bedlam

Wow, this day is being very annoying. We are moving on Wednesday, which is kind of surprising — since our new digs are being painted and we’re getting new carpet and they’re replacing the ceiling tiles and putting in new lights, we figured no way would they get it done in two weeks. But oddly enough, they did. Well, except for the offices which have broken asbestos-laden floor tiles under the carpet. That occupant can’t move in till the asbestos gets removed. Yikes. And they ran out of money before finishing Mr. Organized’s office and the spot where Miss Artsy sits, so they didn’t get new ceiling tiles and lighting yet. The dean swears she’ll have it done with our budget dollars whenever we actually have a budget. I’m really shocked any of this got done, considering there is no money at all and jobs are in the balance right now, but there’s always money in the weird building related funds that are mysterious and otherworldly and nobody understands at all. 

Mr. Organized reports that my office looks wonderful, so yay for that. Apparently they are all bright and cheery now with the new paint and carpet and even the ones who didn’t get new light fixtures yet at least got their burnt-out bulbs replaced. So, not so much of a minimum-security-prison vibe now, we’ll hope. 

Much in the manner of our last move, forces seem to be working at making us REALLY glad we’re getting out of here. The air conditioning has always been iffy – we’re either freezing to death or roasting, and this summer it’s mostly been roasting – but today it is like trying to work inside a sauna. It’s AWFUL. And since I’ve been packing today, I’m getting really really cranky as the sweat pours off me. EWWWWW. I’m wearing shorts, too – it’s casual days till we get settled into our new spots. If I open the window, the air conditioning unit which is running without working, apparently, is so loud it’s giving me a headache.  Last year, when we were moving out of our cute little house, the construction on all sides escalated and our desks would vibrate all day with the jackhammering, and I especially remember Miss Artsy and I trying to go through grades and check out the graduates and how we had to shriek at each other to be heard. They also completely blocked the roads to our house off and there was nowhere to park within what felt like MILES. So we were all GET US OUT OF HERE!!! by the time we did finally move, and it wasn’t quite so tragic. 

Adding to our annoyance, second summer session ended last week and grades were supposed to be in by Friday, which generally means the registrar’s office will have whatever magic witchcraft they perform done by Monday and we can do our final clearance and send out our last round of YOU DIDN’T GRADUATE YOU EEEDDDJIT letters. So that was going to work out well – we’d get that all done this afternoon and be ready to pack up tomorrow, which is when our computers are getting moved. Naturally this morning the registrar’s office sends out an email saying it will be Wednesday, at best, before grades are finalized. WTF?!?!? That’s longer than it takes during regular sessions! So now we can’t get ours done till probably NEXT Monday, which is going to result in much wailing from people who get deficiency letters NEXT week instead of this week. Never mind that they ALL know what they were already deficient in, and if they didn’t fix their deficiency, helllllllo, it’s still going to be there. That never seems to occur to the Special Kids who assume that someone else will be fixing it for them. ANYHOW, my point is that this is a great big pain. 

I’ve already had one upset kid who is trying to get into grad school and needs us to send a letter saying he’s completed everything. And he has, but it isn’t official and won’t be for days, and by then I’m not going to have computer access to send anything. He can’t wait till MONDAY!!! I ended up sending a letter saying it’s not official but according to the grades posted online now he’s okay. He’s applying to grad school here, so they should certainly understand. He also has a GPA of something like 2.3 in his major and maybe 2.5 overall, and I thought the minimum for grad school was 3.0, so he can probably forget that anyhow. 

Well, enough whining, time to go. I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures of what’s staring at me from my window:

 Miss Artsy has a farmer friend who sells produce and these gargantuan sunflowers – I have three more in a bucket. I have no idea how I will get them home!