Work Can Be Fun!

You probably have experienced the feeling of getting up in the morning and just dreading the long day at work. Well, today was just one of those days.

Actually, it got better as the day wore on. My lovely co-worker was just in 'one of those moods.' She had me rolling on the floor by day's end. It was actually refreshing to be there. My co-worker's name is Kathy and she has what I call "Kathyisms." They are little expressions that she blurts out from time to time. Kathyisms keep the day interesting.

We have a little joke going on in the office this year concerning Tigger and Eeyore. As you may be familiar with Winnie the Pooh, it might be redundant to give a description of Tigger and Eeyore, but I'll try to be brief. Tigger is a fun-loving, hopping all over the place kind of tiger. He's always seeing things for the 'good' in them. Eeyore on the other hand is a down in the mouth, complaining, 'nothing can go right in my life' kind of donkey.

At the beginning of the school year, we started this little joke about 'don't be an Eeyore, be a Tigger!' It basically means to look at the bright side of things, try not to be a pessimist and that kind of thing.

Today, my co-worker told me that she was having a hard time being a Tigger. I have days like that myself, so I totally understand. She told me Tigger and Eeyore were having a boxing match in her head and Eeyore had won Round 1 and Round 2 of that particular boxing match. I know, I know, we do get silly! I laughed and told her I wasn't exactly having a Tigger kind of day either. So, we left it at that. Although, I did feel it was more of an Eeyore kind of day, I knew things were going to get interesting. See, when Kathy is having an Eeyore kind of day, she starts mumbling under her breath. Most of the time people can't hear her, but usually I catch a phrase or two here and there.

Later someone came up to Kathy and told her they hoped she had a better attitude than she did earlier this morning. Yeah, I know, teachers have a tendency to treat 'everyone' like they're little children in the classroom. I thought I heard Kathy say something to this person, but then again I thought, "Na, she couldn't have said what I thought she did." I must have misunderstood her.

Apparently not! She came over to my desk and whispered to me, "I can't believe I just said that!" I stared at her and said, "I thought I heard what you said, but I really thought I MUST have misheard you." The great Kathyism that came out of her mouth when told by this particular person that they hoped she had a better attitude was: "Well, I have another attitude for ya and you're not gonna like that one either."

Later, a little boy came in and was very soft spoken. When a soft spoken child enters the office, I usually go and 'help' Kathy hear what they are saying. She is legally deaf, but wears some very high powered digital hearing aids. Even with those high powered hearing aids, she still has to resort to lip reading from time to time. She has told me that lip reading is very difficult in children, because they don't open their mouths and enunciate as well as adults. (Side note: I love it when there are people in the office and they have their backs to us, because I can silently mouth an expression and Kathy can read my lips; therefore the person with their back turned to us has no idea we are having a conversation.) Back to the soft spoken boy.....Kathy kept leaning closer and closer to the little guy and he kept leaning closer and closer to her. Pretty soon their noses were about 1/4 inch from each other, so I got up and 'helped' Kathy to hear. When the little fellow had his dilemma solved, he left and Kathy mumbled, "If I had been a dog, I would have bit his nose off..." Of course, by this time, I was rolling on the floor. She just spits these things out when I least expect them.

So, the day is progressing into being a real doozy of a day.....We have no administrator in the building (they are all in a meeting at the high school), we have no nurse in the building (she has gone to a nurses' meeting the last 20 minutes of the day), but hey, what can happen in 20 minutes. Lots!

Not having a nurse on duty for the last 20 minutes of the school day may not sound like a trying thing, but on beautiful sunny days teachers take their kids to the playground during the last 30 minutes of school. Why? I'm not sure! But usually several incidents occur within the last 1/2 hour of school hours due to children bumping heads on the playground or someone falling off a piece of playground equipment. With the way the world is today, if a child comes to a teacher and says they have a 'boo boo', it's off to the nurse with them. Well, this particular day was no different than any other. We had two bee stings and one child who had been hit by her older sibling on the playground. The two bee stings were easy to take care of. We asked them if they were allergic to bee stings, then after finding out that they weren't we applied ice to the sting and sent them back to class to get ready to go to the buses.

The child who had been hit on the playground by her older sibling was a totally different story and all along I was thinking the bee stinging incidents could have been disastrous. The child decided to sit herself down on the ground and howl for all she was worth. The teacher tried to convince her that she needed to get up, come back into the school, see the nurse (who was MIA), then catch the bus home. Nope, this girl just kept howling louder. She said her hip hurt and she wasn't going anywhere until she could see her mother. Oh boy!

The teacher phoned the office on her cell phone (thankfully, most teachers take their cell phone to the playground, because it's a little bit of a hike to the building). She told us the situation. A custodian said he would go out and carry the girl into the school. "No, no, no," Kathy said, "if there really is something wrong with her hip you could do more damage by moving her." Good point!

So, we called the principal from the high school to ask what he would like us to do. Like any good principal, he came back over to our school to deal with the child. Her mother had been called and we left a message on her cell phone to call us. The child continued to scream that she wasn't going anywhere until her mother showed up. We had over 300 children on the buses waiting in the parking circle in the hopes that the little girl would find her senses and get on the bus and go home. No way!

As soon as the principal made the decision to wave the buses on to leave the school, the little gal jumped up like a shot and said, "They can't leave without me!" The principal informed her that they could and they would, because he wanted her mamma to come get her now, so he could explain to her all the turmoil she had caused.

By the time Kathy and I had been informed of all the happenings outside, I was about ready to leave for the day. But, before I got to the door, I heard one more Kathyism for the day....it was, "I think I'll take up drinking and it won't be kool-aid."