Pass the Chocolate...

It's been one of those days. Actually it started this weekend, but today definately takes the cake. After being put down-(read: made to feel like crap) this weekend for having good grades, I got bulldozed by the "I hate you" crowd today.

The day started with my Experimental Psychology class going okay, I actually understood what the teacher was talking about. Then I met my roomate for lunch, she asked me to help her with some homework after we ate. I said okay, she pulled out the homework and handed it to me--it was for economics. I know nothing about economics so I handed it back to her and told her I didn't know how to do it. She responded "well you should, you are the smart one aren't you?" The comment kind of caught me off guard but it didn't really bother me that much.

Fast forward 20 minutes to my Experimental Psychology lab. The girl that sits next to me-(a senior in college)-has decided that the best way to pass the lab portion of the class is to copy my work-when she's not complaining about not understanding what to do-(probably because she's writing e-mails or looking at facebook the whole damn time). I always love it when somebody else gets credit for my work. So I make it through lab, turn in my work and go to my next class. My next class goes off as it usually does, me and maybe 1 other person contributing to the 'class discussion'-(professor's questions) while the other students sit like bumps on a log.

So I get out of class and decide to walk next door to work and pick up some books I left there. While I'm there my boss offers me another shift. I said okay and didn't think anything of it. Well apparently I was 3rd in line for this shift....unfortunately I was the 1st one asked due to the other 2 people not having the greatest track records. I didn't know that they were passed up for the shift and caught hell from these 2 people since they were both there when I was offered the shift.

So in short, it's just been a bad day. I feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have my mom on one side telling me that I'm not good enough, then I have my classmates and co-workers telling me I'm too good. I can't win. What is so wrong with doing certain things well? I don't walk around and tell everybody what my GPA is, or that I'm better then they are. I pretty much keep to myself and if somebody asks me something, I answer. I guess the bottom line is I feel like I can't just be me. I'm in my 3rd year of college, but I feel like I'm in high school. I didn't realize that there was such a bad vibe associated with doing well. What ever happened to a simple "good job?"

Some People...

The preschool I work at is closed tomorrow. This was a last minute decision that was made today by the director. The reason she was forced to close the center was because too many staff member's called in on Friday to say that they wouldn't be in on Monday. Now some of them had legitimate reasons, some of them just wanted a long weekend. I understand that sometimes people just need an extra day off, but the people who are taking a 'long weekend' seem to take long weekends quite often. It's very frustrating to me, and the other staff members who actually show up, when our co-workers do this. Those of us who actually show up on a regular basis lose a day's pay because of these certain people who can't seem to understand the concept of actually working a job. In addition, we-(the teacher's who rarely call in or at least have legitimate reasons when we do call in) have to deal with the parents the next day. Trust me, they are none too happy when this happens. Most of the parents we work with are students at the University where the child care center is located--they have classes to attend and jobs to work on campus. I guess my biggest complaint is that the teacher's who just don't feel like coming in don't seem to understand that they can't just take off whenever they feel like it. I would've loved to stay downstate with my boyfriend for an extra day, but I came back tonight knowing that I was scheduled to work tomorrow. What these teachers do doesn't just affect them, it affects the kids, the parents, the staff at the University-(we have plenty of professor's kids too), and the other teacher's at the center.

You're probably wondering why these teacher's don't get fired. The main reason is my boss is way to lenient. She hates to fire people and often times it takes 6 months to a year to get a staff member transferred to another work site on campus because she keeps giving them "2nd chances." The other problem is that a lot of them can't really be fired. They can be transferred to another work site on campus but because they are work study students, they have to be placed somewhere. Generally by this time in the year, there's not a whole lot of places to transfer too because most of the work sites have all the work study students they need.

So that's my rant for this Sunday night. I am really not looking forward to working on Wednesday because I can almost guarantee that there is going to be more then a handful of parents who are none too happy with us. I guess on a good note, I get to sleep in tomorrow-(although I will be losing my pay for Monday)-and I don't have to work Tuesday morning so I won't have to deal with the full force of the pissed off parents.

What Do Preschoolers Eat In The Mornings????

I would really like to know, because I'm going to start eating it every day. My preschoolers have this incredible amount of energy when they walk in the door. I had two this past week who came in, got their stuff off, washed their hands, then proceeded to run around our circular table over and over again. I don't know about anybody else, but when I get up at 7am, the only thing I want to do is crawl back into bed. Once in a great while I get one that comes in and wants to lay down on his or her cot, but in general they're just wound up balls of energy.

It isn't just preschoolers though. The second graders I'm working with this year are the same way. On Friday I was with them almost all day and when they came in, not one of them looked tired. I know some of them definately don't get the sleep they need but they are wide awake when they walk in the door at 8:30. It's scary....I down two cups of coffee in the morning before I even walk out the door and I'm still ready for a nap at noon. I want to be a kid again, just to have the energy!