Month: September 2010

“We’ve Got Three Chords And Some Compelling Lies”

| xeyeti

I think of myself as something of a musician. Not a particularly good one, mind, but a musician nonetheless. I’ve been writing songs for the better part of a decade now, and I think I’ve managed to work up at least a handful of good ones in that time. Mostly, I’ve written them with my younger brother, who is definitely a better musician than I (but not a better singer, and that, folks, is just sad) and is usually responsible for the actual music part of our songs.

But lately, I’ve been getting into the instrumentation aspect more. I’ve been collaborating with a friend of mine who can write lyrics but not music, trying to help her come up with arrangements for some stuff she’s written (and, in the process, ended up writing some new stuff of my own that I’ve been tremendously happy with). It’s been a very fruitful partnership: in the three writing sessions we’ve had, we’ve managed to create five songs with lyrics, basic instrumentation, and all that jazz. We’ve sat down and used my (admittedly, fairly basic) recording equipment and actually developed some nice-sounding tracks, and it’s definitely spurred me on to work on some stuff even by myself.

The long and the short of it is, I love playing music. I do it just for myself, really, but I also like the idea of other people hearing it and enjoying it as well. To that end, I’m going to (after I finally get paid) get the added storage thing for the blog and post some of the songs here. So just a head’s up.

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The Job Switch Blues

| xeyeti

Switching jobs has been, in a number of ways, a difficult transition. There’s the animosity leveled at me by my (now former) boss for leaving the week before inservice (which is actually a pretty common time for teachers to get hired and jump ship), adjusting to a new group of students (about half of whom I already knew, but that leaves the other half to get to know), and adjusting my expectations of behavior and ability in the classroom. The greatest difficulty, however, has been going the month of September without getting paid.

When I changed schools last year, there was overlap in my paychecks for September. I received my last paycheck from School A at the end of August and my first paycheck from School B on September 5th. It was great. This time, though, School B’s last paycheck hit August 20th, and I won’t get my first paycheck from School A until October 5th. Ouch.

That being said, we’re almost a month into the school year and I feel great. I’m in the groove, loving my classes and coworkers, and actually looking forward to going to work every morning. That sense of anxiety I used to experience is just gone.

Possibly most exciting is the start of Clubs tomorrow. We’re doing Music Club (meaning I get to teach kids how to play the guitar again), so I’ll basically get paid to rock out for an hour or so. It’s a joy.

Everything Old Is New Again

| xeyeti

So, despite not getting any bites on my resume this summer (I’m pretty sure there weren’t a whole lot of private schools in the area searching for new teachers this year), I have suddenly found myself with a new job.

Funny thing is, it’s my old job.

See, last week, I found the opportunity to return to my previous school (at a higher salary) in the same position but with more leadership opportunities and a sense of peace with myself. To say that I jumped at the opportunity was to put it much too lightly.

Telling my (now previous) employers that I was resigning was, on the one hand, a supremely wonderful moment, while at the same time a giant crushing moment of anxiety. My supervisor threw the most unprofessional fit I have ever witnessed, calling me unprofessional and ultimately declaring that I lacked integrity for waiting until the week before teacher in-service started to tell them (keep in mind I accepted the new job last Wednesday night and told them Thursday morning). She also insinuated that I’d purposely waited to tell them until the last possible minute as some sort of passive-aggressive dick move. Mind you, if I wanted to be a dick, I’d have waited until this past Monday morning (the first day of teacher in-service) to tell them, not give them at least a couple days’ notice.

But that’s all behind me now. I’m back at a school where I’m appreciated and where I don’t dread waking up every morning. I can also say (with perfect certainty) that, while working at my previous school did improve me as a teacher, I will be content with never setting foot in that building again.

On the downside, I don’t get any paychecks this month, so I probably won’t be buying any comics until October (which means no Pull List this month). I should have some stuff to post around here still, though, so we’ll just have to see what happens.