A LONG DAY, VERY LONG

Mondays always seem long. I volunteer with my first graders, rush home at noon to eat and change clothes, and then off to the county building to marry couples. I leave at 8:40 and get home any time between 4:30,and 6:00. I know other people have as long or longer days, but they are getting paid. I am Volunteering. That means every Monday I go into the hole $7:00 just for parking.

Today was hard. My lovely teacher Amy was out today and we had a sub. She is a good sub, she follows what the teacher puts down, she tries to keep discipline, and she is teaching, not just showing up. But this class is hard, they have problems, they are immature, they are trouble. Even Amy somtimes has a hard time keeping control. There was talking out, chairs falling over with children in them ( that became a game), and there was the howler.

We had a child who was upset his Mother didn't hug and kiss him goodbye this morning. So he cried, whined, howled, tried to throw up, sobbed, carried on loudly for the entire morning. I longed for the days when you could hit students and give them a reason to cry. He was sent back to the room from Music class, they couldn't sing if he howled. The principal took him to the office to try to calm him down. He liked that too much and wanted to spend the day there. So he howled and carried on some more, no tears just disruption of the class. I took him back to the office and they refused him. We sat him in the hall and left him. He came back sniffling and acting put up on, again I just wanted to smack him up the side of the head. He finally calmed down but he had pretty much ruined the morning for me, the sub, and the rest of the class.

Then I went to marry couples. This is my happy volunteer job. I love to marry couples. But as I said, I have no endings. Lots of stories today, who knows how they turn out. My first couple were gigglers. They were so nervous, the bride giggled, then started laughing out loud, then the groom lost it, and then the witnesses were laughing. After they were married, the bride cried.

I took the license into the marriage desk to have it recorded. The clerk was on the phone. She was trying to find out when a couple was married. Their license said they were married on 11-11-08 which would be tomorrow. The bride said they were married on 10-11-08, (the license was not sold to them until 10-30-08) then she said on 11-05-08. Can you say doesn't make sense? The couple later came in and it still didn't make sense, the minister had put tomorrow as the wedding date. They couldn't speak much English and we couldn't get a straight story out of them. So a license amendment was mailed to the minister asking when the wedding was. This one I might get an ending.

I did a Hispanic wedding and the groom's first name was Williams, not a Hispanic name. I called the name and 2 men answered. I then went to the brides name and eliminated one couple. Two wedding later I get the license and there is the name Williams again. A Hispanic couple, but not a Hispanic name. Neither of these men were born in the USA, but had very American names. Why?

The last wedding of the day was fun. The groom had on a tee shirt that said The Groom, Dead man walking. The Bride's tee shirt said The Bride aka the executioner. There were four men with them. They were very polite and called me mam. I am 90% sure they were military, the military are always so polite and say mam. But I didn't ask, not my right. This was a joyous wedding, The guests were thrilled as was the couple. It was a nice way to end the day.