The Crazy Summer Continues

Greetings from New Orleans!

Yes, I am in the "Big Easy" for 8 days while attending a conference. (For those of you familiar with the place...NO, I am not at the Essence Festival! - just for the record) I am at the National Education Association's annual Representative Assembly. I am a state delegate that gets to help mold and steer the direction of our wonderful organization. Starting tomorrow we will be in session for four straight days. It will start with our state caucuses at 7AM until aroudn 9:45 AM. Then we will all shuttle over to the convention center for the Representative Assembly meetings starting at 11 AM and running until around 6 PM each night. It is a long four days, but I love the democratic process that drives it all. It is also so awesome to see all these teachers together in a show of unity for education. Is it obvious I love it?

I wanted to take a few minutes and just update everyone on what has been going on. I have been so busy during the past month, that finding time to stop and blog is hard to do. I turned in early tonight, so I have some spare time.

On the go...as always!

For those of you who know me, you know that I never like to sit still for too long. June is definitely a month where I had little time to do that. In the past month I have trapsed across 8 states to attend a wedding, three workshops/conferences, a mini-vacation to our nation's capital, and whatever else I cannot remember. If I counted correctly, I spent (at most) around a week at home all of June. Whew!

Will I get time to rest before school starts back on August 4?

The answer...probably very little. I get home on July 7! When I return, I will have one week to rest. I then leave for a week to attend a state youth event in Western Tennessee. Since I am the chair of one state committee, and a member of another state committee, for this youth organization I find my time will be spent running around making sure the conference goes well for the 400 - 500 high schoolers attending. It is one of my favorite summer events, but at some point this marathon summer will kill me!

When I get home on July 18 from that excursion, I will resume my work as the president of our system's teacher union. I have got to organize and appoint committees, select school representatives, work with our membership committee to prepare for the membership drive, write a welcome back letter for the newsletter, and prepare my speech to the system on Opening Day. Whew!

For the record, this is a normal workload for me. I am most definitely a workhorse.

School does start back for teachers on August 2 and for students on August 4 in our district. It seems to get earlier and earlier every year. Oh well, at least we will be in the nice air-conditioned classroom instead of out in the smoltering heat for summer!


Personal Life

I laugh just typing that heading...WHAT PERSONAL LIFE?

As usual, my personal life tends to take a back seat to all my work. It's funny, Justin texted me the other day and asked "Will I ever get to see you again?" For the record, I just consider Justin a friend. I laughed and told him that if he wants to see me, he just might have to make an appointment. I don't think that is much of an exaggeration anymore. Ugh!

I have gotten some emails and texts asking me about Jackson (aka...the crush). Let me just say that somehow I have developed feelings for him. No, Jackson does not know or realize this. I have not told him, nor do I feel the need to do so at this point. I thoroughly enjoy the friendship and reliationship we have as friends. I am not ready or willing to chance that. I think that it all just came as a shock to me that I was developing feelings for him and having thoughts of a life with him.

I realize that having a personal life would mean me having to slow down and put some of this work I do in someone else's hands. I am most certainly a control freak, and the thought of handing over control of something I have worked so hard for is not going to be simple for me to do. I will work on it. I think that once I am ready for a personal life, I will take the leap and hand over some of the work. LOL


Nothing is Certain, but Death and Taxes

This past week has been quite a challenging one.

This past Sunday we lost a beloved retired teacher in our school system. This was a very short-lived illness...a week in fact. She was having some abdominal pains for a while, and the doctors decided it was her gall bladder. They went in to remove it and discovered she was eaten up inside with cancer that was all over. Her doctors did not giver her very long to live. The family decided not to tell her how drastic it was. The doctors and family were hoping to get her well enough post-surgery to take her home and let her pass peacefully. She only made it through one week before the cancer ran its course. It was a shock to all of us, especially at my school. She had been a teacher in the middle school, and recently came back as an incredible substitute. She will be missed.

As you probably read in my previous post, I lost a dear fried this week. Jamie was someone who brightened my day just by being around. She was like that with everyone. Such a wonderful and loving spirit. This one was even more of a shock. I got a text from best friend, Jenny, last night saying that Jamie's funeral was like a college reunion of all the BSU (Baptist Student Union) members from college. She also said it was a closed casket. I saddened me to know I could not be there. I made the decision to come on down to the conference...Jamie would have wanted me to do that.

To top it all off, my teammate (I call her TRG) sent me a message the other night that her 17-year old cat named Cinder had to be put to sleep. I should tell you that Cinder had been sick for several years and had a slew up health problems. TRG finally decided that Cinder's quality of life was no longer good, and had to make the decision to let her go.  TRG told me today was the first day she has not cried. This is a woman who is a pilar of strength. Her crying is not something I have ever seen. She is just so strong. By the way, the name Cinder came from the fact that TRG found that cat in some cinder blocks so many years ago.

So it has been a rough week for us all. We will get through. Life has to go on, else we die too.


What Else to Tell You?

I wanted to say that I am sorry I have not been commenting on many of your blogs. I have been reading, but I just have not been commenting. Just know that I am here trying to keep tabs on you all.

Thoughts and prayers go out to Dean during the passing of his uncle and to Ian during the rough time his Aunt Collette is going through.

That's it for now. Hope you all are doing well. I swear once things calm down around here, I will have more fun, interesting, and hopefully exciting news to report.

Until then...take care!
Joey