Theta

We're gonna turn this into the best sorority house in school! ~ Janey (Sorority House Massacre II)

In college I was in a sorority called Kappa Alpha Theta. I had never originally planned on being Greek. I didn't want to go through Rush and pretty much thought the whole thing was ridiculous. As it turned out, I got to know some girls in Theta and was offered a bid without having to go through the ordeal of Rush. I liked the house and felt I belonged there. In no way did it resemble the stereotypical image of sorority life that I had in my head. Long story made really short (can you believe it?!)....our charter was revoked. The sisters living in the house were booted out mid-semester. It sucked. Many of us had varying opinions about the situation. I am now a part of the chapter's Yahoo Group. I get emails of the messages posted there and read them...most of the time not really knowing the girls posting. Last October when I went to Chapel Hill, Carolina brought it to my attention that the house (which was rather ugly anyway) was no longer there. Indeed, it had been destroyed. When I was in Chapel Hill in January, it was obvious that something was going up on the land. Recently, a discussion was started on the message board about the absence of the house. Yeah, I had posted in October, but nobody seemed to care back then. Whatever. The mention of the house brought about this huge discussion about recolonizing. It also led to numerous posts about how the closing of the chapter went down and why all of it happened. It sounds like there were some pretty shady things going on between different people at the national level....we were what people were using to get revenge on each other. Alumni of our chapter were never informed of our situation and were never told that we needed help. After all this time I still have mixed feelings about the whole sordid mess. I enjoyed my sisters. I hated recruiting new members knowing that the future of the house was hanging in the balance. All of the posts on the subject made many old feelings resurface. I finally posted after I received an email from Theta asking me to watch the attached video. The video encouraged me to "pay it forward" and help a sister and/or say how a sister helped me. Not only were they urging me to help a sister, they were also urging me to pay some kind of dues! I was appalled! I have responded negatively to prior emails of this nature (esp. if I have found them while inebriated), but never received anything in return. Over the course of the weekend, I sent this as my reply to their solicitation:

I will always Pay It Forward when it comes to
supporting the theta organization...just as they
showed their kindness and love to us at Delta Xi on
the UNC campus.  Watching my sisters be evicted
mid-semester as our house was closed down left a scar
in my heart.  I love my sisters but I cannot support
an organization that promises sisterly love for a
lifetime and then treats its sisters in such a harsh
and uncaring way.  I would not want one cent of mine
to be used to promote this organization that could
just as easily smash the emotions of another group of
fabulous women.  A sign was posted in our entry after
our charter was revoked.  It captured the real
motivation of Kappa Alpha Theta.  It simply said:
Kappa Alpha Theta loves money and numbers.  These
emails just solidify that motto.

This evening I received a response that said:  Here is another one.
The only thing I can figure is that my email has been forwarded to
someone.  I wonder what will happen!  Once again, no one
(except for one sister who responded to me via personal email)
has commented on the post I made on the Yahoo Group message board.
No, the portion that I pasted here is NOT what I said on the board. 
Nonetheless, I think I may have hurt some sisters' feelings who are
still loyal and highly involved in the organization.  I'm curious to
 see how this pans out.

Sloth

That destructive siren, sloth, is ever to be avoided. ~ Horace

Like hell it is! If I didn't embrace sloth-like behavior at times I would utterly lose my mind! Today has been the day of the sloth. It's my new Chinese New Year symbol. If there can be a Year of the Pig, there can certainly be the Day of the Sloth. Last weekend was an absolute whirlwind. I spent Saturday watching Daughter's basketball game, lunch at my brother's, and a trip to Ace Hardware & Food Lion. Sunday was devoted to preparing for the NERESA conference (out of all the presenters WE made the county article -yay for us!). The classroom we were in was in poor shape. The school is only in its 3rd year of operation and is by far in worse shape than ours although ours has been open for 5 years and has 5-11 year old children running about. It was really sad to see how poorly kept that school was. Architecturally it is beautiful: faux columns that lead to arched ceilings, wide halls. Our room looked like soda had exploded on the wall beneath the white board. EVERY floor tile had at least 50 indentations caused by the chairs. No one had bothered to clean the white board. They knew company was coming and didn't even clean! Over 700 people attended the event...people from our county as well as educators from several other counties. The teacher workroom was the saddest place of all. If I worked there, I would avoid it like the plague. The sink was filthy. There was no soap and only a few paper towels. Who leaves a place like this ESPECIALLY knowing all these other people were coming to see a school that is supposed to be a Taj Mahal?! Anyway, Luscious and I spent over two hours (did I mention that it takes me over an hour each way to get to this pigsty?!) preparing our room. We needed tables and had to BEG to get them. We even had to resort to using desks to put the rest of our crap on. We are anal in our planning and had fortunately stopped at the Dollar Tree to buy tablecloths to add that decorative touch to our materials (and doesn't it make all the difference?!). I had to rework the Power Point because the colors just didn't look the same through the projector. This wouldn't annoy some people, but it disturbed me to no end! I finally just had to deal with a color because NOTHING looked right. By the time we were done, our room looked good. By the time I got home, I felt rather crummy. I had had a few "dizzy" spells during the day. I don't know what it was from. All sorts of nasty illnesses have been circulating through the school. I wasn't sure if it was some kind of stomach ick or if my ears (yes, that is plural - I had my ears checked halfway through my course of decongestants and due to the cold I had contracted BOTH ears were now showing that they had fluid!!) were affecting my balance (as had been the case when I dealt with the infection). I took Son out to A's house (Hubby was taking Daughter to the dentist in VA while I presented) to spend the night. No need in waking him or anyone up early to suit our busy day. By the time I got home, I felt really dizzy. I went straight to bed. Was this my reason NOT to present? I knew Luscious would kill me in a slow and painful manner if I was not well enough to present. On Monday I awoke to decent health. No way out now! I practiced the whole way to Luscious's house (45 min. away)....I loathe speaking in front of adults and was incredibly nervous. People were already gathering in our room when we arrived! We had planned on me speaking and Luscious being the Vanna White, advancing the slides on the Power Point. At the last minute, a "clicker" showed up. Now that people were in the room we were kinda stuck with the original plan, but now there was no need for Luscious to sit at the computer at the back of the room. All in all, it went ok. We were told to plan for 25 and ended up with 33 so we didn't have enough materials. It definitely wasn't as bad as the MaEd presentation, but still not something I want to do again. The rest of the week was busy, too, but it wasn't as bad as the prior weeks with nothing short of 4 gazillion activities to stress about. Basketball is winding down. Daughter is really improving...taking more chances, being more aggressive, attempting shots (I hope she'll make one before the season ends). Her team was undefeated in regular season play (there are only 3 teams) and the tournament is next week. Last night there was a county Girl Scout function called Fight Like a Girl. Several women from the community (EMT worker, magistrate, fire fighters) came to tell the girls about their jobs. Then two other women came and taught the girls how to escape and fight in the case of an attempted abduction. It was scary hearing her talk, but incredible to watch these little girls (from kindergarten to 6th grade) practice escaping from these two scary women....none of the adults in the room attempted to grab either of them. They were taught how to scream and act like freaks to try to get free as well as how to hit an attacker with the back of their heads. The women told them how to bite the forearms of an attacker.....they even got to practice biting oranges. The women were extra rough with the bigger girls. I suppose because they are bigger (duh) and more likely to encounter some sort of pervert. The self confidence that emanated from the girls as they escaped these brutes was awesome. On the flip side, it's really sad that we have to teach our children these things. The instructor told the girls that they needed to have their parents practice attacking them twice a week. It all made sense. We teach our children all sorts of things: how to brush their teeth, dress themselves, etc. BUT we don't teach them how to help themselves in a life or death situation. It was a fabulous evening. Needless to say, I was absolutely exhausted after teaching all day, spending 4 hours with 50+ girls (who ultimately had to be watched closely b/c they were starting to practice on each other), and then cleaning up. I didn't get home until 9:30 last night. I go to pick up the cookies in about 10 minutes. That will be my next fun adventure. Needless to say, I think I deserved a bit of sloth-like behavior today. I have made sure I have done laundry. At least we'll have clean clothes even if the house looks like crap. I don't think occasional trips to Slothdom have ever killed anyone. Pooey on Horace.

My Space

Stupidity often saves a man from going mad. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

My Space. My Space. My Space. I hear about it on tv, among children, and even among adults. Wow. The things you can learn about people at that crazy site! I have seen former students rather drunk and practically naked. I have seen a colleague's child with a suspicious item in hand. It's dementedly amusing and difficult to pull away from once there. Well, I decided that I needed to jump on the My Space wagon myself. However, I created a horror. I used a picture that doesn't even reveal my face. I embedded a song riddled with profanity. I added a video I found on You Tube that sings a song about a chupacabra. I said that I was a chupacabra hunter. I have a purple llama that visitors can feed. I named her Tina the Fat Lard (from Napoleon Dynamite). I also took a survey that revealed what South Park character I am and posted the results because the picture is of Cartman from one of my favorite episodes (Scott Tenorman Must Die). The only thing "real" on the page is my education profile. Girlfriend said I shouldn't leave that stuff on there because people will think I am on crack. I think it's pretty funny. Then again, I have a pretty warped sense of humor at times. I HAVE thought about former students stumbling upon it.....I wonder if they'll think I'm as freaky as I think they are..............

Did I Bump My Head?!

Last night the creative juices were flowing but today I am merely a vast wasteland of random thoughts.
-- Peckeroy

I have been in "rush mode" since last Thursday! Girl Scout meeting on Friday. Daughter's game on Saturday. Daughter's Harriet Tubman paper and project. Attend a high school fund raiser with Daughter Sat. night. Son's valentines. Daughter's valentine box. Packing Daughter for her trip to Raleigh to represent the school at Legislative School Technology Day. GETTING AN UGLY COLD(not part of the plan, but totally expected with all the disease at school - I continue to sing the praises of Zicam! It is the bomb-diggity! Go for the nasal options - most of the other stuff tastes HORRIBLE). Son's last basketball game. Botching dinner plans for after the game (yes, another fine disaster wracking me with guilt). Daughter's oral report practice (by the way - she did an awesome job). More Girl Scouts (cooking and all). AND THE ABSOLUTE BEST: preparing a presentation for the Best Practices Conference our county is sponsoring. Why I ever agreed to this is beyond my realm of understanding. I abhor speaking in front of adults. I typically mock those who present at these things because it is so pretentious the way they speak so upbeat and giddy....quoting research and warm-fuzzy quotes (yes, I use quotes - but you KNOW that they aren't all warm & fuzzy....and, yes, I must admit that I have already found and inserted a cheesy quote into my Power Point) . What have I done?! In true anal fashion I have created two Power Points: one that will loop as the people foolish enough to enter our realm (our referring to Luscious and me) and one that we will use to drone on endlessly during our presentation. The second one, in addition to the cheesy quote, also has documented research to back our method. What is wrong with me?! Luscious and I stayed at school until after 7 to prepare our "stuff". First she helped with Girl Scouts b/c Clementine's son is sick. Then we helped Daughter get ready for the 4th-6th grade dance and snooped as the kids arrived. This seems to be some odd obsession we have. When her son went to his first prom we camped out across the street from the place and commented on all the clothes and activity as if we were hired by E! to critique the red carpet at some foo foo award ceremony. We have since joked about being Prom Stalkers. Even worse was that we both had our daughters with us. I am sure they will be worried about us doing this again for their proms (Luscious's daughter has already been to a prom without us stalking.....but we just might show up when we're least expected). Progressively sadder is the fact that we drank in the car while doing this and then convinced my daughter that the cops came and caught us (while she napped). Now we have resorted to spying on elementary students as they arrive to a dance in the gym. Forget those Desperate Housewives and Real Housewives of Orange County.....we've gottem beat: The Pathetic Moms of Dare County. Every now and then Luscious and I have to do something naughty that real criminals would snicker at. However, our little mischievous acts satisfy our need to "be up to no good". On Thursday two guys were in our pod at school installing these sweet new projectors that will allow us to project our computers onto our whiteboards. We will no longer need to reserve the computer lab to show our students anything on the computer. We noticed that some of the projectors were being positioned in such a way that they would not project onto our whiteboards. Instead, they would project onto our bulletin boards. This was not good...our bulletin boards are always decorated to reflect our latest theme....not set up to be projection screens. We told our Technology person who came down to check it out. The expert installer felt that we were wrong and offered to turn one on to show us (dumb women) just how it would work. Luscious carefully watched him hook up temporary power to the projector (the electrician will eventually come to give it juice through the maze of wires in the ceiling) using an extension cord. It was hard not to crack a smile when he had to admit that he was wrong because part of the image projected onto the bulletin board and, try as he might, he could not get the image to appear solely on the whiteboard without moving the projector to a new area (causing him to have to go back and move each one he had already installed). In the course of all this Luscious also got the Tech person to show her how to get the computer to work with the projector. Can you see where this is leading? Last night in order to prepare for our impending presentation, Luscious decided we needed the projector. No, the computer screen would not suffice. We got the ladder out of the next classroom, got the extension cord, and hooked up the projector. This involved Luscious moving a ceiling tile and reaching up into the area above the ceiling. In true Luscious fashion, she wanted a Clorox wipe to wipe some filth. Neither her daughter nor I would get her one....wet wipe, electricity, $800 projector we're not authorized to use: not a good combo. We practiced the presentation and then her daughter...gee, have I "nicknamed" her yet?....I think Vera will be good for her! YAY!... went "screen shopping" (in the mall it would have been "window shopping"), projecting cute bags & stuff from the Vera Bradley site and cute dresses from American Eagle Outfitters on the board. My blog looked pretty sweet up there, too...especially the paper plate art...nothing like the big screen to enhance that mouth! There. That's it. The true tale of our criminal behavior. We're rebels. The car is now packed full of our presentation crap so we can go set it up tomorrow afternoon (an hour away). Monday morning we get to travel there again so we can present from 9:15 to 10 and then quickly break it down for the next group that presents in our room at 10:15. We'd be freaking out if we weren't presenting first because there is absolutely NO WAY we could set up our junk to our anal specifications in 15 minutes. I am still pondering why I agreed to this. I know I must have bumped my head. I think I will get to take a small breather after this....or at least I can try to fool myself into believing it.

Mish Mash

Dear Cameron Crazies,

You suck. ~ Matt Sullivan (Duke student)

Well the boys pulled off a win! It was too close for me, though. Daughter stayed up and watched with me...chanting anti-Duke cheers in time with the 'crazies' and begging me to turn off the sound so we wouldn't have to suffer through Dick. Yeah, I know how to bring up a child right!

Today I started a Flickr account and uploaded 30 pictures of the Basketball Weekend in Chapel Hill. I can be technologically challenged at times as well as impatient. These two characteristics have prompted me to give up for tonight. I really want to learn how to use this "tool" so I can upload more pictures. I have sent a desperate email to Hippie's Chick for assistance. If she doesn't get the email, maybe she'll at least check this out and mercifully send me some instructions.

Daughter is finally home from a field trip (yes, it's 10pm). I'm going to go see how her day was. G'night!

Further Comment

Miss Perky: Some people perceive you as somewhat...
Kat: Tempestuous?
Miss Perky: Heinous bitch is the term used most often. You may want to work on that.
~ 10 Things I Hate About You

1. My ear sucks. It is filled with fluid AGAIN....at least not infected. I am on Allegra D ($50?!) for two weeks and if it does not go away I get to experience life with Prednozone (sp?). I hear it makes one irritable. yay. Just what I need to enhance my life at work (sarcasm dripping!!!).

2. I SO BADLY MISS THE GIRLS I WORKED WITH FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS!!! Luscious is still there and I love working with her BUT I miss the others so much. I am forced to run my classroom as if I am a warden.... otherwise all hell breaks loose. I do not blame the kids. I know they think I am a tyrant, but if I attempt to have the least little bit of fun it turns into total chaos because Dukie doesn't know when to quit. I have spoken with her about not letting things get out of hand TO NO AVAIL!!! I feel I cannot leave her alone with the kids at all. I ran down the hall to photocopy something during SILENT reading today and came back to find her sitting in the rocking chair singing into the microphone. Was it silent anymore?! HELL NO! I cannot take much more of this before I blow! She told me that she is "trying" and that it isn't always her fault that things get out of hand. I told her that SHE is the adult. For goodness sake......these are 7 & 8 year old children she is with! Did I mention that this is not someone younger than me? This woman is in her 50's! I have probably written more than I should have...but I am at my breaking point. I typically have no "balls" when it comes to confronting people. Today I told her how difficult she made my job and to remember these instances when I had to evaluate her at the end of the year because situations like today were something I would have to mark her down for. Yes, I was so disgusted and angry that I was able to grow a pair. This is monumental for me. I still hate that I was forced to be that way. Is it June?!

Bitch and Moan

Bernadette: No, I'll join this converation on the proviso that we stop bitching about people talking about wigs, dresses, bust sizes, penises, drugs, night clubs, and bloody Abba!
Tick: Doesn't give us much to talk about then, does it?

Have you ever been in the mood to just bitch and moan about most everything? I think at the moment the only thing sacred is my family. I want to bitch about my job situation, my ear, coworkers, cold weather....and I'm sure I could go on and on. The only thing is that I am too tired to write it all and I don't know who might read it and tattle to those bitched about. I think I am going to put on my pj's and go watch the losers on Idol. BLAH!!!!!!!!