About Me
"Mostly harmless."
BLOGS
What a horrible/wonderful/horrible week I've had. I've been having a blast seeing my old friends again while staying in Philly these past few days. However, on Thursday I found out that:
1) My driving "privileges" have been revoked in NY state for 6 months because I got three speeding tickets in 18 months. It's because I commuted from Buffalo to Ithaca at least once every week for the past year. I traveled through lots of desolate farm country. It's easy to lose track of your speed on flat, uninhabited country roads with only 55 mph speed limits. Add hyper-aggressive (bored) rural cops to the mix and it's easy to see why that happened.
2) My landlord is refusing to give me my $600 security deposit back - even though I haven't even inhabited my new apartment. Why? Because:
3) I was laid off from work.
It was no fault of my own - the school at which I was employed needed to "downsize" their faculty (at least, they thought they needed to - others were not so sure....but whatever) due to low enrollment this coming year. The practice of seniority was used to decide who got the axe and since I was the 2nd-newest teacher, I was on the chopping block with the other newbies.
Yeah. That all happened Thursday. Crap.
So now what? I have to move out of Buffalo quickly and then go back to Ithaca......and then......????? There's no private schools in Ithaca and, besides, no one hires teachers in August. The slots are already filled for the coming year.
This sucks.
EDIT:
Edited to add that ALSO on Thursday I discovered my work laptop was stolen from my car. I have to pay for its replacement. That's not the bad thing. The REAL bad part of it is that with the theft of my work laptop, ALL MY WORK for the past year has now evaporated. I sweat figurative blood for the past nine months to create lesson-plans, handouts, tests, projects, comments, etc. all from scratch - and now I have nothing to show...
1) My driving "privileges" have been revoked in NY state for 6 months because I got three speeding tickets in 18 months. It's because I commuted from Buffalo to Ithaca at least once every week for the past year. I traveled through lots of desolate farm country. It's easy to lose track of your speed on flat, uninhabited country roads with only 55 mph speed limits. Add hyper-aggressive (bored) rural cops to the mix and it's easy to see why that happened.
2) My landlord is refusing to give me my $600 security deposit back - even though I haven't even inhabited my new apartment. Why? Because:
3) I was laid off from work.
It was no fault of my own - the school at which I was employed needed to "downsize" their faculty (at least, they thought they needed to - others were not so sure....but whatever) due to low enrollment this coming year. The practice of seniority was used to decide who got the axe and since I was the 2nd-newest teacher, I was on the chopping block with the other newbies.
Yeah. That all happened Thursday. Crap.
So now what? I have to move out of Buffalo quickly and then go back to Ithaca......and then......????? There's no private schools in Ithaca and, besides, no one hires teachers in August. The slots are already filled for the coming year.
This sucks.
EDIT:
Edited to add that ALSO on Thursday I discovered my work laptop was stolen from my car. I have to pay for its replacement. That's not the bad thing. The REAL bad part of it is that with the theft of my work laptop, ALL MY WORK for the past year has now evaporated. I sweat figurative blood for the past nine months to create lesson-plans, handouts, tests, projects, comments, etc. all from scratch - and now I have nothing to show...
No, I hear you on the acronyms. I didn't even really realize I was using them, but there they were, consonants a blazin'. I'll do better next time. 
OCTOBER 2011
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Kay