Tag: tired

Deep breath

On By Luther M. SilerIn life, TeachingLeave a comment

Just tossed a job application off into the void, likely to never be heard from again. It’s a moonshot; there’s a national search taking place and, well, that’s probably enough right there to not stress myself out about it. But fuck it, I’m definitely not gonna get it if I don’t apply, and the hour or so it took to update my resume and dash off a cover letter isn’t exactly a massive time investment. It took longer to find a copy of my resume that wasn’t a .pdf than it did to do the writing.

It was a long day today. We started the final round of ILEARN testing today, so <insert rant here> as you see fit, and then I had an interaction with a student at the end of the day that led to me genuinely wondering why I don’t just slap a motherfucker in the face once in a while. To be clear, I was thinking about doing the job application before that— I’ve been tossing it around for a couple of weeks, in fact— but hearing “I’ve been written up 600 times this year and nothing ever happens to me” definitely was a factor in pulling the trigger.

The number is 24, by the way, not 600, and considering that the kid has been absent for nearly eighty days this year (not counting suspensions) I think it’s fair that she does, in fact, have some experience interfacing with the office. I’ve done a good job letting this shit roll off my back this year; life is going to take care of this kid sooner or later, so it doesn’t have to be my job. I normally try to have a little more compassion with my kids, but this one wasn’t even one of my kids, just some random shithead in the hallway being a shithead, so to hell with her.

Anyway, I promised a book review today, which is going to have to wait until tomorrow, but if it helps any there may be a semi-irate in-progress video game review after that? I dunno, we’ll see.

Oops

On By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

I wasn’t intending to skip posting for the second night in a row (Wednesday doesn’t count, that shit was funny) but I got home and fell asleep in a chair and that was it for the night. Good news, though: I successfully went to a full day of work for five straight days this week! Unbelievably, this is the first time this has happened in 2026. There are twenty-eight days of school left.

Also, Caskey Russell’s The Door on the Sea is really damn good and I should write a full review of it. Maybe tomorrow? We’ll see.

Not tonight

On By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

Tonight was actually a really nice first day back, but in the way of every First Day of School, I have a sore throat; spending all day projecting my voice after over a week of talking 1) normally and 2) much less can be kind of brutal. I also don’t have a ton to talk about, so I’m just going to vaguely wave hello in everyone’s direction and go read a book or something.

(Actually, quick question: anyone familiar with Sentrel Bath Systems? If you are, mind dropping your thoughts on the product into comments?)

Wave goodbye

On By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

They took the precious away today, so I can no longer arbitrarily choose to throw away any object I own. It’s very sad for all of us. There has been a distinct slowdown in the pace of work around the house today, very likely due to both of us finally and thoroughly running out of steam. I did manage a couple of projects, though: I cleared all of the books from my Chicago classroom library out of the basement, some to the dumpster and some to donation and a small number that will be brought to my classroom on Monday. And we put this together:

Bek got some touch-up painting done in the bedroom, too. We still have baseboard to deal with, plus making the garage usable again (mostly an organization/putting everything away project; that cabinet is currently empty) and installing a couple of things in the basement, plus restoring the basement to its former glory as a mostly-unused workout room. The bedroom’s not quite 100% yet either. It’s 5:30 right now; we had an appointment at 3:00 that took an hour and a half or so; I’m hoping that one of those projects gets done by the end of the day. Just one more today will be enough.

Maybe one more update tomorrow. I have a couple of reviews I’ve been sitting on that need to get written, and sooner or later I’m going to have to admit that I’m going back to work in a few days. For right now, the PS5 is calling for the first time in a little while, and I’m going to answer it.

In which it happened again

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching1 Comment

Yet another Goddamned snow day today, an asynchronous one at least, but my schedule for the next couple of weeks is tight enough as is and I can’t do new instruction on asynchronous days. So today involved a lot of keeping an eye on my email and Nioh 3. This also means that unless next week’s planned teacher inservice day gets cancelled, I’ll go until at least the second week of March without a five-day week. That’s got to be a record, at least during my career. Covid doesn’t count.

As far as I know, there’s no precipitation predicted for tomorrow at all, so hopefully I’ll get to go to work like a big boy. What did you do today?

In which the plan failed

On By Luther M. SilerIn ReadingLeave a comment

I sat down at about 6:45 intending to read until 8:00 and then write a blog post, and before 7:00 was nodding away in my chair. This book I’m reading isn’t a bad book by any means, and in fact has some really strong aspects to it, but my God is it not catching my attention. That’s probably a me thing and not a book thing, but I think it’s gonna lead to a DNF anyway. The good thing about books is if you leave them on the shelf they stay there; they can always be picked up again later. I’ve gotten up and done some minor things and I’m still half-asleep, so unless this cup of tea I brewed wakes me back up (and the caffeine level in white tea is pretty minimal) the new plan is to go to bed early tonight and not worry about the rest of the world.

If the tea wakes me up, maybe I’ll throw some more Nioh 3 in there before bedtime. Which will probably lead to being up until midnight. Ah, inconsistency, what would I do without you?

I suppose it was inevitable

On By Luther M. SilerIn life1 Comment

The boy wasn’t feeling well today, so we both got to stay home since my wife is out of town until Friday morning(*), and … blech. I tend to spend all day gaslighting myself when I’m home because I’m sick, and when I am absolutely not sick at all and home anyway the feeling is powerful indeed. Like, I’m union; I get family sick days and frankly no one gets to challenge me on my sick days one way or another anyway. But I’ve spent all day being twitchy and nervous for no goddamn reason at all.

I, uh, don’t really have anything other than that. Today didn’t suck nearly as hard as the rest of the week has but that’s not exactly a difficult bar to clear. Hopefully I can get through tomorrow without any illnesses, car accidents or people getting shot. We’ll see.

(*) Because my schedule means I leave before he gets out of bed, and because my wife has a job where she can work from home effectively any time she wants at the drop of a hat, she is nearly always the one who stays home. Not because hurr durr sick kid is Mom’s job.

I hate to do this two nights in a row

On By Luther M. SilerIn lifeLeave a comment

… but guess what I had to buy four of on no notice tonight?

The good news: turns out I can afford a sudden low-four-figure emergency! Which doesn’t mean that I want to spend that kind of money, or that it doesn’t toss me into a shitty mood for the rest of the night, especially when it takes just over an hour to get the new tires installed. And especially especially when I can feel my stomach lining eating itself while I’m waiting, which leads to a 3500-calorie Burger King dinner, and I think I’ve already eaten enough in January and February to last me until March.

And it’s going to end up being three nights in a row, too, because tomorrow after school I have my weird little gay kids club and then after that I have TRIVIA NIGHT for probably longer than I think. I haven’t done TRIVIA NIGHT in a while but feel free to read this and this to find out how the last one went.