songs from the 80s are the devil, I need an exorsism

I spent three hours I did not have on the phone with my best friend and in a triumph of the will: I did not use the bathroom once in that entire time period. I had to. The whole time, badly.

I did specialty training via e-learning today at my second job. I am not a computer genius when I leave my mactardation, but this system was easy to beat. I did twenty-two training modules in an hour after I figured out that I could skip to the quizzes, take the quizzes, figure out the answers and retest. My father may never appoint people to the Supreme Court who will make me President but I do know how to get ahead in the world. I will go back later and actually learn the information because I might feel bad if all I did was cheat.

Also, I apparently said something about �No Child Left Behind� somewhere. I have no idea what I said, but usually what I do say, because it is what I do think is, �It was a well-intentioned reform.� You cannot argue with that, the people who wrote that law were well intentioned. They wanted to make schools better; no President has seriously tried that since Lyndon Johnson. Do I like the law itself? I have no idea. I really do not. Do I think Al Gore�s plan was better? No, his plan was to fire the teachers and principals of schools who failed his similar reform package and as a teacher who has taught in a school that had failing test scores (not my class, they had the third highest average in the state) I will tell you this: good luck replacing the teachers in schools that are not in an affluent area of suburbia.

I also comment that �No Child Left Behind� is under funded, like everything else, but I also long for, �The day the schools get the money they need and the Air Force has to have a bake sale to buy a bomber.�

I will be skipping my school�s Christmas party for the teachers. The only days they could find were days that were over vacation � when I am going home or when I am going to New York with Mary (jyram)*. I basically admitted that I would not feel left out if they had the party without me since I do not like any of them and am childish about having to spend my free time with people I do not care for, pretending to enjoy myself while I secretly long to throw myself out the nearest window. This information made the Kindergarten teacher cry but the Principal pointed out to her that she called me a Zionist Nazi and she should not expect me to want to go to parties with her.

However, I do not discuss politics or current events with the people with whom I teach. Even when asked what I think I say, �I do not discuss politics with coworkers.� I will discuss current events like a new Target opening or a house fire, something that every one agrees is good or tragic, or whatever. I also think all the teachers at my school are fantastic educators but boring and mean interpersonally with their coworkers. Going by what the women teachers will say about the absent teachers behind their backs I am confident that what they say about me is not good.

I am not saying, �women teachers are this generalization,� I am saying, �the women I teach with are�� The man I teach with is not a gossip, but he does impressions of people that are really mean; but funny and accurate. You should see the one he does of me. He does me better than I do.

I am, apparently, the bull in Hamiltonian�s china cabinet. I make her unhappy and that is not, as Aunt Martha would say, a good thing.

Aunt Martha did a bad thing and had to go to West Virginia. She is in a prison there but I think being in West Virginia is punishment enough for anything solely on my inability to get a radio station in West Virginia, not even NPR.

I was not only the bull in Hamiltonian�s china cabinet � but on her birthday, I peed on her Wheaties. Go wish her a happy birthday, at hamiltonian

*I know Mary in real life and do not make a habit of meeting other diarists.