Headaches

Rough week. The only bright hope is that there is only one month of school left.

Middle school students, especially the sixth graders, are absolutely driving me up a wall. Every single day -- they think that they are pretty funny, but of course, they are not! Then, they wonder why I get so angry at them all the time. If only they could keep their mouths shut.

Even though I know I'm going to keep my job, the stress level continues to be high. The weather is crappy and my baseball team cannot play their games (we have to make them all up -- the month of May is going to be hectic), I haven't been sleeping well (again), and even some of the things that Kate does drives me crazy. I've been snippy, yes -- but I guess that is what happens when a person has so much responibility -- I just have to "take it out" once in a while. And drinking beer doesn't solve anything!

I'm just itching for the summer months. Mike has reported that there is a possible softball roster opening back at the Home Town, so I would drive up there once a week. Hopefully it'll all work out. Maybe I'll even get on a team here, but I haven't heard anything yet.

Just a few things: the Nocturnal Adrenaline race at Lowe's Motor Speedway last Thursday night -- well, it could have been better. I was going to play the tire management game. It was all going fine until Lap 28 (out of 140) and I was taken out on the backstretch. Another driver had pitted early (I think he was caught up in an early accident or spin-out) and I knew it. He was coming up quick behind me. I was hoping he'd pull to the inside, but for some odd reason, he simply ran me over, sending me into the inside wall and back up against the wall in Turn 3. I sustained medium damage to my car -- which really sucked -- because now due to the loss of aerodynamics, I was now running almost 2 seconds a lap slower than the leaders.

But I stuck it out, eventually finishing 4th out of the original 10 drivers. I was also 12 laps down, which isn't very impressive. I also got black flagged for speeding on pit road, which, on my part, was plenty stupid.

Next week: Michigan. I tested there yesterday in my #66 Best Buy Dodge Charger and I even beat out Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s qualifying record -- in race trim. Damn fast, if you ask me!

If you're wondering about this other picture, that's my "other" Dodge, the #66 Sony Vaio, which I raced at Richmond and Darlington this season. Here, I'm testing against other computer-driven cars (Dale Jarrett and Jeff Gordon), learning the ways of the aero-loose at Lowe's Motor Speedway (here, you can see me getting a little loose after I passed Gordon on the inside -- saved it though!).

Then, this morning, I had to take the PPST, the Pre-Professional Standardized Test for teachers. I should have taken this back in South Dakota, but then, I didn't have to. It costs around $150 to take, complete with reading, writing, and math portions. The writing section absolutely sucked. I even heard of a fellow faculty member who failed that section 3 times before passing it. God, I don't want to take it again.

Well, I'm off the see the Grand March. It's Prom season -- and it'll be a nice change of pace to see the students all pimped out -- compared to lookin' like shit in my class!