Fred made me a page on his domain to post writings. (After a long conversation with myself, I've come to the conclusion he did this so I'd be guilted into finishing something, knowing that deep down I can't display anything for public consumption without it being somewhat completed first. I had to admit it's quite brilliant. Which, unfortunatly, forced me to put up my Louieville Slugger.) I was terribly flattered that he thought my writing was good enough to host on his site, especally since I find myself lucky when I remember how to spell schedule correctly. I threw up a layout that I made using a picture of a lovely orange armchair that was left alone in the middle of someones grassy feild. (I'm 100% certain the color of that armchair was the reason it was abandoned, but maybe it smelled like cat urine, I just took the picture, I wasn't crazy enough to take the chair itself. I've never understood the draw of taking things people leave abanoned, and I hope I never do.) I named the site "The Abandoned Armchair" for lack of anything better (plus, it fit...who am I to argue with my strung out crack-head of a muse?) and now I just have to put content up.


Here we find ourselves dangling over the side of a bridge. I haven't written since NaNoWriMo, in fact, I never finished NaNoWriMo. I'm a fraud. A lazy fraud. A big lazy fraud. I should be ashamed (shame on me) and I really need to finish some of the things I've started because they're not all trash. Maybe not the great American novel, but not trash. I hope.


I drag myself out of bed at 5 am every morning so I can have a few minutes to myself in which I can write. I get about an hour a day to myself (that's not counting sleep time, because technicly I'm not awake with myself, I'm being rude and sleeping) so I tried to fit some time in where I can write. The problem is, is I don't. In fact, most of the time for the last couple weeks, I've done something terrible.


I've slept.


Yeah, I admit it. I'm one of those people who reset their alarm to 30 minutes later then they really want after it's gone off so they can have a few more minutes of sleep.


It's naughty, but I love it. I feel rotton though because, even though I need the sleep, I also need to spend some time doing something for myself. So, tomorrow I'm actually going to make myself get up and write something. Honest.


In other interesting news, Jackie (our used-to-be sister childcare provider, now just beloved foul-mouthed friend) has a client who's in the Army Reserves who was shipped off without any prior notice or information today. I don't know where he's going or why (although my smart side has it's little suspisions. ) I thought it would be fun to share that little bit of fluff.


While I'm in the mood for sharing, I was asked again today if I would run a children's class for the H.O.M.E Center. I said I would, but only because I'll be compensated for my time. There is just no way I can put more hours a month into another project for other people and not get reembersed for my time. So, I'm now (once again) in charge of the 5 and under (I'm assuming that's where the cut off will be) class on the weekends. They gave me total control (which, as you should all know, is a very unwise thing to do) and so now I've got to think of some kind of somewhere for this class to go.


Yay..more work.


I'm kind of leary about it, though. I don't want to have people think I'm stepping on toes or anything, especially since the other older children's class just got kicked out of the room they were in because of LKP. (Erm...oops..lol) See, until the building LKP is leasing is finished, we're leasing the entire East wing of the upstairs from the H.O.M.E Center. H.O.M.E is sort of like a community center and some other things all rolled into one. They rent out all of their rooms for classes and everything, so there is always someone using or needing a room. The part of the building we're in (which is almost self contained...all it's missing is a private entrance.) used to be for another program that was run by Mary. Mary used to teach Preschool, so she (so sweetly) gave us her room to use for our school, and moved into a room the other side of the buidling. Well that room was used for H.O.M.E's children's classes (confused yet?) so they were stuck without a room. So, LKP said we'd share our room with them, since they'd only use it for an hour on Sundays (and once the week is over, we normally don't go back up there anyway, except to clean or drop stuff off or change walls or...ok, we're there all the time, but we don't teach on the weekends) and they moved their stuff in (They have a TV and some movie racks that are just covered and off limits during school and they put some stuff in our storage closet).


Well, everything was good until we opened, then problems started. Since we signed a contract saying we are liabel for any damage done because of our business and that we're responsible for everything we bring in, we had to set some ground rules. Have you ever been inside a preschool? It's a mixture of Toys 'R' Us, Michael's Craft Store and any learning product store you can find. There is stuff everywhere, all over the walls, all over the centers, and all over shelves in our storage room. All this stuff is a huge temptation, so we had to start putting everything from our centers and shelves and put them away in the storage room, and lock the room. Well, the kids in the children's classes were used to being able to get into any closet or room they want or take whatever they want out. There was no way we can let them do that, because it would just be a disaster, so we opened the closet in the morning and closed it when they got stuff out.


To make a long story short, it made alot of people mad. They thought they should be able to get into whatever they wanted. The kids weren't supervised, so every time I went up there after class there was stuff everywhere, and things moved, furniture drawn on, wall stuff drawn on, walls drawn on...clogged toilets...broken stuff...missing stuff...


::sigh::


Plus, the whole putting away of every center (we have 16, and are adding two more) ment that I tacked 10 hours of work onto my week just in putting center stuff back out in the centers. It's crappy, and it makes for a hard job.


Well, the teachers of the children's class got mad, complained to Jay, so Jay moved them into Joe's room. (Joe is a massage therapist who has a room directly down the balcony from us.) I have to be honest and say I'm glad they moved because it means I can keep the centers out and won't have to worry about damage not done by us (yay!) but I feel bad because people are upset (they said we said they couldn't touch our stuff, we didn't, we said we didn't want the kids in the closet and left unsupervised with our stuff) and poor Joe has to share his room.


Guilt...


But, we pay rent for our space, and we have to have a certain look and process. There is no way our business can be taken seriously if our space is shared with a bunch of other people and dosen't look dedicated to the class. We have enough problems trying to make it clear we're not affiliated with the Center other then leasing the space. (There is nothing wrong with the Center, LKP just isn't affiliaed with it. Dosen't mean the staff can't be.) Oh well.


Now I'm off to make feild trip release forms for Friday, notices about our Valentine's Day party next Friday and finish the website.


Whee.