What a Day...

You know those days. The ones that seem to never end, but go by in a flash all at the same time? That was my yesterday. It wasn't all bad - there were good points - but the crazy just seems to have outweighed the good.

Seminary was good. I moved a few kids around to allow for better participation in class. I have a sleeper (one who can sleep sitting up in class) and a wiggler (one who needs redirection). I think moving them a little closer to me helped. A soft touch on the arm easily refocused and woke up my two new neighbors.

I attended the first Booster Club meeting and met some great women. I also signed up to chair the Booster Club, which is essentially the PTA presence at the High School. It is more of a coordinator role. There are several subcommittee chairs that handle the hard stuff. Someone heads up athletics, academics, aquatics, concessions, merchandising, etc. I just coordinate them, their budgets and sit as the Booster Club rep on the PTA board. I am looking forward to getting to know more of the parents and teachers around campus. I am a firm believer that involvement directly correlates to a student's success.

Anyway - so far so good.

Then I went to the school cashier.

I needed to pay for Alex's swim team. It costs 5UF. UFs are some kind of currency that doesn't fluctuate or something - I don't know. It just seems confusing. We're in Chile - ask for pesos. Annoying. So 5UF is actually $112.797CP (yesterday), so about $230USD. Which is fine. We pay sports fees in that realm all the time in the US. But for some reason, when I am spending $60,000USD a year for a school, you'd think they would allow your kid to be on the swim team for a little less than that. You'd also think that at this $60,000USD ENGLISH speaking school, that they would require their MAIN STAFF to speak english. I don't care if the gardner or lunch lady isn't fluent, but the cashier - should be required to speak at least some english.

Well, she's not. And she doesn't. And she closes at 3:00 - regardless if people are in line. Keep in mind, the dismissal bell doesn't ring until 3:10. So she closes BEFORE school gets out. Really?

Monday, I attempted to pay this 5UF bill. I stood in line (3 people in front of me) only to have her close the curtain on all three of us. We were all astonished. We couldn't believe it.

So day 2, I went after my meeting and got in line at 2:00 - plenty of time. As I stood in line, I realized that there was an Asian woman in line, translating into spanish for an english speaking woman. It is at this point, I think that this cashier's english must not be very good. After a lengthy transaction, they finish up and the woman in front of me gets to the window. Only she's not there to use the cashier services - oh no - she's there to personally purchase something from the woman who works as the cashier! So the cashier comes out, they look over these skirts that look like bottom half of a chicken costume and talk and laugh and talk and laugh (repeat, repeat, repeat). FINALLY, the lady pulls out cash and pays the cashier. They talk some more and then the cashier goes back to her little office with the window.

I've now been standing here for 20 minutes. In line. Annoying.

I get to the window and realize that this woman speaks NOT A SINGLE WORD of english. Nada. So through sign language and pointing at the calculator, she informs me of my total. I give her cash, she gives me a receipt and then motions to me about some paper she has in her hand. She then leaves the office. I'm standing there all "what the heck?" am I done, do I wait? I was told I would be given a card that I would need to laminate and have Alex show the guard. Only because of this do I wait. 5 minutes later she comes back with my card signed by some wizard behind the curtain.

My plan to run to the grocery store before coming back to get the kids is shot. It's now 2:45 and I have to sit and wait in the car until 3:10 to get the kids. Great.

So I decide to go to the store with Andrew while Alex is at his 3D printing club meeting. All is fine and dandy until I get to the checkout. Where I can't get my card to work. I felt blessed to be rescued by an english speaking woman in the lane next to me. She helped me understand what was going wrong. Apparently, my card didn't work. I tried another one - and we were all good. [I was trying to use the wrong card all along] Andrew was humiliated and not very happy by the time I left. I was relieved to have finally figured it out and to be able to walk away with my groceries.

We gathered Alex, unloaded groceries and I made dinner. Greg got home in time to eat and then we left. We had a high school open house last night. Greg took Andrew's schedule and I took Alex's and we went from class - to class (all 8 in 2 hours) all over this crazy campus. We got home at 9:30 to find kids on video games, dinner still out on the table and no showers. I was livid. Not only had we discovered that kids had tests around the corner and in the past day or so that they didn't tell us about (and didn't study for) but also that they should be doing waaaay more than they currently are.

We had a sit down with each kid and in his tiredness, we had one that got very lippy. "Why do my priorities have to match yours?"

You know that silent prayer that you say when you're ready to fly off the couch and lay into your teenager? Yeah, I said one of those. He's tired. He's tired. He's tired. I kept telling myself. But I'm tired and irritated and my patience is gone! I felt like throwing just as big of a fit as he was...

And I still have to prepare my seminary lesson for 6am tomorrow. Man I tell you, when my alarm went off at 5am - I felt like a character in the movie "Ground Hog". Really? Again?

I know my today will be crazy-cray. Soccer game an hour away, swim team, 2 hours of Spanish tutoring, homework...  I have to take a minute and use this time today to prepare for that and try to make it as smooth as possible. Prep dinner as much as possible. Get bags packed, snacks prepared, clothes set out. Preparing for the storm...

Or I could just take a nap. A nap sounds really good...