It's a good day to be alive!!!

After a long week it was AMAZING to stay in bed today until almost noontime, yes noontime.  I woke up at about 6:00 this morning and reminded myself that I could sleep in because it was Saturday and I fell back asleep, most likely with a smile on my face.  I then woke up again at about 8:30 and planned to get up shortly after, but the next time I looked at the clock it was about 10:00.  I then proceeded to watch some television and cuddle with the cats who have made it clear lately that I need to be home more... Eventually I got up and around then walked to the bread store for a breakfast sandwich.  The guy behind the counter was mister sunshine ,rainbows, and unicorns... so happy about spring that it was contagious.  Actually I was pretty excited about the weather today before I even got to the bread shop, but his excitement was fun to be part of.  After that I headed to Jacey's and we walked the beach.  I think I got a bit of a sunburn, but not a bad one.  It was nice to get some sun!
 Last night I went to our local minor league NBA team's game with Meg.  It was fun to be there, to visit Meg, and I got to see Debbie and her family!  It was fun to get to make faces at her across the court and some seat dancing too!  Love that lady!  Because Meg had arranged going to the game for some families from the town where she works.  And because of being there as part of a group, the kids with her were invited to go onto the court and high five the players as they return to the court.  Since Meg's crew was small we invited Debbie's son and his friends to join in and they did.  When it came time to get ready Meg, Debbie, and I walked all the kids over.  The team PR guy who arranged it had told Meg that the kids would get tshirts, but the guy who took us over to the high five tunnel, as they called it, was not the same guy. The kids were on the court and we got to stand and watch, but were where the players went by.  For the hell of it, I put my arm up to see if they would high five me.. and it was funny to see some of their faces as they looked way up at my hand and then looked me in the eye... funny!  The kids had fun and afterwards the guy started to escort us back to our seats and I asked him about the tshirts.  He looked confused and said there were no tshirts.  At that point the kids were kind of clumped up looking up at our conversation and I looked at the kids and said, "Sorry Children, this bad man said you cannot have tshirts."  His face dropped, he didn't know what to do... and as I was about to let him off the hook, Meg jumped in and smoothed things over.  It was pretty funny.. maybe not to the 'bad man' but it was funny.  Maybe as a way to relieve some of my stress from the week.

Speaking of stress... as I said, it was a long week... there are many stories I could share... but two are at the top of my list... They are completely unrelated, though both related to school...

Story one... actually happened yesterday.  It was a teacher day, no kids... but even though there were no kids that does not mean that the actions of kids were not a big part of my day... The superintendent asked the other assistant principal and I to take a walk with her into our new school.  (Our building is being rebuilt and we have many areas of new construction.)  I was excited to see what the building looked like, but not because we needed to look at some graffiti.  But... that's what happened.  Some kids broke into the site found paint and went a little crazy.  Part of there 'artistic' expressions included my name and the word women really hate being called...worse than the b word... My name was the only name included in the graffiti.  The other AP asked me after we had toured the graffiti, if I was ok, seeing my name and being called that.  And I am okay... The irony... the kid who we think did it... is a kid who works primarily with the other assistant principal, was recently suspended by the other assistant principal...but.. is a kid we often meet with together... a kid I have been pretty short with... a kid who I have been very blunt with about his lack of boundaries with females... so, it would make sense that he would be mad at me... we'll see what happens.  It's one of those things that will happen... in some ways I am surprised it has taken this long to be written about on a large wall... and I know it isn't about me.. I mean it is... but it's about the bigger picture for this kid or whatever kid did this.  I have been thinking a lot about any kids who I have made angry lately... and I can't think of any... I honestly think that a picture taken by the kids who dd it will surface... on facebook, twitter, or instagram... It will show up... and when it does it will be ironic because I have been the social media cop... I do want to find proof of who did it...

Story 2...
This is the story that I want to preface with me being okay.. mostly for my Dad's benefit... Dad, It is fine, was fine, I promise...
Part of my job is watching attendance of students... and if our students become truant we sometimes do home visits... we show up, find the student if we are lucky... and tell them they need to return to school.  Thursday was our morning truancy meeting.   We talked about a lot of kids who had not been coming to school and our school completion coordinator, who I like to call our truancy officer...and I decided to take a road trip to visit three of our students.  We often just show up, but I had called ahead, telling people we would be stopping by... Our first visit went well... offered some supports to a student who has been ill... stop number two was a bust... the student has left the state and since she is 18, there is nothing we can do.  She will count as one of our drop outs... then there was our final stop...
It is one of those places where you know not to sit down... fearing what is in the cushions We knocked on the door and the mom answered and was overly excited to see us... in the mode of wanting us to believe she is a good parent... also there was the grandmother who sat saying nothing... we were also met by an overly outgoing younger man, probably 20 or so, who made an effort to keep us in the living room and signaled our student to step into a back room with him for a moment as we talked to the mom... both boys returned and I told the student he needs to come to school... told him that I have heard that he is involved in some activities outside of school that needs to not overlap with school... the other younger male at that point kind of got in our student's face and told him to keep their business private.  I quickly changed the subject and asked if the student needed anything to get back to school... and they assured us he will be at school Monday... on our way back to work we talked and think that when the two males left momentarily they were hiding some drugs.... but  I didn't think much of it... later that day the truancy officer comes flying into my office and says loudly, "We could have been killed!"  He is a pretty calm individual and I found his panic amusing... and thought he was kidding... he then proceeds to tell me that he had talked to our school police officer about where we had been and he looked up the address on the police log and found that there had been some activity there... activity that involves drugs and weapons... I truly do not believe we were in danger. I told our truancy officer that "It is a great day to be alive!"  but again, I think we were not in danger... We were not there to search the place, and kept the mood friendly... But it did give me food for thought.. up until now we have not had our school resource officer look up information about police activity at homes before we visit... I think that may become part of our practice...

Anyway... I am feeling tired... and am signing off...