Blood, Sweat and Tears

In case you're familiar with the rock, bluesy, jazz group, Blood, Sweat and Tears, I just want to let you know, that this post isn't about them.

In case you're familiar with Teddy Roosevelt, you might know that he coined the expression "Blood, toil, tears and sweat." Well, this post isn't about Teddy Roosevelt, either.

In case you're familiar with Winston Churchill and his famous speech given to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the U.K. on May 13, 1940, which was the speech he gave right before his famous speech of "We shall fight on the beaches", well, sorry to disappoint you. This post isn't about that either!

It's about two women who work in an Elementary school office to do their best to support and encourage each other throughout the long, trying days of primary school.

My co-worker, who is exactly 10 years my senior is a lovely lady, who is compassionate, caring, and loving in everything she does. She loves the little darlin's that come into our office just as much as I do. In fact, she has two grandboys who are Elementary school age, so she gets lots of practice lavishing love on these l'il ones.

I love little children. I think they make the world go round sometimes. They can be funny, serious, crying and happy all at the same time. Some of the cutest things I've ever heard said come from 5 year olds.

Well, one thing that my co-worker and I got straight right from the beginning of our working tenure together was that there are certain things that my co-worker just doesn't do.

She doesn't do blood. The sight of blood makes her head reel, her eyes glaze over and she usually turns a shade of green that's hard to describe. If a student happens into the office with any oozing blood, she usually closes her eyes, grasps the side of her desk and yells out in a high pitched screech, "Laurie.....oh Laurie, come quick." When I hear that tone in her voice, I know that she's spied some blood dripping somewhere out of some child and I come running. Really, I don't want her passing out in the office and scaring all the lovely little children!

Another thing my lovely co-worker cannot fathom dealing with is sweat! Children go out on the playground, run around and work up a horrendous sweat this time of year. When one of those of the sweaty specimen enter the office, she's suddenly talking on the phone, has her hearing aides turned off or pretends she doesn't see that particular specimen taking up space at her desk. Usually, I get the hint and take care of the sweaty child as quickly as I can, then move them along out of the office

The last thing that my co-worker absolutely refuses to deal with is little boys' tears. Now, today, I saw her help a little girl who was crying and she was very tender, loving and encouraging to the tear producer. But, oh man oh man, when a little boy comes in and cries, I usually see her hightailing it right by my desk muttering, "Laurie, we have a crier." Bingo! I'm up like a shot out of my seat, because I automatically know that it's a boy! Nope, girl tears don't bother her a bit, but a boy crying has her sitting down next to him looking like she's ready to join him in his wailing!

So, the good news is that my co-worker only has 3 things that she won't deal with in the office. I know what those three things are and I have no problem dealing with them. She can easily handle a screaming parent (which bothers me a lot); she can describe gross and uncommon happenings in the bathroom to the custodial staff, so they can go clean up a specific mess and she can deal with teachers who may be practicing for a show called, "I have 1,000 questions today." But she most definitely cannot deal with Blood, Sweat and Tears.