Limbo *Update*

I know that my entries of late have not been so uplifting, for that I apologize.  This one shan’t begin much better, but if you bear with me I promise to include some funny moments from school. (Yes, I’m bribing you to listen to me vent. But, at least I admit it).  

 

I believe I mentioned that my sister and her husband are separating.  More recently in the saga she apparently checked herself into the hospital.  I was afraid this would happen, and I was hoping it wouldn’t.  We do not know where she is, only that she is hospitalized somewhere.  This is made more problematic for her by the fact that she uses the hospital as a place to escape, and a way to run away.  I know that she will remain in that hospital setting until they either kick her out, or her money runs out.  I’m afraid that with this decision she has finished any hope for her marriage.  I can only hope that someone there will get through to her and wake her up, get her ready to move on with living.

 

I cannot remember if I mentioned the break ins.  I live in a fairly prosperous area, it was an area I considered safe.  Since February though, I have not felt so safe.  Two weeks ago (almost) I became the stand out on my floor.  I am the only person on the third floor of my building that has not been robbed.  I have set up door alarms.  My neighbors gave me a security sticker.  I am still completely unnerved.  I am nervous to come home, and constantly on edge while I am at home.  It does not seem as if the complex is really doing anything to attempt to prevent the robberies, and in fact because of the extreme similarity of two of them and the fact that the person doing it obviously knows the apartments they are robbing, it is suspected by my neighbors and I that it is someone who works here, or did work here.  My saving grace is the fact that I am still relatively poor and my belongings are not worth much.  The few things I have of value (my netbook, my camera, my jewelry) I’ve begun lugging with me to work everyday.  I have not figured out what to do on the weekends or other times that I am just going out and not to work.  

For this reason, I have begun looking around at other complexes.  I just really want to feel safe when I come home.  I am having a hard time finding places I can afford that are also safe, but I’m looking.  

 

In other news, I signed my contract for next year yesterday.  This isn’t as comforting as it may sound.  The Texas legislature is still busy passing bills, and Texas teachers are still spending sleepless nights and wondering if they need a second job.  The current bill they are attempting to pass will permanently raise the class size ratio to 25:1 for K-2nd grade (it’s currently 22:1).   It will also eliminate a teacher’s right to a fair and unbiased trial if they are terminated mid term (take away your right to object, basically).  It eliminates the base salary rate for teachers.  It authorizes salary cuts.  It authorizes a Reduction in Force.  That last part is key.  If they authorize a reduction in force, and my district decides to utilize it, my contract is worthless.  I can still be let go… it’s in the contract. 

Which makes me unsure as to what to do with an apartment.  Do I stay here and hope I’m safe?  Do I move somewhere else and pray I can afford it?  I won’t know how much I’ll be paid next year until almost September when we sign our salary letters.  My original thought was to put the apartment search on hold.  Stay here without renewing my lease, and then decide what to do once I knew my salary.  I came home tonight to a lease renewal flier on my door.  It reminds me that my lease is up at the end of July, and that I have to notify them in writing 60 days before it expires if I do not plan to renew and wish to vacate.  It then goes on to say that if I wish to go to a month to month basis, my rent will be….$945.  I swear I stopped breathing, then I panicked.  There’s no way I can afford to pay that much in rent.  I don’t know if I’ll HAVE a job next year.  I don’t know what my salary will be, although I know that I won’t be making more than I am this year as we’ve not been able to get raises for the last two years.  

*Sighs*  This is sickening.  I just want to know what I need to do.  Do I need a second job?  Do I move?  Do I stay? What the FUCKING HELL are the FUCKING idiots in the legislature thinking?  Why don’t they take a fucking pay cut?  Why don’t they try living off a net income of about 36,000 while putting about 6,000-7,000 of that right back into your job?  If they cut my salary I don’t know what I’ll do.  I don’t know what my kids will do.  They need things.  I know I’ll get them those things whether I get my salary cut or not, it is just incredibly frustrating.  What’s going to happen when they need clothes, or backpacks, or food, or shoes and I can’t afford to help them out anymore? 

Anyway. 

On to the promised funnies. 🙂 

One of my little darlings got a gold chain for Christmas.  His parents had it cut down to size and turned a few inches of it into a bracelet for him.  The chain hasn’t come to school recently, but the bracelet made its debut a couple of weeks ago.  The students were in their Phonics Rotation (phonics centers based on level and need) and he came up to me closely followed by another child.  He was stumbling over himself to tattle on himself before the other kid did, and the story as it came out was this, "Nuh uh! Nuh uh! It was my bracelet!"

"What was your bracelet?"
 

"My magic bracelet hit him!  I tried to control it, but I just couldn’t!"

His magic bracelet isn’t allowed to come back to school until he learns how to control it. 

 

Same child walking all over the hallway instead of being in line:
 

"(Insert name) you need to get in line and put on your cub hug and bubble!  Control your body."

"But Ms. A, I’m just not that good at driving my body yet."

 

I have another child who tells me all day, every day, "I like your hair."  He also likes my glasses, pants, shirt, shoes, ring, voice, the way I read, and assorted other things.  More than anything else though I hear, "I like your hair."  He always says it in the exact same way, with a certain cadence sort of a ba dump de du-um.  He says it at least 10 times a day and usually at a time he shouldn’t be talking.  Two weeks ago he was talking, and talking, and talking during work time… and getting no work done whatsoever.  In exasperation I looked at him and exclaimed, "You need to turn off your voice! Stop talking and start working!"  He looked at me and quite cal

mly hummed, "ba dump de du-um".  I knew exactly what he was *not* saying, and almost cried I was laughing so hard when I told the story later.  

 

Today we were reviewing the parts of a plant and the job that each one does.  When we got to the flower I asked my kids what the flower’s job was.  One little girl raised her hand and said quite seriously, "To make it look pretty!" 

 

*Update*

I went to talk to the apartment manager today. I went over everything with her and told her I honestly wasn’t sure if I felt safe staying or not.  I asked her for information on rent.  What my rent would be if I signed a 12 month lease ($10 more than it currently is), and what it would be if I signed a 3 or 6 month lease.  It’s supposed to be another $10 for a 6 month lease, but she said that because of the situation she would be able to lease it at the $10 increase.  I asked her if it was something happening across the complex, or if it was just my building. The answer is that outside of my building, and my floor, only one other break in has occurred in the last 6 months.  They are working on security (changing the gate code, getting the courtesy officers to patrol in shifts so there is continuous coverage or barring that possibility bringing in an outside security company).  She also said that they are budgeted for additional security items in the next year, including possible gate cameras and taking away the keypad at the gate altogether and going to remote only entry.  I told her I needed to think about it and weigh all my options.  Right now I am thinking that I will most likely sign a 6 month lease and re-evaluate after that.  If the changes she talks about actually happen, I’ll stay… otherwise I’ll have 6 more months to find a new place to live.  That would also give me enough time to find a new place or a second job if I am facing a salary cut (I have enough in savings to cover for a few months.  My current salary will be in effect until September 10th.) I do still want to look around and see what my other options are though.