I’m feeling better now, thank you.
Although I still have a simmering sensation in my throat, I’m definitely above craptastic.  That’s a perk.

Class ended as well.
Do you remember how you would stress out about finals when you were in school?
You’d worry, maybe become anxious, and stress?   Well, that’s how it is for adjuncts all the time, especially during the last two weeks of class.

It’s not uncommon for some of my rank and fold to beg and plead with students to turn in missing assignments, no matter how overdue they are.  We close our collective eyes and bend the rubric just enough to the student passes.   Collectively, we continue to work, somehow.    Good enough to be contracted, but not good enough to be hired – even after six years.

The last two weeks of every term are an adjunct’s final ‘week.’  How many students who pass are our grade.
It’s pathetic.

Until the winds shift the other way and a grade is curbed for Jason and other students.  There are actually people out there who work for a grade – rare as they are – and legitimate reasons – like a crappy instructor – keep students from advancing.

The whole system is just tear-jerkingly broken with no hopes of being fixed.  Allowing everyone a free two to four years of college would break the adjunct’s back.  I can already feel the pressure of passing everyone for easy government money under the banner that ‘everyone is a winner’ and ‘they’re special.’

People are special, but college isn’t for everyone.  At least right now, students have to jump through a couple of hoops that impresses upon them that they want to be there.   Free handouts won’t work.   Starbucks kind of tried that with a store ‘pay what you have’ and no one paid cause it was free.   Duh.

Anyways, I’m a free woman till next Tuesday.
Well, sort of free.  Next term is 102 – which means that I get a helper.   Enter Amy, who has thoroughly not impressed me with fragmented sentences in our two emails, but I got to keep in mind —   She could be like me when I was bat-shit crazy with all of those classes and colleges.

Show grace.

Little sister was fired from Culvers.
That was really kind of a blow.   She’d been there for eleven or so years.   Worked her way up from a prep cook to a manager and even general manager in all but pay.   She pretty much ruled, especially after the business changed hands from one guy to another.   She helped provide stability for the switch so it’d be successful.   There’s really not a price someone can put on that.

There are two reasons, that I know of, that caused her to leave.  But, that doesn’t matter.   She’s not taking a break.  A day after it happened, she visited temp agencies and started lining up interviews from various restaurants.

We’re workers, my siblings and me, through and through.  I think our work helps define who we are — which isn’t all that great in my case since ethics is frequently compromised.  But, I think there are less and less people like us out there.  We work hard and maybe that’s why there’s the generation who feels entitlement.

Truthfully, I guess we could say that entitlement was a reason why Jason and I didn’t have a child.   We wanted to provide that child a better future then we had.   We wanted a stable financial situation and firm parental relationship — something that neither one of us really had.  We wanted the child to be entitled to things that we didn’t have.

Anyways.

Today, I’m supposed to go to the gym with my recently divorced from work little sister.   Supposed to go see How to Train Your Dragon III.   I vaguely remember the first one and totally missed the second one, but I’m not paying for the ticket.

Friday is an eye doctor appointment and gym with her – most likely.

Saturday is baby brother.  It’s supposed to be a really wet weekend, so I don’t think we’re going to go digital monster hunting that much.

Sunday… is kind of up in the air.

—  That’s another thing about baby sister – her spending habits.  She was pretty secure in her job and was making, from what I was told, about $17 an hour.  She lives at home, doesn’t pay rent, and doesn’t have a car payment.   Her spending habits are a bit…  helter skelter sometimes.  Extravagant in some cases.   Really wasteful in others.

That’s where I come in.  Miss Coupon Clipper, but I have to rein that in.  I know my attitude will just piss her off.    I just have to be really careful about how I inject my concerns.   I also got to keep in mind that she’s well over 30.   She’s a big girl and may not need a nagging big sister right now.

Peace –