I knew today was going to suck.
My weekend was…exasperating. I never got that work done. I flat out didn’t. So here it is, in my e-mail box, perhaps the opportunity that I’ve been waiting on for the last four years and…
And I can’t answer the door because I’m getting a bottle for a kid every two minutes, or keeping the short people from beating the hell out of each other when they should be in bed or answering Big T’s inane questions at weird times or sweetly disentangling myself from beloved Chicken because she tends to glom or… or… or… or ANYTHING that revolves around kids who won’t let me alone for 2 1/2 minutes to allow a lousy stinking thought to rattle around my head like a lone gum ball in a cracked gum-ball machine when, apparently, Mate has some sort of OFF repellent for anything resembling a distraction as his animated troll kicks ass.
So walking into my students was going to suck. I knew it. I had, in no way, shape, or form, achieved the psychic healing that I needed to face them, and I hated them all as they walked up the ramp.
I hated them all as I taught my 2nd period. Even the nice ones.
I hated them all as I blew by my 3rd period to get to the bathroom, and I hated them all plus the guy in the stall I was waiting for as I waited to use it.
And then my colleague came out of the john, and I asked him if he ever hated the world, and he responded, “No. I just don’t let them get to me.”
I said, “Well, maybe that’s the flipside of being a ‘blue’.” (This is school code for emotion-driven, thanks to one of the cheeziest in-services I’ve ever been herded into with a cattle-prod.)
He rolled his eyes–he disapproves of ‘blue-ness’ and I laughed. And then this song hit me.
It’s on the Gray’s Anatomy soundtrack–it is, in fact, called ‘I hate everyone.’ It is not a mean-assed metal song–in fact, it has this really perky beat with this really sweet-voiced singer and the irony between that perky beat and that misanthropic message makes you laugh just to hear it.
I played the song during lunch and for the next two periods, there it was, running around in my head…All the people in the street…
I hate you all.
And the people that I see.
I hate you all.
And the people that I don’t.
I hate you all.
And all of the sudden, I’m laughing, secretly, to myself, because the kids saw me, dancing around, humming to myself, talking over, around, under, and through their relentless narcissism, and they thought I was in a good mood.
And, abruptly, so I was.
I told one of my best students in 6th period (where, I determined, 1/4 of the class has a gpa of less than 1.0–they’re Juniors. This means their odds of graduating are roughly the odds of me, winning the American Junior Miss pageant, should I decide to enter) about the song, and she thought it was funny. Then, as I waited for the class to basically calm down, we both caught me humming it out loud.
She burst out laughing–of all people, she is the most victimized by the horrendous manners of my 6th period class, since they do deprive her of the education she’s working her ass off to get.
And then my transformation was complete.
And isn’t that the coolest paradox? By embracing my right to be a grumpy bitch, abruptly I didn’t hate anyone at all:-)
Dude, what it is with the Daddy kid-repellent? I can sbe up to my elbows in raw meat trying to get dinner going, and kiddo will walk right past her dad sitting there watching tv to ask me for help with something. We both work, so it’s not even a primary care-giver kind of thing.
But kudos on getting yourself out of the bad mood – I struggle with that one myself.
Now I want to hear the song. And one of my kitties seems to have Cory-repellant – she wakes me up at 630 or 7 am but she will let him sleep until 1 pm if I am away. Small stuff relative to your 4 kids, but I shudder to think that this might be a preview of what it will be like when we have our own rugrats.
I love it! Thanks for empowering all of us who occasionally need to embrace our grumpy bitch.
I was in a crabby mood yesterday, largely because it was warm (42F) here and everyone and their brother was out in public. And apparently giddy and stupid with the weather change. I was snarling to myself, grumbling and b&tching when I got out of my car in a parking lot and saw a family – mom, little girl, and daddy in a uniform. I was still a little grumbly, until I heard the little one say “Daddy, I’m going to miss you when you go back to Iraq.” Suddenly, all the annoying people weren’t so annoying. It’s amazing what a little perspective will do.
Yes – what is that – I can be in the toilet and the kids walkj past Dad to pound on the door and ask me to tie the damn shoelaces of something! Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!
But a great thing to do with the song! – I have an Ipod now and intend to keep those things on my ears constantly so I can’t hear the whining!
I love the way you instinctively find the best solutions to your problems. Best of luck with that publisher deal! Just point out how well you’ve done without them and ask them to imagine how much money you could make for them with their help.
I have days when I have everyone, everywhere, living, dead, or yet to be, including myself and my beloved, too. I think it’s a hazard of working where I do. I used to think this means I’m a bad person, but then I realized that everyone has days where they would quite happily push the button that would send the Earth spinning into the sun, if only to make everyone go away. And if they don’t, then they must be seeing a doctor who believes in medicating.
I’m crossing my fingers for you on the publisher deal. Would it help if I sacrificed a goat? Virgins are kinda tough to come by around these parts, there’s lots of old people with grandkids around. Oh, and there’s that whole pesky murder is illegal thing.