes downstairs and gives me my keys back.   

"Mom can't figure out how to put your car in reverse, so we're just going to take Matt's."

My mom is hilarious.  You wish you had a mom as cool as mine."

The last line is true. It sounds sarcastic there, but I still meant it in an out of the side of mouth young adult that doesn't want to be gushy or emotional way.

I'll say it now straight up: I love my mom. 

Drafts Revisited: Oh Irony

Here's another old draft that was mostly done. I'd completely forgotten about this incident. I probably didn't post it, because (while funny and ironic) the tone could sound like whining.

My motto: everyone needs to vent sometimes, but if you do it over and over it's whining.

Nana's motto growing up: No one likes a whiner.

I agree.

But a single story is venting, right? Not so!

If you post something online, someone can read it more than once. That makes it whining. Posting something online to later discover you can't "take it back" is a lesson often learned the hard way.

Hence, this languished as a draft. I rarely dwell on the lemons of life, and the memory faded. I chuckled as I read this, and I guess that turns my mood on the date of publication for annoyed-but-amused-by-the-irony, to a nostalgic-amused.

Mondays, Mondays, Mondays...

My Monday started off looking like it would be an easy one. The student school year was over. My start time was later. With the new house, my commute distance was shorter.

Sunday night, I offered to help drop my brother, Matt, off at the airport. The catch? He wanted to drop by my house with Renee at 4:15 AM. That wasn't so bad, though. I got to do baby bottles, read some, and get my day rolling before Shane woke me up anyway.

The hour drive to work sucked. Sixty minutes for six miles. I used my horn more in that hour than I had in the past six years (to which my coworker, also a Matt, said, "In a Prius that may cost you gas mileage!"). My time and patience was not the only casualty of my commute: my laptop had been in sleep mode instead of hibernate. When I pulled it out of the bag, it was burning to the touch.

Blue Screen of Death = Bye-bye Hard Drive

If my commute had been the normal length of time, I would've safely discovered my mistake. As it was, my computer died right before I needed it. Plus, my school's techie said the servers were down all week for re-imaging and he couldn't return it to me before next Monday. I had closing documents to work on and an interview Thursday (which emailed on Wednesday saying "bring work samples" which were all on my laptop and server account).

It was funny to show up to my tech interview and confess my school computer was broken.

By the way: I learned my lesson. I always double-check that my laptop is ready to transport now. It's better that I learned that lesson at the end of the school year than at any other time during one!

Thank God, in hindsight for that timing!

Draft Revisited: Extra Income

I start posts, but that doesn't mean I finish them.

I started to look through drafts while thinking of what to write. This one was more or less finished:

"I picked up another side job on Saturday.

My school was short personnel for a full day of testing to get into a magnet school. Originally, I wasn't going to do it, but after I was off three days this week....well, I figured I could stand to get another day of work in.

Arrival time was 7:30 AM. There was signing in, room prep, and then ushering students in. The testing instructions weren't slated to begin until 8:30 AM.

Things went well until computer gremlins came out to play. "Technical Difficulties" could have been the slogan for the day.

Ironically, it made things more interesting for me if not the kids. Instead of staring at a bunch of students testing I was running back and forth scrambling! I like helping and having problems to solve when they're not my fault!

The afternoon session was cancelled. There's a chance the county will still pay for the whole day!"

Neither my wife or I picked lucrative fields to work in. Since she's switched fields and to part-time, I'm the main bread-winner. I pick up random opportunities here and there if the pay is decent and it fits the family schedule. We're fortunate that we watch our finances enough I'm not forced to do so, but I like trying new things. If the new thing is useful and pays, then that's nice, too!

The check from this gig paid for a date night out, babysitter and all.