dreamsrundeep

Adventures:

First adventure:

Brenner got a haircut yesterday. It is so short and cute and tousled and grown-up looking. He decided he wanted to shave his sideburns, too - so we had a full cut AND taught him to use his electric razor to shave yesterday. Banner day. He looks great. I know several of you on social media - I'll post a picture when I can. His Nana hasn't seen him yet and Karen's reaction to him cutting his hair is going to be *a thing* - so I have to wait for her to see him first. I hope she is kind to him about it. When he was talking about it, she started getting a little whiny (I'm not sure that's the right word, but kind of) about how beautiful his hair is and asking him not to cut it. But she also had a conversation with Nicole telling her that she was the parent and could refuse to let him cut it and tell him no.

But. It's his hair. He wanted to. And one of the hills Nicole and I are *not* going to die on is hair. It's his body. It's just hair. I'd rather him have agency there so that he *really* listens to me about other things like sex and drugs that *do* have very real consequences than alienate his feelings of bodily autonomy over a haircut.

Trust me: He looks amazing.

Next adventure:

For the last two days, we've been cleaning out the "Free Store" on Hollins campus. We take donations of used clothing and things for the students who might need it. My responsibility is Business Casual clothing supply, but I also help out where I can. The Free Store accumulates so much. Craft supplies, kitchen supplies, office supplies, sheets and pillowcases, pillows, cups and mugs - it's like a tiny Goodwill. And we accept new donations as students move out of the residence halls, too. So for the last week, we've had the little gym reserved, Goodwill brought over giant rolling bins for us and we have tables set out so that we can sort and make sense of what the students are leaving behind. Some of it will go back to the Free Store and then the rest we will put in the Goodwill bins to be picked up and taken for donation.

Part of that, though - we have an overflow space in the fall-out shelter in the Chapel. The last two days have been in the basement, mostly decided what is trash and what needs to go on to Goodwill because it sat in the musty basement for so long OR just isn't moving in the Free Store. Binders, desk caddies, mugs/cups, art, stained things, a plethora of jeans, posters, etc. We loaded Amy's car with donation stuff and my car with trash.

I had two helium tanks in my office that I've been storing to take to the transfer station/dump anyway, so I volunteered.

But. I volunteered having NO idea how to do the thing. So I asked Nicole to pleas, please, please come with me this morning and show me how to do the thing.

So we took the kids to school, she parked her car and hopped into mine for the adventure.

Reader: I wore jeans and work shoes all week to do these lifting, carrying, dusty and dirty chores. Today? My cute silver Rothys flats and business casual.

We get to the transfer station. I drove over the scale where they weigh my car. I drove up into the station and do what Nicole tells me - backing in next to a guy with a HUGE dumpster he's evacuating ... and ... the floor is WET with TRASH JUICE.

I look at Nicole and I'm like, "But I'm in my ROTHYS."

She looked at me and was like, "What did you think you were going to be doing this morning?!"

And I was like, "I didn't expect this to be WET. My trash is DRY!"

I tiptoed around my car, found the driest place to stand, and helped toss trash. It was SO GROSS. I feel like I can still smell it.

They weigh your car once more on the way out.

I took Nicole back to her car and went to work with a story.

Then Nicole called me. She lost her wallet. I looked in my car. No wallet. She thinks that maybe in her zeal tossing out trash she dropped it IN THE DUMP.

OMG. No good deed, as they say. Now she's at home cancelling all her credit cards and figuring out how to reorder her driver's license. Shit.

Final Adventure:

Brooks band teacher was fired yesterday.

I think I wrote about this guy back in December. Something weird happened where the teacher came to school obviously drunk, slurring his speech and unable to really walk a straight line. They were working on Christmas music and the teacher started crying and talking about how hard Christmas is with his family and how lonely he is... all the kids felt super weird about it and Brooks said something to me about how he felt emotionally responsible to this guy and how bad it made him feel that he was lonely.

I immediately texted a fellow mom. I just looked back at my text exchange with her and both of us were icked out by the oversharing and the emotional labor put on the kids, but I also said that it sounded like the kids were trying to protect this teacher, too.

I guess last week (Thursday) teacher showed up and said, "Fuck it, it's Thursday." and proceeded to take a flask out and drink in class while also already inebriated. He got angry(?) kicked over a music stand that hit and hurt a kid and then lost his mind a little and started telling the kid, "Just hit me back, bro." and offering to go outside to let the kid hit him as pay back? The kid in question is NOT that kind of kid and was overwhelmed.

Parents then got involved. Kids got interviewed by the headmaster. Teacher was fired immediately.

We got an email from the school and the headmaster explained what happened (as much as he could) and stated he wished he'd known sooner. I felt bad because Keely and I decided in December not to say anything because surely it would eventually out if it was a *real* problem. Brooks did say that the teacher told them that he wanted to be the 'cool teacher' and not to say anything about his drinking in class - I can't quite remember HOW Brooks phrased it now, but it was clearly emotional manipulation. Some of the kids felt terrible about confessing what they'd seen and others were all too happy to share after last Thursday.

One kid said, "He's a good person. It's just really hard to like [teacher] right now."

I hope that this guy gets the help he needs, for real. May this be his rock bottom and it all go up from here.

~~

That's a lot for less than 24 hours!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

spiffikins

Holy Moly - A LOT :D

Drunk high school teachers, though? that is crazy!

crazy_yet_fun

Wow. The whole wallet thing as awful. That is just the biggest pain in the ass. But the teacher? WOW!!! I mean, I was a teacher in my old life, and yes, the kids want to drive you to drink but that whole scenario is just crazy! 😲