vw - congrats on the bio grade. That is great news.

wanna hop on im?

Sure. Actually, I am. I think.

Aaaawww, man, Daniel, you of all people weren't supposed to come up with something even worse than my current tale of unprofessionally dressed woe. You didn't even say The Word, you referred to its past usage. I'm so sorry!!! (shake fist at Universe). Hope you find this is actionable and payable too.

I fear I am equally petty. My first thought was, "Ooh. Painful. Good."

Sorry, me too. Let's see ya manage without the support, you... you... you wretched Journey fan!! (very rude raspberry)

you know - there is wierd shit in the world of work.

I taught DH to make grill cheese sandwiches today. There are odd gaps in his cullinary rep.

I want to have a clean house. Some how in this dark dank weather I can n ot motivate to clean. ( is that even a sentence? )

Good grief, Daniel. What the hell is WITH these unfestive firing bastards? I'm so very sorry to hear about this.

(I have to add my own utter astonishment that Brazil nuts were ever referred to as Nigger Toes*, though. If that's what I'm understanding the Bad Name to be. WTFF?)

*If anyone is offended by me citing this, rather than being euphemistic, please say and I'll delete; I'm not a big fan of euphemisms or asterisks in the place of offensive language, and I hope it's clear from the context that this isn't me condoning the word.

Death with Sythe (sic) is my favourite, but they're all smashing, Hec.

On the subject of unseasonal behaviour from employers - apparently I've lost my (next year) job because (a) a prospective parent said she would not send her child to the school if the 3 of us who used to work at The Evil School were there and because (b) my current Head, when approached about my professionalism, said that there were "ongoing concerns about my attitude and performance."

What the blazes said concerns might be, I have literally no idea. I asked the Assistant Principle, and he had no idea either - he said it was her decision, and I should speak to her. I said that I didn't feel that was going to be constructive at this point (really don't want to be unprofessional/undignified/tearful in front of her - point of pride as much as anything, but also I can see her polarizing the situation even further) and that I just wanted to get some idea of what it is that I'm doing wrong, so that I can target these things for improvement. She's not flagged anything to me, you see, so this was right out of left field - all I've had have been positive comments from co-workers so far.

This year I made my own Christmas cards. 40 different designs lovingly handcrafted from wrapping paper and calendars and glitter glue and holographic paper and tippex. I spent yesterday (last day of school) writing them, and then went around and delivered them to all the staff in the elementary dept. And I have to say, it cheered me up. I did consider NOT giving a card to the Principle, given that she's just got my ass fired, but decided that this would be needlessly petty. I did fleetingly consider giving her the one with Arabic calligraphy that translates as "be good to people", but decided that this would be just as petty. So she got a very nice card, with a nice message inside wishing her a merry christmas and a happy and prosperous new year. And you know, I'm really glad I did that. And later she made a point of coming up and thanking me for including her, and said how beautiful it was. This made me feel happy - so much better than carrying around tearful resentment. And hopefully this leaves things on a pleasant note, and means that when I do gird my loins to go and speak to her in the New Year, it will be a constructive meeting. I want to know what she thinks my flaws are so I can work on fixing them and being a better teacher, and I want to feel confident that she'll give me a good reference - having a bad relationship with her is NOT on my list of things I want for Christmas.

Er. All of which is very mememe, isn't it? Sorry. All I meant to say was "Hurrah! I'm back in Yorkshire with my parents! Ho ho ho and Merry (nearly) Christmas!"

Your current head should have brought things up with you a long time ago, and should make it a point to talk with a new teacher anyway. the first ... well, that's politics and there isn't much you can do about that. ( except you left the evil school because it was evil. so it doesn't make sense). but happy to hear you are safe home , Fay.

Hell yes.

...it's Principal, isn't it? Obviously. My school doesn't have any principles.

Also?

I really want to see Wicked. Lots. In the interim I'd settle for the soundtrack. (And ruby slippers. I crave ruby slippers...)

Fay, have you been sucking down Fay Jazz songs from Buffistarawk?

I put them there for you. Plus there's a lot of xmas music up right now.

Death with Sythe (sic) is my favourite, but they're all smashing, Hec.

It's fun seeing him draw again, even if it's just cartoony stuff.

It always amazes me when adults, in management situations, don't listen to all sides of a story. I think, shouldn't they, out of fairness? But instead they avoid confrontation and take the side of who told a story first. Boggles.

{{Daniel}} & {{Fay}}

I am utterly wroth on both your behalfs. It sounds like both of you got incredibly raw deals, and in each case management actually sitting down and talking with you for half an hour would probably have resolved everything. Like Sparky, I'm totally boggled that they apparently just leapt from "Staffer X has a problem with Staffer Y" to "Fire!" without anything in between, any contact, any meeting, any warning, any anything.

Of course, I work for a university with an incredibly arcane and cryptic hiring and firing process that makes it very difficult to bring new staff in from the outside world and nearly impossible to fire anyone who's actually made it in; short of acts of violence, there's almost nothing that can get you summarily fired from this place.

Hell, we even had one person in our division who had a psychotic episode in the middle of the work week and started barraging the department chair with emails explaining that God was lining up on her side and against her supervisor, so everyone beware, and she got a week's sick leave to try to pull herself together and then was allowed to resign without anything negative in her work record.

And you two? No craziness. No malice. No malingering; just kindness and professionalism and what kind of crack are these people on?