So it has been a crazy few weeks. School has been damn near depressing. Home life has been practically non-existent. And everything in between has just been a blur (note my clock!) It's springtime, so those once pre-pubescent 6th graders are now full fledged hormonal wrecks. They have discovered their attitudes, cliques, and yes, the opposite sex. My God it's annoying. On top of all this, the lovely country-wide economic toilet bowl we're in now is wreaking havoc on our school system. Teachers and other staff are losing their jobs left and right. Just today I was told that next year my school would be staffed by no less than 20 fewer educators and others. No that's not a typo. Our school staff is being cut by nearly 1/3 next school year. How the f@(% can we as a school be successful and produce educated young adults if our state takes away one out of every three teachers, aides, and support staff? Apparently the AZ state legislators couldn't care less about the future of their state. Interesting. Who do they think will be voting for them in the future?
In other news, my training for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's TEAM in Training is going well. We rode 32 miles last weekend through north Phoenix. I had the benefit of riding with brand new Shimano shifters and brakes. My old (and I mean OLD) shifters took a crap on our first training ride, so I had to quickly order and have installed nice shiny new ones. Happy Birthday to me! They worked like a charm, and I was able to have a nice smooth ride, despite the never-ending headwinds we had. This weekend: 40 miles...can't wait. This time I'll remember the sunscreen. I was (and still am) a nice shade of pink as a result of my forgetfulness.
Finally, I finished another book this evening. I took a swing at The Natural, by Bernard Malamud. It's the original print version of the 80's flick starring every woman's favorite slugger, Robert Redford. This has got to be one of the most depressing stories I've ever read. If you've seen the movie, don't expect a mirror image in print. I won't go into too much detail here, but all I'm going to say is (like most book-to-movie jobs) the book is nothing like the movie. A good read; a bit slow to start; I nearly lost interest halfway through and gave up on it, but I figured since I started, I may as well finish. Now to determine what to pick up next. Katie is trying her damn hardest to get me to read the Twilight series. I REFUSE. I will never open the cover of any of those books. I'm actually torn here. I want to read The Princess Bride, but I've had this nagging feeling in the back of my mind to finally read the Harry Potter series. I think I'll mull it over for a few days. Got any suggestions for me? Let me know.
I think that's about it for now. It's late, I'm tired, and it's been a depressing day (lots of my friends and colleagues lost their jobs today). I'm out.
