Still around.

Not that any of you were waiting on tenterhooks for my next post, but I am sorry I let my blogging lapse. Life has been overwhelming me these past couple of weeks. I work, I cry, I eat, I occasionally drag myself to the gym in an effort to get some endorphins going, I try to sleep but mostly lie awake, I sit around doing a lot of nothing, and that's about it.

I'm still driving my mother's car. My frenetic efforts to find a good deal on a reliable used car in a few days during Christmas break didn't pan out so well. There was one used Civic I drove that would have been my top choice if I'd absolutely had to get a car that day, but the price was a bit steep for the condition it was in. It was also at the top of my price range. So for now I've accepted my parents' insistence that I let them keep the Taurus and keep driving the Altima myself until I have time to save a little more and/or locate a really good deal.

There's more chaos at school. The superintendent, who also took over as acting head principal after our principal left in December, quit last week. Naturally, I first heard that this was going to happen from my seniors rather than from the school. After talking to other teachers who knew a little more than I did, it seemed very likely he'd be resigning at Tuesday's school board meeting. Tuesday morning the daily announcements included a notice about a faculty meeting Wednesday after school. There was no word at the meeting about the superintendent so I assumed the rumors had been in error and he was staying. (Surely they'd inform us if our superintendent had quit.) Then Friday I learned from my students that he had indeed resigned and is taking vacation days until he is officially done week after next. I guess the school assumes we either already know everything or just don't need to know.

According to the local paper, the superintendent left after conflict with the school board. He'd been placed in charge by the state three years ago after the board was dissolved because the district was deep in debt. Now we're doing okay financially and have a school board again, although we'll probably get taken back over by the state at the end of the year since we're failing so dramatically academically. Our superintendent seems to have gotten used to being an autocrat so he's been chafing under the authority of others. According to the local paper, when he resigned he said of the board, "They’re trying to operate the schools, and that’s the superintendent’s job."