Summer on

--"Ignore Alien Orders", Joe Strummer, The Clash.

Gotta go to the store, so I'm copying an email update here:

This morning I applied for unemployment.
I should get about $800/month. Less than I thought, but next year I'll get more, if I'm still doing this. They base it on your yearly earnings, so they factor in the thrift store, which paid far less than I'm making at school.

But, hey! It's amazing I get ANYTHING.
Schools are desperate to keep SEAs (special ed assistants), so the State voted we get unemployment over the summer.
We're also getting a stepped raise---in the coming months it will go from near $24/hour to $26!
(That's $11 more than the store!!!)

And their plan works: it's good they pay so much because, you know what?
If it weren't for the pay,
I wouldn't stay.

I hate school.
I love the kids, but I hate being in prison with them.
I know I do Good (magic by stealth), and that matters a lot too, but it's awful to be in this Institution for Instilling Control and Compliance. And I hate how the adults I work with most closely enforce those things--often, it seems, without even questioning.
(Maybe if I were a teacher and ran my own classroom, I'd like it better, but as an assistant I am under alien orders.)

I figure I'll work a couple more years, if I can stand it, and then see what the landscape looks like when I'm 65 years old. (Not that I'd retire.)
I'm going to look around this summer and see if there's other well-paying work out there.
Ya never know...

I'm so happy to be volunteering at the thrift store this summer! I worked all day Saturday with my replacement, the young college student Amina.
She's off for a couple days for Eid al-Adha, and I hope to power through a lot of stuff. She's lovely, but she's rather scattered. She'll price a thing, set it down and wander off...
LOL

This is a confusing holiday to me. It celebrates Abraham's obedience in being willing to sacrifice Isaac--my most hated Biblical story
(it can be taken metaphorically--give your all for spiritual truth--I'm good with that--(like Jesus saying to hate your family!)--
but it usually shows up in religious society as meaning obedience and compliance to human Authority)--
but Amina tells me that it's a holiday to HAVE FUN---give gifts--be HAPPY!
She's going to spend it with family---was excitedly gathering gifts...

Maybe like Easter?---when Christians focus on the happy outcome.
So... yeah. Religion is a hoot.

I'm heading out in a few minutes, so all for now.