Gram's going back to the hospital. She's dehydrated and her fever's up. They're hopeful that hydrating her and getting her fever down will be relatively easy.

I wish her a quick recovery, K. I know it must be very hard for you to be so far away.

Is she a co-worker?

Not exactly. She's my math coach. She's got a million things to do, which I absolutely get (she works at several different schools in the area, and with all the math teachers at our school when she's there) -- I'm just very bad with the self-promotion, particularly offering up the self-promotion for editing. Or something.

Wow, Vortex, thanks! I've been thinking out the basics, based on things she's said to me. She does think I've grown a lot over the past year (my first teaching), my lesson design and management have improved, I've gotten a lot of practice working with English Language Learners and adapting my instruction to make it accessible for them, and I've been working with a particularly difficult population (her words, not mine) in terms of language and achievement. She did say she thinks it's unfair that they stuck the brand new (and non-Spanish-speaking) teacher with the low-performing, high-ELL-percentage classes.

Anyway, I'm looking for high school jobs for next year, still teaching math, ideally at a school without as many discipline problems.

Most of that is just thinking out loud. Across-the-hall!Teacher also said she'd help me with it, she's just out of town today. I'm going to need to pin down the principal and force SOME kind of letter of reference out of him -- he said he'd give me one at the end of the year (with the not-so-subtle "so long as you're good" implied, I think), but I need one now. God, I hate this whole thing.

Hey, what a great job I just did of wasting time, huh? Off to do my laundry, grade, and watch "The Scarlet Pimpernel" with Across-the-hall!Teacher's dog. She's worried he'll get lonely.

~ma for K's gram.

We use All Free and Clear, because we all have ridiculously sensitive skin.

I've heard on the diaper boards that they started putting optical brighteners in it, which retards absorbancy.

It used to be a diaper board favorite, too.

Much health ma for your Grams, Kristin.

Health~ma for Kristin's Gram.

I've heard on the diaper boards that they started putting optical brighteners in it, which retards absorbancy.

I wondered why you were avoiding optical brighteners. I didn't want to ask and find out they caused elbow cancer or anything though, because even some other Free & Clear detergents (like Wisk) seem to irritate us, ditto the concentrated kind of All Free & Clear. Our skin is akin to the princess who slept on the pea.

How about Dreft? Is Dreft still good for baby clothes.

I'm glad she's back at the hospital. My mom was running ragged, and now the hydration can happen via IV rather than Mom trying to coax liquids down Gram's throat.

Mom is pretty upbeat now that Gram's back to the ER. She feels like this will allow the fever to break, and I suspect she's right. Her older brother is coming down from NH tomorrow, so she'll have some sibling support. Assuming nothing gets drastically worse, I think we'll be okay. Continued Buffista ~ma is always helpful, though.

Poor gram. I'm so sorry, Kristin. I'm glad your mom is getting some relief, though.