I have been very neglectful of my responsibilities as a blogger lately, as a few of you have reminded me. I've been a bit pre-occupied with all that is happening in my world and have been a little reluctant to post anything about it until things became a bit more certain. And while I can't say everything is figured out, some things have become more clear.
So first and foremost, I have found an apartment for the summer. Utilizing my favorite tool ever, Craigslist, I found a two bedroom row-house in the South Baltimore/Federal Hill area. My will-be roommate seems to be a great person and we hit it off immediately. She's lived in the apartment for a few years and has it fully furnished (except my bedroom) which means I don't have to move (or get) a bunch of stuff. She's planning on living there through August/September and is on a month-to-month lease, so I get to take advantage of that arrangement as well. We each have our own bathrooms and it's a nice sized place with plenty of space. It also has a fenced-in large patio off the back of the house which is great for playing catch with Irie or working outside. And it's located directly across the street from a huge park for long walks with Irie and a public swimming pool which may be really nice on those hot summer days. She doesn't have a dog, but loves them and totally fell for Irie when they met. I've warned her about Irie's craziness and she doesn't seem concerned. We'll see if that lasts! :-) Anyway, I'm excited about it and think it will be a good experience.
Secondly, and fresh off the press, I am no longer employed at my after-school job. Ever since the weather has gotten warmer, I've been having a lot of trouble with it. All the kids want to do is be outside and it's so hard to keep them inside doing another three hours of school work after they've been there all day. They mostly don't want to be there and while we have shining moments of bliss, they are few and far between. So, for the past few weeks I've been contemplating this and trying to decide what I want to do.
Then yesterday happened. First of all, I walked into the cafeteria for snack time and there were roaches everywhere. That just kind of started the day on a bad note. Then, at the end of the day I was standing outside with a group of my kids when I noticed two older boys (probably high-schoolers) near the basketball court. They reached into the side of the dumpster and pulled out a gun. Upon looking around, they noticed me watching them and shoved it back in the side of the dumpster. I, of course, reported this to the school staff. They then wanted to see the gun (to make sure I wasn't just imagining things, I guess), so we took a little tour by the dumpster so everyone could see it. We pulled all our kids inside and called the cops and then stood watch inside the doors where we could see the dumpster, but the kids on the basketball court couldn't see us. A half hour later the cops still hadn't shown up (despite seeing three cop cars drive by without stopping at the school.) Finally one of the boys nonchalantly walked over to the dumpster with a hoodie in his arms, took a final look around, grabbed the gun, wrapped it up and took off running. Still no cops.
So, not only was there a gun, but they know I saw it, they know which car I drive and they still have the gun. The likelihood of any of this really coming back to get me is not great, but I just didn't feel like it was worth it to keep coming back to a place where things like this are happening. So this morning I turned in my resignation. I'm very sorry that I didn't get to say goodbye to the kids and I feel a bit wimpy for running away, but when I put it all on the scale, it just doesn't balance out. I'm not naive enough to think that this is the worst of what's going on in the area and I know ultimately this is not a huge thing, but for a job I don't even really like??? It's too bad that kids and staff have to attend that school, but I'm sure it's like that lots of places.
Oh, and by the way, the cops still had not shown up when I left last night at 6:15pm.
So anyway, I am currently back down to one job, but I have a few things in the works so hopefully that will work out. I'll let you know when I know.
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