Crazy Working World

Since it's summer, life has to slow down, right? No lunches to pack, no homework to finish.
But this year, for the first time, everyone is working so the work schedules are crazy.
I realized this Sunday as I was grading papers at the kitchen table and I watched Grace leave for work at 2, Tucker leave for work at 4, Earl leave for work at 4:30 and Spencer leave for work at 6. Then they all came home again later.
The kids usually work a 4 or 5-hour shift at their respective jobs. Grace has been a lifeguard since she was 15. She usually prays for rain so she'll get sent home early. This year she has added a second job. She's a barista at a coffee shop that just opened in town. She's hopeful that she'll get enough hours there that she can eventually drop her lifeguard job. She's right. Someone as pale as she is shouldn't sit in the sun six hours a day.
Spencer is still working as a busboy and dishwasher at a local Italian restaurant. He leaves for work looking like a young Frank Sinatra in his black pants, white shirt and skinny black tie. The restaurant was a good job to have throughout the school year because they would limit him to two nights a week so he could get his homework done, and they didn't mind that he couldn't work at all during basketball season. Now though, with college looming, the three nights per week that they schedule him may not be enough. He's checking into a second job that he describes as "moving furniture."
He came home from a grad party yesterday having chatted with an art students about models. She told him he could make up to $400 per hour if he modeled nude. "I may have to look into that," he said.
Okay, he has a very sculpted body, but he can't sit still for 10 minutes, much less an hour. Maybe he should be a model for a photography class instead.
Tucker started his first job this summer and he's working at the pool down the street from us. That means he never has to ask for a ride, which I'm thrilled about. (He's scheduled to take his driver's test at the end of June.)
Tucker spends money like water. We've already been talking about budgeting and deciding how much money he can have to spend each week. He wants to order NetFlix for the Xbox: $10 per month. He needs new headphones:$20 (and since he leaves them laying around where the cats chew on them, we should schedule that cost every month too). Then he needs money for eating at Taco Bell, Wendys, Panera, Noodles, every restaurant within a 5-mile radius. He does not appreciate home cooking. We haven't even talked about taking his girlfriend out on real dates or putting gas in the car once he starts driving.
Tucker's first paycheck comes this week, and I am looking for a summer of not doling out spending money. I hope my kids will be self-sufficient, at least when it comes to money,  through August.
Meanwhile, I'm still working my two teaching jobs, Earl has his full-time job and we start making college payments for two kids this month. It's no wonder dollar signs dance in my head.

Working Blues

Is it possible to be this tired after working only three days this year?
I feel like such a wimp. (Does anybody use that word anymore?)
I'm sitting at my computer, waiting for Spencer so I can drop him at school before I go teach -- my fourth workday of 2012. My energy is fine right now, but yesterday evening, I was a limp rag, and grumpy. I expect the same results after I work today.
The thing is, I don't even work regular hours like most people do, which gives me even less reason to be so exhausted.
I do have two days this quarter where I work 8 to 12 then come home for the afternoon and work 6 til 10 p.m. That's what I did Wednesday, which probably added to my tiredness. And I could point out that the evening class is north of the city and I have to leave about 5:15 to get there. Still, when you add up all the hours that I'm physically teaching, it's not much compared to the hours most people work.
My husband, always on my side, would point out that I spend a lot of hours at home preparing for class and grading papers. I can't shake the feeling that if I had to work a regular 9 to 5 job, I'd never make it.
Last night, I knew I had to go to the grocery store. We were out of milk and eggs. Tucker needed snacks for a swim team trip this weekend. I sat on the edge of the couch, ready to pull myself up and go to the store -- for an hour and a half before I finally shoved myself out the door.
I patted myself on the back for having prepared dinner every evening after work, but when I walked in from the grocery store and the sink was still full of dishes while my teenagers lounged around the house, I wanted to scream. Well, I might have done a little yelling.
And the teenagers weren't lounging all day. Two went to school, one went to jury duty. Two had sports practices and one volunteered in the high school costume shop for the upcoming musical. Then they lounged.
The scary thing is that I like my job but I'm still feeling over my head trying to keep up.
How about you? Are you exhausted after work or does it just take some adapting to the new year?

Working World

For anyone, who like me, was fortunate enough to avoid the work world for a long time, I want to reassure you that you are not missing anything. Okay, maybe a paycheck, which is nice, and some work colleagues, which can be fun.
But I think when I tell you that the training class I am taking (required but without pay) is using words like pedagogy and Bloom's taxonomy, you'll realize how lucky you are to be cleaning toilets at home.
Here I am teaching 24 college credit hours, which means I'm grading about 60 hours per week, when one of the colleges decides all of its professors need a three-week training course that requires about five hours of work per week. I have to take quizzes and enter threaded discussions and, thank God, the webinar wasn't working so I got to avoid that.
Now I dream of the days when I threatened my children to get them to finish their algebra and sat around at floor hockey chatting with the other mothers. Sure, I worked writing articles for the local newspaper, but as long as I met my deadlines, no one was forcing me to jump through training hoops.
This afternoon I have a department meeting at the other college where I teach, but I don't mind these so much because A. I get paid, and B. It will be crowded enough that I can grade papers while the department chair talks. She's funny anyway, and, as you'll recall from an earlier post, she likes me!
If you have leisure time, enjoy it. As a matter of fact, enjoy some extra time for me.