Dork of all trades

First day of school!

Here are some patterns that I did today that I really like:

*Got out of bed at the first hit of my alarm.

*Got the dishes out of the dishwasher before eating breakfast

*Read book on the bus to and from work

*Zeroed my work email inbox for the day

*Dealt with any dishes hanging out (including the handwash stuff) when I got home from work

Here are some things that aren't patterns but also got done today:

*Hung out with Clayton, my work-bestie, for a goodly chunk of time

*Had very productive Geometry work-group, which is especially nice because it's basically the same people as last year, but was a WAY less contentious first meeting

*Spent over an hour chatting with my new mentee, who is _shiny_ new to teaching and I really hope continues to maintain their optimism and enthusiasm and stuff. I think they will, they're excitable but also in their late twenties so not quite as naïve as some.

*Did some of the HR paperwork which is especially fun because I ignored it all last year. This includes watching the entire Conflict of Interest training, which is an hour of unskillable, un-speedable modules which must be watched in order and if you leave one in the middle you have to restart it from the beginning. I also read the ten minute summary which I'm pretty sure sufficed to do the thing, but I have strong feelings about actually reading the shit work makes me sign.

*To be clear, I read the summary first and watched the video at home while playing Stardew Valley, I'm not paid enough to give _that_ my full attention.

*Attended a bunch of meetings and stuff, mostly fine-to-good. As I have previously observed, the fewer people in the meeting the more useful and interesting it gets.

So it's a pretty good first day! I am feeling cautiously optimistic about the fact that the school has not introduced dozens of all new structures that will definitely fix everything, and instead is working to improve and refine the existing structures. (Okay, there is one new structure, but it is to replace an old one that stopped existing, so it should be the same ideas within a slightly different workflow. And even that, the principal was like "yeah, I expect it to be good this year and awesome three years from now" so she at least claims to understand change takes time.)

Being temporarily disabled is a drag, but having the cane felt both good as a visual indicator, and genuinely useful for any of the standing around. My boss absolutely fished for details and got as much as "yep, it was something I needed and it will heal soon". (Clayton on the other hand got "my gyno wouldn't let me keep my uterus once it was out but he took pictures for me!" and this is part of the difference between Real Friend and Boss).

It was nice to see all my coworkers, including some unexpected heart-lifting delights. It turns out I do like the adults I work with and not just the kids!

First day with kids is Wednesday (one class for two hours of orientation) and then Thursday I see all five of my classes bang-in-a-row. I can live with the exhausting Thursdays because they mean I have a prep last block again, which is so deeply superior to having a prep penultimate block like I did last year (and therefore having a short time to rest before having to go back and teach more which is so hard to drag yourself to).

For now, I am going to get some ice cream with Austin, and then continue to take it easy for the rest of the evening. Maybe I'll even get to bed at early-bedtime instead of late.

I hope the things you do bring you joy as well.

~Sor
MOOP!