Didn't Dent the Inbox

I was eagerly anticipating lowering the height of my inbox today, with no school for students, staff development in the morning for teachers and grading in the afternoon. So I would have the morning to myself to attack my piles!

First I opened the box of retake picture flyers that arrived and discovered the date was wrong. I looked in my file and confirmed that the date I've had on the calendar, advertising since registration, was indeed the date from the contract. I wasted quite a bit of time on their automated phone system trying to get the rep and finally left a message. Late afternoon after the third try, I finally got to talk to someone who knew something. They say they can reprint the flyers and have them to me by Thursday. I doubt it.

Then I made the mistake of opening the mail and finding a bill that I remembered paying in June. I looked it up, called that company, and they say their records don't show a check was ever received. I dug a little further, got the check number, and called someone at the district office to investigate. She told me the check had been voided. Someone else had to look into that, and later she called telling me the check had been returned with a note from the office manager of the company saying that the bill had already been paid in full. For the rest of the day I tried to reach that company, and they never answered the phone.

I also got a bill from a magazine "Science World" that a teacher only ordered because we had received a notice from the company that she had a credit. The credit didn't show up on the invoice so I found my credit invoice, called the company and got to tell my story to three people before I finally got someone who found the credit and said he would re-issue the invoice.

Then I discovered a duplication on orders from two PE teachers, one from last year and one from this year, who didn't know what the other was doing, so I had to talk to both of them before I could do the order. Still waiting to hear back from one of them.

A former student dropped by to chat and stayed awhile, which is an interruption I truly enjoy and was glad to have. But you can't really do paper work while you're chatting.

So before I really got anything done, the morning meeting was over and teachers were needing supplies and information and other assistance. One special teacher called the office and the principal was standing by the intercom phone so he picked it up and said hello. She said, "Is this LeAnn?" He laughed and said he didn't know his voice was that high! And I didn't know mine was that low! There's a reason Cindy always tried to make me answer the phone when that particular teacher is calling!

I got an order for supplies from Office Max and another order for construction paper done, updated tomorrow's school announcements and this week's web page announcements, dealt with some other problems that came up and it was 3:30. Electricians had scheduled a power outage for that time and my boss had told me to go home when the power went out. So I did, but on my way out the door, a trouble alarm started beeping so I had to go back in an call the alarm company. The glitches were never ending today!

So I never did get to attack my inbox. Lucky me, it will still be there tomorrow! Along with the nonstop phones and interruptions of a regular school day. Maybe if I'm really fortunate I'll get to talk to my favorite parent. I received another outstanding insult from him last week. Some teachers doing outside bus duty after school called the police because they believed his wife appeared under the influence of something while waiting in her car for her child. I stupidly picked up the phone after 4:0 and got the phone call from the angry father demanding to talk to the principal, who wasn't there, then letting me know he didn't appreciate teachers calling the cops on his wife. He asked if I knew who the six teachers were who did bus duty. Six? I thought there were only three! I said, "No, I don't know." With greatly exaggerated politeness, he said, "Of course you don't know. You have never known anything in your life, have you, ma'am." Then he hung up on me. And I laughed out loud. This was the same guy that called me last year when our librarian was out sick and ordered me to have our library open before, during and after school every day, no matter what, "Is that clear, do you understand" and got so irate that I told him I would no longer listen to him and needed to hang up. I'm not sure why I find him so entertaining.

Since my husband won't be eagerly awaiting my arrival home because he is camping, I can stay and work guilt-free as long as I need to! Oh joy! It's supposed to be raining so I won't be able to enjoy my lovely new patio anyway. But I am bitterly disappointed that I didn't get a lot accomplished today.