Rain=bad things

I know that we need the rain here, but does it have to be the kind where it just gets colder as the day goes on?  I’m certain that if we all could take a day off on days like today, it would be better for EVERYONE’S mental health.  It would be better for mine, anyway.

Today was a planning day at school.  This basically means that I am at the school, my class has a sub, and I am planning with the rest of the fifth grade team how the rest of the school year will look on paper.  It’s a nice sort of day, mainly, because I get to wear jeans and we go out to lunch for an hour.  Today we got a fair amount done; it looks like the Holy Terror of a student behaved (mostly).  Then again, I was in the room right next to my classroom and I reminded the kids of this when they all came in this morning.  The crappy thing about planning days is when you have extra people in the room.  They are meant to help and mainly they do, but sometimes these “helpful” people put up more roadblocks because they are not teaching full time in the classroom and they forgot what it can be like in the regular old classroom.  We had a big moment right before lunch like that and the four of us (teachers) finally just decided we needed to leave for lunch and secretly discuss what would REALLY happen in the classroom and what they would think was the plan.  Who knew teaching would be so damn difficult? (

The other bothersome thing today was that my car was fine on the way to school this morning (fine beyond the tune up I know I need, but can’t afford and was told could wait until after Christmas).  When I got in the car to come home something weird happened: it sounded like I was missing my muffler (having had this happen once I know what it sounds like), but the noise was coming from the front under part of the car.  This, of course, freaked me the hell out.  I turned off the radio, rolled down the window (even though 38 degree weather and cold rain was now coming in), and took a listen.  Sure enough, the noise was coming from the front and I IMMEDIATELY start to freak out.  I don’t have money to pay for repairs until December 21st.  Even then, I don’t have a ton of money to spend because that money has to last me until the end of January!  It also means that I will have no money to finish Christmas shopping (i.e. sending money to my brother to cover my half of my mom’s present, buy anything for the nieces and nephews or any one else in the family).  UGH!  I hate that cars just cause more problems in this world.  I swear I would use public transportation if there were a way near where I live, but there is not.  I wish I could carpool with someone, even!  That would be perfect.  Unfortunately everyone who lives remotely close to me would not want to be at school at 7:30 AM every day.  At any rate, I called my dad (always the genius move) to talk to him about the issue.  He seems to think this is not the tune up issue, but sounds more like something having to do with the exhaust system as it leaves the engine and heads back.  Great.  This sounds wonderful.  Dad assures me that it’s still “safe” to drive (as in won’t implode/explode/self destruct), but obviously needs to be fixed sooner as opposed to later.  *sigh* I swear, no money will get saved for this wedding with the way we’re starting.

The slightly good news would be that we still have a third car tucked away in the garage because Chris’s dad hasn’t come down to pick it up.  The problem with this car, though, is that the battery might be a bit iffy.  We’ve had to jump it several times.  Chris is convinced that if I drove the car every day, then the battery would be fine because it was fine before he got the Marquis.  Even if the battery is bad, that will be relatively cheap to replace.  Even still, despite its problems I do love my little car and I want to drive it rather than another car.  But I guess we do what we can.  It’s just too bad I don’t know someone EXTREMELY good with car repairs so I wouldn’t be spending eight gazillion dollars on repairs and labor.  Maybe in another lifetime I guess.