Oh yes, last week..

I am very glad that last week is over. Very glad indeed. I am certain that I couldn't have got much stupider. Yes, I think I completely bottomed out last week. I was kind of similar to a walking zombie, except that I came out during the day, and I still wore lipstick. Other than that... I was completely, profoundly and utterly stupid. I could barely form words, let alone string them together to make sentences. I. AM. NOT. KIDDING. But I am better now.... which is why I am back here... chatting up a storm... about nothing,.... which is something I am completely very good at....(smile, smile).

In other news about last week...

The Hamsterson's teacher took all of the grade 5's out on a 3 day camping trip. I like the Hamsterson's teacher, he's a good guy, and very big on building up kids to be the best that they can be. He inspires them to believe in themselves. Although I also have my reservations about him as well. I have not been able to figure out why the Hamsterson son is so lax in his ability to organize himself. Well, he has always been kinda like that anyways... but after watching "the great leader" last week.....even the husbandman commented on now he knows why the "Hamsterson doesn't quite know what is going on...".

This teacher had to orchestrate 55 kids, and 10 adults for three days. That's a load for one to carry. I stood back and watched the day to unveil.. and then it kind of hit me... what is it that makes a good leader... well, you need to be organized, and beyond that, you need to have the ability to deligate, plus the ability to have faith in the people that you deligate to. I think the teacher had it all going on with the thought process of organizing... but this fellow failed to delegate. I feel bad for the fellow, he had heaping amounts of parents that were capable of hands on help with little direction available to him for this camping trip, and he missed using his resources. Mind you, that was just the starting process of getting the camping going, and the completion of the camping trip.... this teacher had everyting nailed down to a tee during the whole 2 1/2 days they were there, with those 55 crazy grade fivers.

That poor teacher was so exhausted last week, he couldn't even speak when unloading the camping gear out of the back of his truck. I felt for the guy. He had to do this "camping" thing pretty much on his own, although there was another grade 5 teacher, who was about as useful as mud on a rock. Not that I am saying she is a bad person... she just doesn't "do" any of this sort of stuff... I am still wondering why this woman is actually a teacher... she might have made a good piano teacher mind you. Anyways.... after all was said and done, it looks like he recovered, as he was back in class with the mother of the son that fell of the cliff in his classroom after school. Things didn't look pretty there either...

In other things courageous....

The very brave and slightly unorganized teacher had left his truck at the site where the start of the hike was for the kids. (if that makes sense)... anyways, after he got the kids to the endpoint of the hike, he then had to turn around and run back along the trail, where all the cars were parked, and then drive to the gate of the lodge where they were going to be camping. The lodge guy was going to open the magic yellow gate. Makes good sense to me... but here's the clincher... the brave teacher had to run all the way back the hiking trail, to meet up with the gate keeper, when... a perfectly good teacher was available to meet the gate keeper, who just happened to be sitting with 3 of the 55 of crazy grade fivers wrapping potatoes. But that is the way he is.... BUT ... somewhere along the line he must have realized that he couldn't drive his truck back to the gatekeeper lodge man, because all the crazy parents parked behind his truck, so he took the student teachers car... to meet the gatekeeper man. All is good... until the "kind of useless grade 5 teacher" finally pipes up and says... "someone needs to drive Harold's truck".... The husbandman looked at me... "you can drive his truck"... he says to me. (this is the courageous part of the story... after all, it is all about me!) OK, I can drive the big blue ugly truck.. "I think I can I think I can I think I can"... I say to myself... frightened for my future as a truck driver, as I am a TOYOTA SUV driver... and barely at that! Then everybody drives off.. and leaves me, with the crazy and kind of unorganzied teachers beast of a vehicle... and that was only looking on the outside... I then had to make it to the great indoors. To my shock and horror... I see what I had not intended on seeing..... A STICK SHIFT. Oh great... this teachers truck is a standard... now luckily ... I drive a standard... but not this kind of a standard... where it's parked in the bushes, kind of on a hill... with no possibility for the clutch to engage anytime soon.... OH MY GOD... WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO.... I kind of had a little spaz, but since I was by myself... I looked on the inside of his vehicle, and pointed and laughed at myself throught the window.... Fortunately.. ((ok, a little secret here... I had to organize an extra eight kids back to the lodge... because the "kind of useless potatoe wrapper teacher drove off with her designated three kids"... and she never offered to come back...., so I had to ask a van mom to make two extra trips to collect all the left over hiking children... )) On the van moms last trip I had asked her to "hang on" while I tried to figure out driving this beast... no sooner was I in, with the door shut... did the black ball of the stick shift go flying... inside his CRAMMED WITH EVERYTHING vehicle. I can't drive without the magic black ball...NOPE, not me.. I need the magic black ball, even though I had already noticed that it was just there for decoration... but I needed it to drive. I eventually found it amidst his big bottles of Tylenol, and other assorted "things".... I couldn't help but howl at my predicament... I couldn't really go back to camp, minus his vehicle... what kind of complete dipshit queen would I look like!!!! Eventually I got the power rig running, and I managed down the dusty road in first gear, for as long as I could go... then... I had to eventually put it into second, but I didn't find second, I found fourth.... and so the truck chugged along for a while, even though it didn't really like being fourth, but I liked it being in forth... just as long as I didn't have to touch the clutch again...and besides, the black ball flew off again, so I couldn't change gears until I had successfully popped the ball back on... eventually we made it back to camp... I felt like there was a welcoming party... because everybody was standing and running around, watching the big blue beast pull into the campsite/lodge... with the crazy and disorganized teacher waiting patiently for his beloved beast. I think he had kind of a look of worry on his face... which he was correct about that one. I was happy to hand him his keys.

I dare not remember any more about last week... other than I was in complete brainwave failer.... except for the notations from above.....