I am determined to publish this post

So it doesn't matter if I think it's crap - I'm hitting the Publish button anyway. (consider yourself warned!)

There are 6 unpublished / unpublishable posts in my list this morning - most of which are going to probably get deleted because they are terrible. It's been a crazy week - one of personal revelations, sleeplessness and lots of stress. My 30 little ones at school have been put through more stress than I would ever willingly inflict on any kid, yet I have to because the law says I have to test them at this age. I can't even explain how horrible it feels to watch a little boy crying as he writes a test, refusing to stop because he wants to do it so badly, but can't help crying since he simply can't do it.

These kids are TOO LITTLE to go through this.

To relieve the stress of the week, a group of us teachers went out last night to this great pub called The Royston. We were there for a birthday shindig last week and had a fabulous time playing pool and dancing to the Worst DJ Ever. He wasn't any better last night, but he did put on "Play That Funky Music" for me (love that song!). The funny part is that there were a bunch of young kids (18-20 years old) there, so hardly anybody danced to it. We did anyway. Being a little older than the crowd and not looking to impress anybody is very liberating - we danced to old, cheesy songs from Grease and Wham! without a thought about anybody else.

There has been some major office drama lately (yep, schools are rife with office drama, despite not really being an office. Maybe just having an office causes drama to happen).

We have a colleague who everybody has been really frustrated with lately - she's very overweight and has the personality of a person who is bitter with herself and the rest of the world. And this week, she's been bitter with certain members of the staff....

In the past, we've just posted invites for Friday Pub Nights on the board in the staff room, but she and a couple of others caused a lot of trouble for us on my friend K's birthday. We'd written that we were going to the Royston 3 weeks before her birthday, yet H and two other office staff decided they didn't want to go there, and went to another pub, expecting the 15 of us who were at the Royston to meet them where they were.

After an hour of waiting, H called K on her phone and bitched at her about "being left waiting", so K told her we were staying put and if they wanted to be with us that they would have to come to where we were. At that point, K's family had shown up with bottles of champagne - so we couldn't have left even if it had been a consideration. When H showed up, she let everybody know how pissed off she was, and sat giving people dirty looks for most of the night. When K apologized to her (still don't know why she thought she had to do that), H's response was "You should be sorry - we waited for an hour and a half for you!"

Give me a break.

The rest of the night found most of us avoiding H, playing pool, and sharing a relieved look when she finally went home. For the entire week she's been acting funny with some of us, so when making plans for last night we kept things very quiet.

It was nice not having to worry about any of the people who were going out for once. We could drink and joke around without any concerns about facing problems on Monday.

One of the highlights of the night for me came very early in the evening when a colleague of ours told me H is jealous of me because I'm SKINNY. Ha!

I am not a skinny person. Never have been, never will be. But having a gay man say something like that (without any prompting or hints that I need somebody to tell me I'm not fat) sure does wonders for the ego! I have lost weight since moving here, but not having my own full-length mirror for 9 months leads to a surprise when you finally see yourself in one...

(I think I'll refrain from taking a picture of myself in the full length mirror - not quite ready for somebody to politely remind me that "skinny" is probably not the right word to describe my curves.)

(don't get me wrong - I like my curves. I wouldn't mind if they were a little smaller though)

(Here I go copying Sully again! Ah well - They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Plus this is really fun.)

(Speaking of Them, who are They anyway?!)

Time to go. My rum-soaked brain cells need some coffee.

(if you see Them - tell Them I said hi)