So, I went to my first union meeting last night. It was our chance to vote on the contract agreement that was reached between the classified union and management.
Dear God.
There are 2 things I’m certain of after going to the meeting.
1. This district needs new blood, like ASAP. Oh for the love. The room was populated with mostly overweight, 60 something women with scowls frozen on their face. These are the districts clerks, librarians, aides, secretaries. I know I have made fun of the district office staff, but they are the cream of this crop.
2. The union hierarchy hate, hate, hates management. I mean, they make no bones about it. There is open animosity between management and the union. Specifically the superintendent. I believe someone said he was “not a nice person” and he has “no scruples.” Ouch!
Now, granted, they have their reasons for thinking this way, but they only see him briefly – at meetings, for his visits to sites, etc. We at the D.O. see him every day, in numerous circumstances and scenarios. Is he a schmoozy slickster? Yeah, kinda. Picture the father on Frasier, a little younger, a little better looking and dressed well. Can he be kind of a dick at times? I guess. I’ve heard things. But to say he has no scruples, well that is a bit over the line to me.
Most of these women have been in the district for 30+ years. That is a long time. Maybe they never worked in the private sector, maybe they rarely leave this crunchy/rural/artsy/very unique community very much. I don’t know. I do know that it is so hard for me to bite my lip when they are aghast that a family still has to contribute 10% towards an almost $2000 monthly family policy that the district offers. They have no concept of how much people in the private sector pay for their policies. It’s truly staggering, their ignorance on this topic.
But anyway. That is that and not likely to change. I felt like a young whipper snapper in the room and god knows, at 42, I’m not young!
I went out to dinner for Mexican with about 10 employees and it was fun. Unfortunately, we all got sick during the night, so something was not good with the food. Even poor Steve (I brought him home a burrito) was not feeling well. I won’t be going back there anytime soon.
Tomorrow, there is a citywide garage sale and I really want join in. Of course, this is going to mean working my ass off tonight. Oy. And the kids will be wound and Sofia will want to play Mickey Mouse Yahtzee and the house will be trashed and Steve will be sitting at the computer and I’ll probably have one of my ever-increasing tantrums. I will just say that my house has never looked so freaking disgusting as it has the past 6 weeks. The combination of my working full time and the kids starting school over the hill (Steve not home as much as he stays over there until pick up time) is resulting in a very neglected household. I do come home at lunch, but have a half hour, just enough time to throw in a load of laundry, make beds, go to the bathroom and maybe make a quick sandwich.
At this point, I just feel like getting a big debris box and getting rid of everything. I won’t do that, but that is where I’m at mentally.
There is something very exciting about going back to a clean, new house. Clean slate and all. I’m trying to decide on paint colors. You would think that it was the biggest decision of the century by all the time I’m taking on it.
That’s all I’ve got today.
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