Finger Update

It still hurts. The bandage keeps falling off. It looks nasty. I keep forgetting to take the antibiotics on time.

Ouch!

Yesterday I sliced the top part of my finger on the 17th Street gate. The delivery guys are always leaving the gate open...even though I frequently ask them to please keep the gate locked. I noticed the gate was wide open, so I went to close the gate and lock it when part of the gate slammed on my finger. OUCH! Two or three more millimeters and I think I would have been picking up the top of my finger off of the ground. That wouldn't have been pleasant. How would I be able to type and get all those memos out???? So of course I ran into the cafeteria to remind the delivery guy to lock the gate, all the while blood was dripping from my finger. I headed over to Jennifer to show her my bloody finger. Of course she dropped everything to fix me up...she's the BEST!!! I didn't feel like waiting in emergency for ten hours, so I made an Urgent Care appointment with my "heath care" provider...a very well known HMO. I totally forgot where Urgent Care was, so I was a bit late for my appointment. I think I had to wait about 20 minutes in the waiting room, not bad. A medical assistant took my temperature and my blood pressure. She didn't tell me if I had an abnormal temperature or high blood pressure, so I assumed they were normal. She asked me if I smoked. I said no. I have enough bad habits. So the nurse comes over and asks me about my finger, if I take medication, blah blah blah, and she too asked me if I smoked...what's the deal with the smoking??? So I made a joke, "Wow, I didn't know you guys had smoking and nonsmoking exam rooms!" They didn't laugh. The nurse wasn't very pleasant. I think the medical assistant wasn't pleasant because she didn't want to piss off the unpleasant nurse. Anyway, I got in the exam room and waited for a couple minutes. The doctor came in looked at my finger and told me that I could get a stitch or not get a stitch, it was my choice. Wow! I get a choice. So I chose no stitch. He told the medical assistant to soak my finger in this blood red solution. Then another medical assistant came in. He showed the other medical assistant how to glue my wound and put all the bandages on. It was hilarious. It seemed I was in the middle of a Saturday Night Live skit. How many freakin' medical assistants does it take to put a band aide on my freakin' finger??? No offense to medical assistants...So then the nurse came back in to give me a tetnus shot...she barked at me to take off my shirt...I'm thinking, shouldn't we talk first? small talk? What's your sign? I got the shot. I put my shirt back on. Headed over to the pharmacy to get antibiotics. Left. The whole ordeal took about an hour and a half. Not bad. I could write a whole post about my wait in the pharmacy. I'll save that for another day...all I can say is, OH MY GOODNESS!

Day Off - Woo Hoo!

I'm totally loving today! I slept in. I drank two cups of coffee. I managed to get a little school work done. I'm checking blogs...finally. It's been a while since I've checked the blogs. I'm very impressed. Some great reflection going on! A few people need to post a few more entries...I shall keep their names confidential...for now. So I'm pretty much done with what I needed to get done today. Now I'm thinking about how I should spend the rest of the day. I don't really want to watch tv. Speaking of tv, I watched Big Brother last night...LOVE that show. I was wondering why it was on so soon. Then I remembered...writer's strike. There's no writing in that show...obviously. I also watched The Wire. I really LOVE that show. Talk about excellent writing. The story line is so unbelievably great...the minds who create that show are just brilliant! If you haven't seen the show, you should definitely check it out...it has to be one the greatest tv shows ever created. Guess I'll go get coffee. I hope everyone's enjoying their day off!

Sometimes change isn't all it's cracked up to be...

I'm sure many of you know that I'm an Obama supporter. I was a supporter from the very beginning. A new term has popped up, "Obamaphilia," or the love of Obama. It was coined by a New York Times columnist. Well, call me an "Obamaphiliac." I guess I have a bad case of it, as do millions of Americans. The Illinois senator's theme has been "Change We Can Believe In." I truly believe our country needs to change. And I believe Obama is the person to execute that change. Although the nation needs change, I can't help but think about my own little school world and the change that we will be soon experiencing. Of course it's involuntary change...no voting, no polling, no focus groups...top down change. Change to our budget. Change to our staffing. Change to the interventions we can provide. Possible change to our culture, our morale, our efficacy? I certainly hope not. I will do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen. Sometimes change just sucks. The last few days haven't been fun. It's not fun telling people they may not be able to stay. It's stressful to think that you may lose valuable members of your team. Sometimes change can't be controlled. It happens with or without you. I'm the type of person who likes to have multiple plans...just in case one doesn't work. It's frustrating knowing that I can't really control the change that is about to happen, that I can't have multiple plans. In the end, no matter what the change brings, I know we will make it work. We have to. We can sulk and be angry and cry, but really what good is that? It might make us (me) feel better for a couple minutes, but we will still have 900 kids to teach, to take care of, to love. We can hope that this new change that is soon to sweep the nation will trickle down to our little world in Long Beach and we'll finally get the resources we need for our kids. I know, I'm getting all political and stuff...but I didn't say anything bad about the president, the governor, or the Repubs...see, I can be respectful!

Farting - Bad Choice!

On Friday I was in a first grade classroom observing a math lesson. During independent practice I was helping one of the kids with his work. He told me about one of his friends who had brought one of those little toy skateboards to school. He told me "that's a bad choice!" I totally agreed with him. Then he said, "And farting, that's a bad choice too!" Again, I had to agree with him. I wanted to burst out laughing, but I didn't. That interaction was the most enjoyable five minutes of the week. Our kids are so freaking adorable...well, most of them!