On screwing over one’s co-workers

imagesIt’s one of the oldest gripes about being a teacher: frequently it’s more work to stay home from school than to just go in sick, because writing lesson plans for a substitute teacher are such an incredible pain in the ass.  In my case, I have almost never during my career been able to write a week’s worth of lesson plans at a time with any fidelity, because what happens on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday has such an effect on what’s going to happen on Thursday and Friday and it’s almost never worth the effort to actually write the plans because they’re going to be useless anyway.

My situation right now: I haven’t been at work in over two weeks and I have literally no idea what my kids did last week, even though I did provide stuff for them the week before that.  I’ve been lucky enough to have the same sub the entire time, although when I called the office to let them know about the leave I was told that she wasn’t working out very well and I was asked not to request her again.  So… I’m basically going to write plans for this new person that are a list of procedures (that’s a copy-paste) and a request that she go talk to one of the other 5th grade math teachers at the earliest possible time to get actual lesson plans.  Because I have no idea what the hell to tell her to do.

The kicker, of course, is that since I’m on medical leave the office can’t make me either send in lesson plans or do any grading.  The problem is if I don’t do it, the rest of my team has to, and they sorta have their own shit to worry about, y’know?  I can handle the grading easily enough, I suppose, if I can get someone to bring the shit to me, but I’m really at the point where it’s literally impossible for me to write lesson plans, and as soon as they get somebody to actually take over the room (the leave allows them to actually hire someone at better than sub pay) I’ll give the grading back too.

I’m screwing the two 5th grade math and science teachers over, I know, by basically having to say “go ask them for stuff to do…” but we don’t have teacher’s editions and I have NO IDEA what the kids have been doing.  So.  Yeah.  Sorry about that?

PS: I forgot the punchline, which is that I wouldn’t be at work tomorrow anyway.  My mom, as you remember, had her hip replaced last week, and neither my aunt nor my dad is able to stay with her tomorrow, so I’d be doing that even if I was supposed to be back at work.  Whoops!

Ugh

Medication’s screwing with me again today.  If I was a computer game I’d be lagging– I turn my head, and it’s like it takes a while for the world to turn with me.

I think I’ll take a nap.

aaaaugh

So sometime last week I scheduled this song to pop this morning, assuming that I’d be happily on my way to work to go teach some chidrens who I do, yes, actually miss by now:

But then, instead of going to work, I had another fucking panic attack this morning, and suddenly posting a video about how I’d rather be playing the drums instead of at work, when I really would like to go to work like a fucking grown-up now, seemed kinda rude and a little like mockery of the people who were actually at said job.

So I did something I’ve almost never done, and deleted the post.

(And then almost accidentally forgot to post today, because I was thinking I already had.)

I saw the doctor again this afternoon, and… actually, I’m not talking about it any more until I know more about what’s up.  But… yeah.  Not the greatest news I’ve ever been given by a medical professional.

I will not be at work again tomorrow, or this week again.  More later, when I know more.

Getting desperately tired of this.

#Weekendcoffeeshare: Pearl Jam edition

weekend-coffee-share

If we were having coffee, it would be startlingly like having coffee with a normal person with, like, interests and hobbies and things to do and stuff.  Life on the new medication is, so far, good, and there has been a refreshing absence of side effects.  I’ve had a little trouble sleeping the last few days, but that happens a lot, and since I’ve been mostly sedentary for the last few weeks I’m not surprised that sleep isn’t coming quite as quickly as I’d like.  For now, I’m not blaming the meds.

I’ve got all kinds of stuff to be excited about.  I like the short story I’m working on, a submission for the World Unknown Review that I really need to get finished this week.  I solved a story snarl with my next novel.  I have a book coming out on Tuesday.  I even have a Sekrit Project that I can’t really talk about right now!  How exciting is that?

Also, while you probably have seen the Star Wars trailer by now, and will no doubt want to swap theories about that, you may not have seen the Jessica Jones trailer, and while I can’t really say I’m just as excited about that, it’s a sizeable percentage.  Luke Cage is in it!  Luke Cage is awesome!  Hell, speaking of comic books, I’ve been reading a hell of a lot of good comic books lately.  We could talk about those!

God, I hope you’re at least almost as big of a geek as I am, or this conversation’s going to be awful.  Perhaps you’d wish to discuss books?  I’m reading Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves right now, and I’m not too far into it but I suspect I’m going to love it.  I just bailed on Cixin Liu’s The Dark Forest, which is a sequel to one of the best books I’ve read this year, but not translated by the same guy, and the new translator is awful.  I’m sure it’s not a bad book, but it’s not readable in its current form.

I’m still out of work, because the doctor was concerned about the meds– I’m not seeing any side effects yet, but that could change, and my health has been flipping on a dime lately.  And if I’m being honest, I officially miss teaching now.  So apparently a month of sick days is what it takes.  I’d like life to get back to normal soon.  No doubt I’ll be climbing the walls by the end of the week.

How’re you?

¡Drogas! ¡Más drogas!

Clonazepam-150x150Saw the doctor today.  The people in the office are starting to recognize me; that’s how often I’ve been there lately.  The receptionist just waved me off without formally checking me in today.  That many times.

Everything’s fine!  Except that my brain is still screwing with me.  So we’re trying Clonazepam for a little while, because all the test results from last week have pretty definitively ruled out my adrenal glands as the culprit.  I’m out another week of work, too, because she’s expecting the drug to hit me kinda hard.  Seeing as how I stopped taking the last one because of side effects, I’m not super excited about this.  But the Lexapro is definitely out of my system– I can tell, because I’ve been nervous and twitchy all day today.  So we’ll hope that Clonazepam helps where Lexapro didn’t.  If not?  Well, whatever the next thing is, I guess.

It’s still not lupus.


Anyway.

I keep almost writing a short story about the Dyson Sphere thing, only the only thing I can come up with is basically a dialogue between two characters about it.  Which… okay, I can do that, but it’s kinda boring without any actual meat on the bones.  I’m just nervous that if I don’t get it out of my system now it’s going to end up as an infodump in Starlight or Sunlight or whatever that book is called now.  Which I need to start working on again soon.  Just as soon as I finish the three other things I’m working on right now, which… well, soon.  That’s all I’m saying.


I will be here in June.  Get your tickets now!  Meanwhile, you’re running out of time– less than a week!– to pre-order Searching for Malumba.  The print edition looks fantastic, if I do say so myself; I’m never not using their creme-colored paper again, because it looks so much better than the white.  That’ll be available on the 27th if you prefer your books on paper.

Okay, I think that’s all I’ve got.

Every sick day should be like this

its-not-lupus-black-t-shirt
One of the tests was for autoimmune diseases! It really isn’t lupus!

I’m about to write a whole bit about all the fun & productive stuff I’ve done today since I didn’t have to go to work because I’m on medical leave.  Let me start with this, though: we have an elderly cat.  I got her when I moved to Chicago in 1998, so she’s seventeen and some change, not that you can tell from interacting with her.  She has been a puker for as long as I’ve owned her.  Last night I was ripped out of sleep by the sound of a cat preparing to hork on my bed.  I snapped awake and tossed her out of bed, resolving to clean up whatever she did to the floor in the morning (this may be why the carpet in my bedroom is so shitty) and then rolled over and went basically immediately back to sleep.

And then it happened twice more in the next hour.

And the third time it triggered another of the same type of attack/”episode” things that have been keeping me out of work lately.  The only difference is this happened in the middle of the night, but it was the same thing: simultaneously freezing cold and sweating, nauseous, weak, shallow breathing, generally awful.

Turns out, when your cat wakes you up trying to hork, it generates a bit of an adrenaline surge, and the third such event in maybe an hour fucked me up bad.  I still say there’s something wrong with my adrenal glands, but I keep getting test results from all the blood I had sucked out of me on Saturday and so far everything is normal, so I have no goddamn idea what the hell is going on.  I do know I couldn’t have gotten out of bed at 6 if my life had depended on it; I didn’t feel human until 11, at which point I was able to haul myself out of bed and take a shower and start my day.

How do I feel now?  Completely fine.  Which is the most frustrating thing about this; I’m either completely fine or I have medical professionals hovering over me and telling me to go to the ER.  It kinda sucks.

But anyway.  I did a whole bunch of shit today!  Have the rest of my day up to now in bullet point form:

  • Went to the bank to clarify some stuff about our recent mortgage refinancing.  Turns out I need to pay my own homeowners insurance now as the bank doesn’t do escrow.  Annoying, but manageable.
  • Checked a couple of mattress stores for a new bed for my son, who is now big enough for a twin bed.
  • Bought my son a bed at one of said stores, which will be here tomorrow.
  • Had lunch at Five Guys, a rare treat since basically just setting foot in the place will probably kill the boy, who has a peanut allergy.
  • Went to the Apple Store and scratched my “need a new thing” itch by buying one of these.  Almost certainly not the wisest use of my money, but I use two monitors and the massively increased size over the previous version won me over.  Using a trackpad instead of a mouse is wonderful.
  • I’m generally a big fan of Apple’s fetish for minimalism, but it really hurts them on mice and keyboards.  I can’t use their mice at all, and this is my keyboard on my desktop.
  • Actually saw one of the $17,000 Apple Watches in person for the first time, and walked away surprised by the fact that I actually prefer the look of my $250 Pebble Time Steel.  The leather on the Apple Watch actually looks kinda chintzy, and the gold is way too shiny for my tastes.
  • Speaking of surprising things, walking past a Mennonite woman piloting an electronic wheelchair via an app on her iPhone was my moment of Zen for the day.
  • Hit the grocery on the way home.
  • Since getting home, I’ve applied for a job and done some light cleaning.  I’m making dinner tonight, too.  Chorizo Mac and Cheese!

Tonight: Walking Dead!  Assuming, like, my son doesn’t jump at me from around a corner and put me in a coma or something.  I’m naming my disease Reverse Hulk Syndrome until someone comes up with something better.

DIE HUEY DIE

I know that unwelcome or unwanted thoughts are a symptom of a number of mental illnesses.  Does spending half the night begging Huey Lewis and the News to shut the fuck up about the power of love count?

Also, I could feel my heartbeat in my legs.

#WeekendCoffeeShare: Mostly Human edition

coffee2

If we were having coffee, I’d clue you in to a monumental development: last night I felt normal for the first time in two weeks.  That is not a minor thing.  This week I was reminded rather emphatically that my blood pressure medication includes a water pill, which I had completely forgotten about, and that it is sometimes possible to become rather badly dehydrated despite drinking water all the goddamn time.  The reminder was rather unpleasant.  My doctor used the phrase “perfect storm” to describe the wicked bout of dizziness and exhaustion that closed out my week, and it turns out that I need to start slamming a bottle of Gatorade as my first act of the morning until I run out of the current bottle of blood pressure medication, at which point they’ll yank the water pill part of the prescription.  Also, the Lexapro has been cut in half.

I’m out of sick days for the 2015-16 school year, by the way.  In October.  That’s… kind of a problem, but there are ways to get some of them back that I’m looking into.  Hopefully I won’t follow up two weeks of struggling with medication and anxiety issues with actually getting physically sick.  But hey!  I feel human.  Let’s focus on the positive, hmm?

I’m also kind of sick of talking about medication, so let’s hope this is the last time for a while.

This would be the point where I’d realize that drinking coffee is probably not the greatest idea, as coffee is a dessicant.  Waiter!  More Gatorade!


Book news: Searching for Malumba is out in just a few weeks, so I really ought to finish the damn thing.  As you might imagine, the last few weeks have not been good for any sort of creative work, and while the book mostly requires some fiddling around the edges– it’s 98% releasable in its current form without another touch–  I need to actually do that fiddling.  I’m hoping to be working on the print cover by tomorrow, which will mean the manuscript itself is ready by tonight.  Early commentary has been good, so if you enjoy my commentary on teaching around here, you may wish to pre-order.

There’s no #SilerSaturday this weekend, by the way, as I currently lack the time and energy to be a salesman all day.  However, my buddy James Wylder’s birthday is this weekend, and he’s put all his stuff up for free, so go download his books instead.

How’re you?