Achoo!

I'm sitting here sniffing, sneezing and wiping my eyes. I seem to have come down with a lil sumptin'. Yesterday I woke with a swollen throat and itchy eyes. I wrote it off to allergies, even though I've never really had allergy issues. I rationalized that maybe I had developed something since the relocation. Imagine my dismay when I awoke this morning with the runny nose and coughing and sneezing. I'm guessing I've run up on an old fashioned cold. It'll be fine as soon as it runs its course.

Earlier this week---Tuesday--I went to have some blood work done for my physical on Friday. I checked out my test results online. I don't know what the acronyms mean but I could tell things are looking good because in one column they'd list stuff like >40 and my actual reading was 42. Or if it said a normal reading is <140 mine would be 120. So like I said, I'm on the right side of all the stuff for which they examined my blood. I know one of them had something to do with cholesterol.

While I was there I decided to pick up the STD results I had done last month. I ended up going to the doctor because I had a swollen lymph node in my groin on the right side. I was bathing one day and ran across a lil lump. My first instinct was to check the other side of my groin to see if I had a matching lump on that side. I did not. I instantly had a Highlights moment (remember that magazine?). I knew this didn't belong in the picture. I made an appointment to go find out what was up.

The doctor told me it was a swollen lymph node caused by a bacterial infection. He let me know that it was not uncommon. My major concern was to make sure that it wasn't cancerous or a cyst or something like that. He gave me some amoxicillin and said it should be fine in a few days. I half took the prescription that was supposed to last me 10 days. I was supposed to take 2 pills per day 12 hours apart but ended up taking pills when I remembered. I still have probably 10 pills in the container and started the prescription February 18, 2009. Yeah, so as you can see, I didn't exactly follow doctor's orders, but fortunately I'm fine.

Because of the nature and location of my health concern, the doctor recommended a full STD screening. I agreed and gave them all the blood and urine that they needed. So fast forward to Tuesday of this week. After I gave blood for my physical I went up to medial records to get the results from the previous month's screening. I was a little nervous. You know how in those moments before you review the documents you have that silent time to replay the tape? You start thinking about everything that you've done and all the what ifs. Anywho, everything checked out fine. No herpes, syphilis, HIV, gonorrhea, chlamydia, etc. I was relieved.

Good health. You are why I find pleasure in the simple things in life.

As Promised, Christmas Story

Three blogs ago I said I'd tell you all what happened when I went home for Christmas. Being a man of my word, I'll do just that. So we typically always meet up for Christmas at either my mom's place, my deceased grandmother's place or one of the aunts' places. Christmas 2008 was held at an aunt's place in Albany, Georgia. This place is about 4 hours from where my mom stays in Georgia so it didn't make a whole lot of sense for me to fly to my mom and then ride down to Albany an additional 4 hours. I decided to fly to Atlanta and drive to Albany from there--about 2.5 hours. A direct flight to Albany would have probably cost me about $150 more. I have family in the A, so it was not problem for me to hop a ride with one of the cousins.

Anyway I arrived in Albany on Christmas morning. My mom and him arrived maybe around 1:00 p.m. When they came in the house I greeted everyone in their party. Three uncles and him accompanied my mom. All though I spoke to him grudgingly, I did at least acknowledge his presence. It was all I could do to muster that up. Him's hearing is going bad in addition to the myriad of other health related, evilness induced challenges he has. As a reminder, ever the consummate teacher, let's have a quick review. Double amputations in both legs, kidney failure, on dialysis, legally blind and I think one or two fingers are missing too. Anyway, he apparently didn't hear me. Not my issue.

We ate and opened presents. The tradition is that we all sit around and read off each name and ooh and aah over every single gift. It usually takes 3 - 4 hours but it's time well spent. I heard him ask my mom if she checked on 'that situation' they discussed. Let me bring you up to speed. JayBee = 'that situation'. So anyway, him told her she didn't have to say anything, just be observant. I figured that their conversation centered around me not speaking to him and how he felt about it. Clearly I don't give a sh@t about how him feels about anything so I made no moves to make him feel any differently.

**********************************************************************
(time elapse, you know like how they do in books)

So when it was about time for them to leave, my mom asked me if I spoke to him. I told her that I did. Ever trying to be the mediator she asked if he heard me. Of course I told her that I couldn't speak for him and wouldn't attempt to do so. She requested that I tell him goodbye before they pulled off to go back to my grandmother's. I was lying down when we had this conversation. I remarked that she could just leave and go back and pretend that I was asleep because if I were asleep I wouldn't be expected to wake up and give a benediction over the day. Of course I can't really say no to mama so I complied, but not without trying to help her understand more about how I feel.

I let her know that him has no right to make a big deal out of me not speaking to him. I never do. Why would him's expectation be that today would be any different? Him's issue with me not speaking to him is 'how it looks to the [extended] family.' That's just the bullshit I'm talkin' about. Everyone else is fully aware of how I feel. This imaginary audience for whom we're supposed to be performing DOES NOT EXIST. It is this fakeness that I rebelled against as a child and I'll not continue to participate in it as an adult. Moreover, with him acting like I'm such a disrespectful muthafucka of a son, it allows him to play the victim. As if someone drug him through years of a horrible existence and not the other way around. Unacceptable.

She understood that. I didn't use any profanity, but she clearly understood what I was saying. It seemed to be a turning point in our relationship because I had began to withdraw from her because she continued to try to push me to engage with someone with whom I didn't desire. She doesn't push it anymore and hasn't since that date. Three months strong. Not a single mention of 'talking to your father' or any of its derivatives.

Peace of mind. You are why I find pleasure in the simple things in life.

Calling You to Enter the 21st Century

I finally got a new cell phone. I owned the Treo 700wx with Windows mobile for years. I liked it and all but there were some problems. For one, I couldn't send pics or video via text message. I couldn't talk on the phone and be on the Internet at the same time. I didn't have a way to permanently record my contacts. With the advent of the Treo Pro all of those issues and more have been corrected.

I dropped the old phone (700wx) in water Sunday after I got back from the liquor store. (I did go to church but ended up drinking with some peeps.) I sprang into action to pull it out of the water quickly, removed the battery, shook out excess water and let it dry out. It started working again Monday morning and held out all the way until I left lunch around 2:20 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. Once it had it's final hurrah, I rushed to the Sprint store to see what I could get and decided on the aforementioned.

It feels good to have a phone with all the neat stuff. Pictures by text message. So common for many, yet never before a reality for me.

You are why I find pleasure in the simple things in life. Truly He is the center of my joy.

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

And nothing beats a picture but a video. I should have put on some chapstick before I recorded this.....too late now.

Who Let the Air Out?

Whoop whoop whoop whoop. Do you remember the song to which I am alluding? It was kinda catchy after a while even if you aren't into that sort of music. Anyway, I've been away for a while just living life and doing me. Nothing really serious but I was cultivating me so that I can be the best JayBee possible. I had to identify some goals and benchmarks to chart my progress toward what I wish to have and be. Not gonna go into detail about it in this post, but that information is more likely than not forthcoming.

So, as we are all critically aware, it is the weekend prior to arguably the most significant political event in the last forty years. I was giddy the first time I heard someone say, "Happy Inauguration Weekend." In the past I don't remember anyone referring to this time as Inauguration Weekend. To begin celebrating the festivities many people are partying all weekend. How marrying the union of the African American experience and the American experience equates to drunken revelry is beyond me, but whatever. I like a lil party e'er' now and again myself.

In true JayBee fashion, there was in fact another celebrity sighting last night at Love. That's right folks. You guessed it. JayBee was all up and through there! Love is a popular club in DC. Lots of people. Tigger showed up and Jay Z took the stage as well. Jay Z (not Bee) didn't do much more than bob his head and drink from a flute, but he had his face in the place. More beautiful and shapely women than you can count and most people appeared to be having a good time. I smirk every time I see someone on the dance floor moving through the throng carrying a bottle of Moet or some other pricey libations. Before you even start, I ain't hatin' on nobody. I could purchase a bottle of Mo' but I know better. First of all, I don't even like champagne that much and even if I did, I just am not in a position to indiscriminately make ridiculous purchases. We all know that holding that bottle of Moet is supposed to send a message about your status. I'm gon shut it down with two questions for all the people I saw last night toting the bottles and bouncing and snaking through the crowd. By the way, of course they always hold it so as to draw some attention. I can't really describe it, but if you've been to a party and witnessed this you know what I'm talking about. Ready for the questions? Good. Here goes: What's your credit score and who's your primary care physician? If you aren't in at least the 700s for the first one and are not able to state the name and location of the second you have no business holding a bottle of anything. Unless it's a bottle of common sense.

I just needed to get that out. That's not the point of this entry.

So before I went in the party I was arguing with this crackhead guy who was doing parking. I told him I was not paying $5.00 to park on a city street. In my mind (Ieisha, you should be able to clear this up) he can't charge money to park on a city street. After I refused to pay the fee and parked anyway because it's a public street, he tried to sell me a card for $5.00 to get in the cut line. I told him that I didn't need it because I know someone who works there so I don't wait in line anyway. Once we left the club around 3:15ish and walked back to the car I noticed that my right back tire was flat. Mind you my tires are less than 1 year old and have plenty of tread on them. I don't think I ran over anything. My supposition is that ole crackhead with the stolen orange vest punctured my tire. Imagine my dismay when I walked out and it was nine degrees and 3:24 by the time we got to the car.

I'm back. I gotta share what happened at Christmas when I went back to Georgia. I hope every one's holidays went well and that people are at least doing something to mark the day for the inauguration.

...If You Let Him

On Wednesday I had a training session to go to at 825. That's what everybody calls the main office building for District of Columbia Public Schools. During the lunch break I decided to accompany a Shaw U graduate to the payroll office to check on her 'stuff.' Basically she did some of her paperwork late and wanted to ensure that everything was on the up and up and that she would be getting paid. She gave the man her social and he printed her a check stub that showed what would be deposited in her account on Friday. Since I was there, I decided to try to get a sneak peak at what would be deposited in my account as well.

When I gave the man my social he said that I wasn't in the system. Thinking it was some mistake or that he had typed the number incorrectly I gave him the number again. Same response. Not in the system. I was floored. Here it is Wednesday and I'm expecting a check on Friday and I'm not in the system.

He instructed me to go to my staffing specialist and let her know. This woman has to be the most aloof person I know. She is just so not on it. When I approached her to tell her about the situation she was not very bothered. She acted as if this sort of thing happened all the time and that she'd get to it when she could. I told her her nonchalance about my business was unacceptable and that she absolutely had to take care of my paperwork today. As a matter of fact I told her within the hour. I had to control my emotions because she kept flipping a piece of paper over as we were talking and staring at it. At one point she wasn't saying anything. It's hard to describe the scene on paper but suffice it to say I was annoyed at her inactivity. Once I told her I wasn't in the system she should have IMMEDIATELY sprang into action to get me in the system to get me paid. Finally she remarked at the end that she 'guessed that she should go and work on this now.' Of course I'm thinking hell yeah itchbay, go handle my shiznit not now but right dang now!!!

When I returned to payroll to let the guy, let's call him Mr. Helpful know what had transpired he gave me some more directives. As he was speaking an e-mail came in from my staffing specialist asking what she needed to do. Mr. Helpful decided that this required a face to face visit to make sure that Ms. A Loof understood what she had to do so that I can get paid. Let's interrupt this story to remind you about what else I had been contending with NCA&TSU. Yeah, if you read that already you understand more about why I would be extremely frustrated at this point. She had to regenerate a document that should have been generated a long time ago. She had sent it up to payroll but they returned it because it was incomplete/incorrect. She didn't realize they had sent it back to her and at the moment didn't know where it was. So like I said she had to reproduce the document. Mr. Helpful informed me that it would only take five minutes to do it and that he had spoken with the head of HR to let him know what was going on so that she would be forced to handle my business. As he and I spoke in the hallways for 21 minutes I remarked to him that she should have been able to produce four 4.25 documents in that amount of time. We chuckled about it but I was serious. I need people to have a sense of urgency especially about your money when they have dropped the ball.

Update to the A&T situation: I received a call on Wednesday and another one on Thursday from two different individuals that informed me that the check was cut on Thursday and would be mailed on Friday. We'll see. Is it just me, but if it was cut on Thursday, why wasn't it mailed on Thursday?

Also while I was down at payroll I had Mr. Helpful find out if they had record of a time sheet having been submitted for me. Interestingly enough they had a time sheet. In my twisted logic I would think that if you have people on the time sheet but have no record of them existing that you'd investigate why. Maybe it's just me. I did learn that payroll is short four people so they just don't have time to track down a bunch of stuff like that right now. That's the same reason they sent my paperwork back down to my staffing specialist on August 6. They don't have time to correct people's mistakes and run stuff down because they are so short staffed.

I spoke with the Business Manager at my school (we called them Treasurers in NC and GA). She didn't think it was realistic for me to expect a paycheck on September 12th. I told her that Mr. Helpful who she knows very well and who her office mate (not really her office mate but he's in there all the time) knows very well assured me that I'd get paid on Friday because he was going to personally walk the paperwork through the process. All day Friday it was touch and go. I tried not to think about it so that I could get my work done. I managed to do that until the BM called me down to her office to find out if I had gone to pick up my check because her contact down there told her that she didn't see the check. I told her no. The BM let me know that there were so more checks coming in after 3:00pm. It was at that point that I said I wasn't going to give up hope. I finally went down to her office after school so that she could call and check. Bless goodness my check was there. (That's something my grandma used to say. I gotta find some pics of her that I can post.) Look at God! People don't believe it but He'll do it if you let him. That's on of my favorite churchy sayings.

I forgot to mention that I shared with a friend about the A&T thing and now the DCPS thing and she remarked that I needed to pray about why God was allowing my finances to be attacked. I side eyed her (ala Opinionated Diva) and told her that it wasn't that deep and that people just needed to do their jobs. Don't you hate it when people wanna make stuff deep that really isn't?

What's Happening Now

NCA&TSU
For those of you who don’t know that stands for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. It is located in Greensboro, NC, where I resided in a former life. This summer I worked in a pre-matriculation program for them teaching two classes. The goal of these types of “bridge” programs is to help students shore up skills that may be lacking or enrich the skills that they already have. One section of students learned precalculus and the other section learned calculus. The program ran for about five weeks, so it was rather intense. I had no choice but to put it on them. I thoroughly enjoyed them and I know that they enjoyed me. I mean, who wouldn’t? ::reflective pause to ponder the question:: Exactly. I can’t imagine either.

The last day of class was July 30, 2008. At this present time I still have not been paid for the service that I rendered. I attended and HBCU so I know how things sometimes have a tendency to work when it comes to processes and paperwork. About a week and a half into the program I spoke with the program director to inquire about us doing the necessary paperwork so that I could be paid. Before the program started she had already gotten a copy of my driver’s license, social security card and one of teaching licenses. (Remember when somebody questioned my credentials?) I am the bonafide truth. Meanwhile, not the point of the story, although she’d obtained some copies of some documents, presumably for my file or whatnot, I still had not signed any papers. I was expecting to complete a W-4 or something. The program director assured me that everything was okay even though I hadn’t signed anything. In my heart of hearts I knew something was awry, but I was trying to sit back and trust the process.

About 3 weeks into the program I requested my check. No haps. She called over to the payroll office or somewhere and found out the check wasn’t ready. She apologized profusely. I was disappointed—not so much in her, but in the system. Again, I attended an HBCU so this didn’t surprise me. I checked in every other day to learn the status of the check. Each day it was more of the same. XYZ office hadn’t done abc. If you’ve been to an institution like this you probably understand all too well what I ‘m talking about. It’s like no one knows what everyone else on the campus does. I propose they close school for a day and just get everybody together and talk about what happens in each office. They even need to simulate the course that a form takes from initiation to completion of whatever task the form is intended to accomplish. About two days before the last teaching day of the program I went into the office and the lady’s assistant was like, “Look at all these forms that we have to fill out to get you paid.” A few things popped into my mind:

1. I don’t care how many forms it takes to get me paid. Complete them so I can get paid.
2. I told you all to start this paperwork a long time ago, so why at two days before the program ends are you just now getting the paperwork done? Is it because we’re at an HBCU?
3. Tales of you incompetence do not interest me.(What movie?)

Of course now I’m in Maryland so I can’t just go up to the school to check on the status of things. Everything I do has to be done over the telephone. I have talked to the Department of Biology, Contracts and Grants, Payroll, Accounts Payable and the Office of the Chancellor. Some lady in the OOC told me that everyone was aware of the situation since I had called quite a few people on campus. Okay, are you thinking what I’m thinking? If everybody knows why the hell don’t I have a check yet?!?!!!! Further, far be it from me to work and expect to be paid. Am I reaching for the stars? (Same movie.) The latest update is that another lady in the office of the chancellor has spoke with the department, contracts and grants and accounts payable and she still doesn’t know when I’ll be paid. This type of stuff is what gives out institutions a bad rep. I purposely referenced HBCU a couple times prior. Not to offend anyone. I’m probably one of the most pro-black people you’ll ever meet. I just hate when stereotypes seem to ring true.

Prince George’s County
Since I have been a resident of the county I have been towed twice for the same reason. The registration decal on my car had expired. I decided that I wouldn’t renew it in North Carolina since I was moving to Maryland. It was only going to be for a little over a month that I’d have expired tags, and I didn’t think that in Maryland they would be concerned about what was going on in North Carolina. Boy was I ever wrong. I finally decided to get my cousin to purchase the decal and mail it to me so that when I took back what the enemy stole from me, I wouldn’t have to keep going through this drama.

Job
There’s a guy on my job who is in a higher position than I but who concerns me greatly. He has loftly ideals but they aren’t appropriate for the population of kids who we serve. There is a different mind set that one must embrace when working in a title one environment than when one works for a more affluent population. What trips me out is that he be calling himself schooling me on stuff. Make no mistakes, I am a content expert and a pedagogical genius. I know curriculum and instruction. Where he and I differ is that I have practical experience in this environment whereas he wants to use the textbook approach to attacking issues. I won’t go into details because it would bore you to tears, but I will say this. At some point you have to let go of idealism and look at what is pragmatic. Also, when you are entering a situation, it is rarely a good idea to go in an impose a bunch of new practices on people all at once. You have to gradually roll stuff out. Schools don’t get in horrible shape overnight so it’s quixotic to think that you can turn them around overnight. I’m not being funny but these people have had years of practicing bad teaching. It takes much longer to unlearn something that to learn something. The guy has lots of potential. I recognize talent when I see it. I’m just not sure if he understands what it takes to be successful in this setting. I just thought of a quick example that I could share. He wants teachers to teach for mastery. Groundbreaking. Who doesn’t? His argument is that when teachers teach for mastery, students are able to pass any test. He claims he used to teach for mastery at this affluent school and students did relatively well on the standardized tests. I’m not going to have an educational debate right now but everybody knows children in poverty are different from children with money. You don’t have to like it, but it is a fact people. If you wish to discuss it further feel free to call me at 240.619.5751. I’d be happy to break it down for you. The point is this population of kids is not affluent. You have to engage them slightly differently because the playing field is not exactly level. And with the performance of this school in the past few years, why the hell would you think mastery teaching is possible at this point? It’s clear that the teachers aren’t even hitting knowledge on Bloom’s taxonomy. We need to focus on getting students to perform well on the standardized tests to get the man off our back. As we do that we’ll phase in strategies to help teachers become masters of their craft. Lofty ideals, just not applicable for what we need to do right now. It’s at this point that I have decided that I cannot let this persist any longer. I have got to shut this mess down.

Cable and Internet
I finally got my stuff turned on. That’s why I decided to post an update. Now that I’m back in the current century after a three week respite, I’ll get back on track.

Hope everyone is doing well. I have already started making my blog rounds. Look out DC/Maryland area bloggers. I’ll probably be sending something your way for us to hook up. Be safe. Much love.