It Rains At Starbucks.

I’m sitting in Starbucks. It is pouring outside, and I’m killing time while MFT attends a writing class because I am staying at her house in order to get to our full day of PD at the Botanical Gardens tomorrow without a 20 minute walk from the train in the rain. At first I was all “Stupid Starbucks and their fancy expensive drinks and pay by the hour wireless internet” but now I am more “wow that espresso is strong and damn I just completed the last 10 of 16 promotional portfolio cover sheets complete with grades for each marking period, brief narratives on Assessments, Writing, and Homework, attendance records, and statements on their emotional and behavioral progress during the school-year. I feel like a paperwork-superhero. Caffeine is ridiculous.

Today was the first annual Female Empowerment Conference at my school. The boys went to the YMCA to swim and the girls got all dressed up in professional clothing and attended 4 workshops about future careers, attending college, communicating with other females, and other such topics about growing up female in a male-dominated society. I think that the day was a tremendous success, especially when judged in comparison to most other events my school participates in which are more generally characterized as chaotic, disorganized, and disappointing. Lunch was catered. My co-teacher’s girls performed a dance during the luncheon. Two of my friends came in to present a future careers workshop in the afternoon and we talked about career options, what you do during the day in an office, and the merits of working “for profit” vs. “not for profit” and how neither is “morally superior” but how some people might choose to work in public service to make the world a better place and how it makes them feel good too, but there is less money and financial comfort in these fields than more business oriented or corporate careers. Then we played Careers Charades which was cute.

When discussing my careers since college graduation, I mentioned that I am going back to school full time next year, not really thinking about how I hadn’t told my kids that yet. Chanya and Cammy reacted strongly, which made me feel good. Chanya likes to point out to me the thing I have reiterated since January when she came into my ELA class: “Ms. ________ spends more time with me than any other student at our school because we have Advisory and ELA together.” This has proved to be great for our relationship after the initial struggle to get her to trust me and discuss her problems and drop the B.S. drama every day. She and Cammy made me promise to visit and after the workshop were writing me notes on the board that said “We Love Ms. _________” and “PS We love you A LOT” and “Ms. ________ is the best.” This made me happy because those girls can be a handful and I’m flattered that they see me as someone they can trust and come to with their problems. I always think I’m kind of a hard-ass with them because they are the types that are constantly melodramatic.

I am now at MFT’s house and need to stop typing and just cut and paste this rambling thing…