first day

The first day of school has come and gone and I seem to have survived. A new crop of barely-four year olds (some still 3, actually) crawled off the busses and cars and out of mama's arms (some were forcibly removed) and sent to us, and I'm once again faced with the daunting task of turning them into geniuses. Or at least slightly more knowledgeable. But I like to set the bar high, personally. Anyway, this year, due to district rezoning, I have mostly non-English speakers. In one class I have 14/20 speaking Spanish, and I think it's 12/20 or so in the other class. So although I can only claim to hablo espanol un poquito, my oral language today was probably 50/50 English-Spanish. Intense. But I guess I'm excited about the year, about new chances and opportunities, about working in a new school with new people, about moving from being the "new girl" in my department to being one of the most experienced "vets".

But I sure am tired.

After work I drove out to the DMV (far far away in Athens) to get the address changed on my driver's license. Since I'd already used up my one free address change I just had to do a renewal. Whatev. So they took a picture and my hair is sticking up. I mean, seriously. Could the girl who seemed to be really busy eating candy and reading a magazine not have let me re-take the picture? Really? Okay, whatev. I'll be happy with this one. Then I had a 10 minute argument with this other girl about what county I live in. "So what county do you live in?" "Barrow." {she types some things in the computer} "....hmmm....not seeing you listed in Barrow. [double checks that I told her the right address. I did.] Well, yeah, Statham isn't listed in Barrow County." "Umm...well, sorry, but that's where I live. I promise it's Barrow County." "Well...it's not listed. What counties are you near?" I mean, really? I can pick? Let's see...Orange County....and whatever county Chicago is in. "Umm...Oconee, Jackson, and Gwinnett?" {types some more} "Oh! Here you are. Oconee County." "Well, I don't live in Oconee County, sorry. I promise. I just bought the house and the land and I saw the words Barrow County printed five thousand times on every piece of paper. My tags say Barrow County. I pay property taxes to Barrow County. A Barrow County School District bus stops in front of my driveway every morning. I live in Barrow County." {she looks at me like I'm an idiot or possibly lying...as though there's millions of people out there trying to illegally sneak into Barrow} "Well...I guess I can override it in the system, if you really want me to." "I do, thanks."

Where do they find people like this to hire? Isn't there a recession? Don't qualified people need jobs? I'm just sayin'...

I followed up that great experience with a final trip to my landlord's office to drop off our keys. It was then that she told me we were going to have to pay for a bunch of crap we didn't do. Awesome, love ya, see ya. I am so over anything housing related. After this house, we are probably going to live in a tent.

In Oconee County.