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5:38 p.m. - Saturday, Nov. 01, 2003
FROGS AND TALES OF THE CITY
FROGS AND TALES OF THE CITY

I knew if I left the documentation of werk scheduling fuck ups for monday's union meeting 'til the last minute that it would come out less artful than I'd like. There is tommorrow.

Took Chaos and Wrex hiking at the volcanos with Zeb this morning. It's great that Zeb's leg is finally well and that we can all go. The weather got very cold at the ends of the week, from A/C to heat in the infant room. My monthly check got electrically transferred today, so we rushed out to the Vibarium to aquire a heating element for Truman's swank new tank set up. He's got a turquoise ceramic built-in square dish that makes his habitat look like Bel Aire. I'm looking for a tiny palm tree. A doll-sized lawn chair would look great but isn't necessary, I already blew 38 dollars on keeping a frog in a manner he is accustomed to. He needs 80-85 degrees on the warm side of his tank, 70-75 by the pool and some water misted on his tropical oasis daily. We're thinking of getting him a small T.V. and some worm videos.

Also went to the discount pet store and stocked up on dog and cat kibble. All 5 of us slept in the same bed last night. When the cat comes in the same room the dogs are sleeping in you know winter is in the air.

There is alot of intregue and dumb stuff going on at work, which I didn't have time to go into last night, being that it was Halloween, our high holy day. Also the day Lux and I met Zeb at a pagan street festival in NY a million years ago. That's a good story which I'll save for the book.

I had my last straw incident with Pat last week, when she reprimanded me for the fact that 3 teachers were in the room while I was on break. I wasn't there at the time. It isn't my job to know what's going on when I'm on my hour unpaid lunch break.

The substitute is 23 going on 12, and acts like a princess. Everyday she's supposed to go work in another room, but is inept. So, despite being on the same schedule for a month, she pretends not to know the routine, which Pat lets her get away with. The only agenda of Pat's that seems to be coherant is to have an all black staff. I've worked with meaner racists in the Sanskrit Disco Uglified School District, so, after dealing with the masters- I mean, really bitter mean fat toxic women who spend their days glowering at me over mounds of cut paper towels, I am unperturbed by Pat.

I am unperturbed because I know how passive aggressive and lame Pat is. But I'm getting really sick of the sub. What got me mad was when I asked Pat when my student assistant was supposed to start. The infant room hasn't had a regular assistant in 6 weeks. We'd hired this student 3 weeks ago. Pat knew damned well days ago that the hiring was on hold. She said the student could not get fingerprinted until she had a state ID. It could have just as well been a lie as not. She and her crony supervisor Lily have their own bitter hidden agenda.

That day, when I was on my break and there was too many teachers in the room, Pat wanted my co-teacher T, who'd just gotten there to take a break and leave the inept sub alone with the 17 year old jughead assistant and all six infants.

When I found that out I told Pat that this sub can never be left alone with the infants. She is not a responsive caregiver.

My co-teacher T. later reminded me that the 17 year assistant old wasn't fingerprinted either. Meanwhile the sub has been returning from her breaks 20-30 minutes late on a regular basis because her boyfriend picks her up mid-day for lunch. She comes in wearing a different pair of 6" stillettos each day (everyone wear socks in the room to keep the floor clean for crawlers). She borrows T.'s sneakers when she has to work in the yard with older kids, which she avoids like the plague, because she doesn't know how to handle them. She wears a long T'shirt over her clothes so the kids don't sneeze all over her expensive GAP clothing. She's 23 and lives at home. Her salary probably goes into her wardrobe. Needless to say, her mind is rarely focused on the kids. She doesn't remember the necessary particulars of the kids routine and will spend like an hour trying to put a child to sleep then I have to do it. I'm exhausted from taking care of all 6 babies instead of 3.

So I called licensing and asked them what's the deal on having a 17 year old work. They said he can volunteer but can't be included in the ratio. They asked if he was being counted as a teacher. I said he was. They said that was putting the children at risk. They asked if I would like to file a complaint. I said that I would.

Licensing will drop in within the next 10 days, which is basically redtape and some fancy footwork for Pat and her supervisors, or a big fat fine.

The next day Pat told the sub to work in our room all day, meaning that we did have 3 teachers at times, after she's just had a coniption about that the day before. It'd be nice for Pat if I quit. Too nice. I think I'll stay awhile and watch them squirm. Whenever the external review committee occurs, it would definitely be in the program's best interest to fire it's early childhood education administrators. On that note, I have to get my shit together for the union.

 

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