Once again, it has been a very long time and this entry is long overdue.
Early in June EAST held their end of the school year, 'learn, greet and eat meeting'. That one is always a big deal because it is the last time, before the district guest teacher inservice, most of us will see each other. Since we pretty much all go our separate ways and guest teachers don't have a 'base' school site it isn't until that inservice that nearly 200 of us get together in one large room and have a chance to catch up.
The end of year meeting of EAST in June was significant for another reason and only a couple of my guest teacher colleagues know the reason. I am talking about the fact that the EAST budget has been cut, for the second time in as many years, and we will be working with less than half what we had two years ago. This is a blow because while the teacher's unit seems to be shrinking our numbers are increasing and we now have to make do on what feels like less than a shoestring.
That being the case, I felt it was incumbent on me to go out -- so to speak -- with a bang. Of course I wanted to spend every penny of our already limited budget on the food and drawing prizes and I came close. Since I have to front the money for everything for these events it can be challenge to avoid using the credit card and pay cash. Luckily, this time, I had just been paid for the month of May so I had money in my pocket. First I took myself to Costco the day before the meeting and picked up an array of yummy stuff that I would never buy for my own family -- I was kinda throwing caution to the wind -- but because I avoided meats I was able to provide a pretty good variety of filling quality victuals for our guest teachers. I short trip to Freddy's for some mini-croissants and a bag of ice filled the table to capacity. As for the drawing prizes, well, suffice it to say, I love clearance bins! Oh, don't jump to conclusions, it was all quality stuff. Actually, I only found one item in the clearance bin because I got lucky with sales and had a gift card with a bit left and a coupon. But, what will I do next time? Maybe a potluck? Thank goodness that is a bridge yet to be crossed.
