Free As A Bird

It is wonderful to have no after school obligations. For years, I juggled two young children and a full time job. I used to drop them at school in the morning, run to work and then fly home to pick them up. I was told I could qualify to be a Nascar driver in those days by my speed and my reckless turns left from the far most right lanes.


Those days are long gone and my college classes are over for the summer. I have time to talk to people after school. I have time to stay late on the spur of the moment. Last week I stayed for our sports challenge and not only provided needed help, I had a great time. Okay, my burger cooking was not exactly up to par (keeping a kosher home I know nothing about cheeseburgers and I usually leave all the grilling to my husband anyways) but the kids did not seem to mind.

Today was another good after school experience. I stayed late to help tally up the votes for our new chapter chairman. I had no idea what was involved until I actually partook of this process. First, we decided on which ballots would be acceptable and which ones would not. It is amazing how many educated people cannot follow the simple directions necessary to complete the ballot. Then we went through the ballots and made sure that everyone signed properly and that there was not more than one ballot per person. Thankfully we were an agreeable group and there were no arguments. Then we counted the ballots. After that, we opened them, first discarding the outer envelopes with names and then opening the inner envelopes and separating the papers into individual piles for each of the candidates. Then we made sure the piles were correct. We did this twice. We also counted twice before declaring a winner.

I'm happy to say that my choice was elected. I don't want to say much about him except that he is a congenial, bright man, with an open mind. He doesn't buy into the Unity propaganda but he is not naive enough to accept all the ICE issues either. He knows the contract and knows people in other schools to go to for help. He will defend and protect the rights of the union members and will still get along with the administration. He is articulate and writes extremely well. He also wears a tie every day and looks very nice in a suit. If it didn't have such a negative connotation, I would call him CC Suit. (Maybe I will call him that anyways. I'll ask him first to make sure he is not insulted by the name.) I am even considering having him appoint me as a delegate so I can get back involved with union issues.

As long as I can keep this pace and do what I love, retirement is really going on the back burner.