Month: June 2005

Boy did I enjoy June. It was fun and relaxing. I started off the month on a rush. Getting ready for our trip. Then we left. But the week after we came back, I decided that I would relax. I did. Slept late, watched tv–because there was no computer at that time. Did various lazy things.
Mary came on the 26th and we had a very nice visit. It was really fun to talk to her alone. I realized then that we had never had the chance before.
The bad things that happened this month was bad news about my closest teacher friend and a cousin. She informed me after I got back to LA. that she had a lump. We then went through the wait to find out if it was malignant, then the worry about taking it out. The results were positive and she did have to have the lump removed. She did not have to have a mastectomy. She will have to undergo radiation and chemo because of her age. My cousin who is only a few years older than me is dying of cancer. This has brought all the emotions back that I was not able to release when A. died. When I visited C. we had a good cry. It was wonderful to be able to talk, cry and not have to worry about being strong. She did not think I was silly either. In fact, I realize she is my only family link with whom I can be a silly woman.
Today I will be visiting S. and hoping that she is really doing as well as she says. During the month of July, I will be visiting my cousin also. I hope he is still well enough for visitors. My relaxing is drawing to an end.

I am settling into the house again. Spent two days recouperating from the drive. It was quite an experience. Enjoyed my vacation very much. The only thing I miss though is Claudine ( and Ed ) right there to talk to.
My house was very nice and clean when I arrived. Took one day of a certain person being here to mess it up big time and that wasn’t me.
The trip was quite an experience. Maybe not as exciting as stryxdomina’s but pretty exciting for two old people. No one over the age of 50 should ever venture into Austin. It should be only for the young. That way they can practice racing down the highway and avoiding the other cars. Excellent practice for the indy 500 or any other such races. But for the older generation, they need to be rich enough to have a chauffeur or at least living with their children.
The traffic was even more than normal, because of the convention for the Gay Pride of Texas and The Motorcyles of the State to convene at the same time. I am afraid I was expecting big commotions, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that they did not have any conflicts. The worse thing that we know of happening was that Steve was awaken at 12:00 and 2:00 in the morning, by the groups of Motorcyclists arriving back at the hotel. Maybe that was payback for his foolishness as a motocycle nut when he was young.
We did find out though that our fears of Vernon driving in this traffic was unfounded. He never leaves his safe habitat of Lakeway to visit the big city without a driver or at least not until after a late hour. Steve vowed he would never return, then after cooling down a bit..decided that he would only return if we got a room on the west side of Austin and drive back to see his brother. Sounded good to me. We could find an easy way to bypass both Austin and San Antonio. We could travel through San Marcos.
Steve really enjoyed his vacation. He got to do what he wanted every day. He played golf every day and even met some golfers from the area of Odessa. Surprisingly he was able to play in the heat and not get heat stroke. I think is has to do with the strong Westerly wind. Claudine told me it would blow every day and she was not wrong.
Our trip home was interesting. We traveled across Texas avoiding the big towns. Even stopped off in Mr. Bush’s area..not really on purpose. Thank heavens he was not at home, or we would have trouble there also. We then went through the Big Thicket…following my memories of childhood. I was able to do something I always wanted to do as a child. I visited the Alabama/Coushatta tribe in Texas. It was not at a special event time, but it was beautiful country. Would love to visit their pow wows. Enjoyed the ride back through time, except you forget about the lack of bathrooms when you travel the small country roads. Oh well, for sentimentality sake you must suffer.

Well, June is here and I am trying my best to recouperate from the trauma of May. Steve and I left for Texas on Sat. the fourth. It was quite a trip. We had truck trouble when we hit Houston. I do believe there is a hex on Steve and Houston. We did survive and actually made it through Houston. We arrived of course, in Austin during rush hour.
Our hotel was north, so getting this was going to be an experience. (As I look back over our stay there. Saturday was the best day we traveled.) I will tell you now. Houston is a piece of cake traffic wise. I will never complain about traveling through it again. The entire time we stayed in Austin we were faced with trying to find the easiest way to get around. The best solution was traveling at 6:00am in the morning. The rest of the time was HORRIBLE. We, of course, as you can tell..survived. But we will never stay in Austin again. We have decided that we will stay in a town past Austin and I will travel a long way around Austin to visit my friends.
Our visit with family and friends was wonderful. Right now, we are in Odessa. We have decided that we will not be traveling home through Austin. In fact, we may avoid the entire Interstate system if we can.

Can’t say that May was a fun month. In fact, it was the most emotional month I have had in quite a while. I spent most of the month on a fast moving roller coaster. It started out fine– pretty even and normal. But things became rough as the days passed on. Up to Mother’s Day things were fine. Had a wonderful time with the guys. We had bar-b-q and great food. 🙂 We spent the second week testing our kids–This was the “biggie” to see if we achieved our goal. It was much better than other testing periods, because we took more time to do it so that we were not rushed. We also spent quite a bit of time checking over our work to make sure we did not make any mistakes. We need to have all tests in shape for next year, because we will be monitored by the federal government. This ought to be real fun. We then spent several days checking to see which of our children benchmarked (just another way of saying passed the test.) Then we made our groups for next year.
Then on Thursday of the week Ms. Moss called a big meeting. We were informed that she would not be with us next year. She said it with great difficulty. Her emotions were very low and we listened in stunned silence and tears running down our faces. She had been informed on Monday that they were moving her to a different school and she had no say so. She protested vehemently and was told she could move or quit. She was also informed not to tell her teachers. It was to be kept quiet. Thursday was the day that they were to have a school board meeting to vote on the personnel change. She told us that they would be moving the high school principal to our school against her will. As usual, the school board was doing what it wanted and only for their personal benefit. She told us that she had broke the confidence, because someone was spreading the news all over Erath. After being stunned, we left in shock and begin to digest the news. I knew that I could not sit back and not say anything. But i was afraid that i could not speak without crying. I got with some and asked who could speak. We got a group together to go. We did appear at the school board meeting and lodged our complaints. David even came and assisted us. It turned out to be a travesty. No concern was shown toward our questions, they avoided to comment clearly, they were rude and truly did not want to acknowledge our concerns. Even the superintendent did not want to discuss it. It was quite obvious that we would not only receive no adequate response, but that they would proceed as if nothing was even said. I was able to express myself without crying, because they made me so angry.
So our end of the year was faced with depression on top of the usual problems.
We did find out that our fourth graders did very well on the LEAP test and that we are showing growth with our program. It is a shame that the core of our program will not be here to watch as the program progresses. Hopefully, the new principal will not cause too many problems that will interfere with the success that we have achieved. Hopefully, the school board will not throw new roadblocks in our way. That is a lot of hopefully’s, but we have a lot of concerns to face in the following year.
We did have a meeting at the end of the year to celebrate our successes in our program. But then as usual, a wrench is thrown in the machinery. We will be having a new prek. Who decides this. Of course, the powers that be. Therefore, we will have to give up one of our rooms and move the two interventionist into another room. The new principal thinks that my room is so nice and roomy that two of us can work in there. So I will be sharing my room next year.
This year has made me wish that I was walking out the door and never coming back. Somehow I need to find something positive to hang on to when the new year starts, or i may be looking for a new job.