13 Days Until The Christmas Carols Start Playing On The Radio

Finished crocheting my 90 octagon afghan, and it is gorgeous. What I didn’t expect was how tension on the sock weight yarn would cause it to pop – this is what happens in a heavy blanket. I am now stuck sewing a center circle back up as invisibly as possible every time it pops. Every day for a week now, I’m noticing damage that occurred during the night before when the afghan was in use. I couldn’t have extended this afghan past 90 octagons even if I had wanted to – the heavier it gets, the more stress is placed on the weakest, thinnest yarn. It fits well on a queen-size bed. My original dream of having a king-size afghan to fit a king-size bed that I have always wanted is not going to happen.

Substitute teaching is a lot more stressful this year than it was last year. Wednesdays in Fairfax County are turning into a highly stressful experience, because the switchboard is staffed with people who are far less professional than the ones working on it last year. They refuse to answer the phones as early as 6:15 am, citing the need to manage an orientation that doesn’t begin until 8:00 am. It’s an utter disaster.

Other than this, I love Fairfax County, which has so far proved to be my favorite county as far as teaching in the Washington DC area goes.

The problem on Wednesdays was a big part of my motivation to enroll in some other counties to substitute teach. I decided on Frederick County, but my feelings on that end are pretty mixed. It’s nice to have a back-up, but Frederick County doesn’t have jobs every day, and it doesn’t have a switchboard (which is a virtual guarantee that the early-rising substitute teacher will get the worm, except at the very end of the year). My first and only job so far up in Frederick County was a total disaster – the school deleted me, I had to deal with a reproving phone call from the head of HR, Nancy Dietz, and my opinion of the school is…there is no nice way to put this…that the place is another Columbine waiting to happen. I say this in spite of the fact that there are a lot of wonderful, well-motivated students at this school who are eager to learn, and who do not deserve such a smear on their reputations. I can only hope that my experience at other Frederick County schools turns out better.

I got through much of the paperwork and an all-day orientation at Alexandria City – this was supposed to be my other back-up. Unfortunately, as we are now heading into the holiday season, my budget is so tight that I simply do not have room for another $44.00 fingerprint fee, and another lost day of work to go in there and do the fingerprints. They are the only school system I have ever encountered that does not do fingerprinting at the time of orientation – in fact, the hiring process at Alexandria City is the most distinctly un-streamlined I have ever experienced, and I can’t help but wonder if this doesn’t help justify certain jobs.

I’m hoping to do an Ohio Christmas this year – I haven’t seen my little god-daughter since she was four months old, and she’s two now. The thing is that travelling for the holidays involves so much advance planning and extra organization that I start stressing early. Everything has to turn a dime with substitute teaching, and nothing can go wrong. No days can be “lost” because it puts a lot of stress on the budget when one is planning a trip on top of ordinary expenses. November was my low point in earnings this year for a variety of factors, and this puts on even more pressure. No wonder I rarely blog anymore.

I hope and pray its going to be a good Christmas/Yule, for me and others I care about. As we near the end of the year, I'm trying not to think about all the things I hoped I would accomplish this year, and didn't. It hasn't been an easy year. May there be a little hidden sweetness toward the end of it...that's all I ask.