Beyond Chaos

Blog Week 3
Absolute Chaos
These last couple weeks at work have been absolute chaos, maybe worse. My mother owns a childcare center, but is currently on vacation in Egypt (as she has been for the last 2 months), so I’ve been running it while she’s gone. I’m a teacher there usually, but dealing with bills and annoying people who don’t want to work takes it to a while other level. My mom for some reason thinks its perfectly fine to just up and leave for a few months, leaving me in charge while I also go to school full time and take care of the house, which includes cooking every night and cleaning because my father is Arab and is old school. I really love working with kids, and luckily we are licensed for 44 children, but thank god I have 7-9 other staff usually working. These past few weeks however, we were already looking for two new teachers for two of our classrooms because we just enrolled about 6 new kids. Then our Pre- K teacher, who has only been working for two months, just didn’t show up one day. We panicked, made it through that day to find out she has preeclampsia(high blood pressure) and is pregnant so she probably will not be returning for a few months. Ms. Martha, our infant room teacher, that had just marked the probation period a week ago, has now discovered that she has arthritis and has been sending us doctor’s notes saying she can no longer work. On top of all this, we are under probation from licensing for another mistake, so if licensing comes and we aren’t fully staffed with the correct ration of students to teachers, they could very easily shut us down. Therefore this may have easily been the most stressful week of my “career”.
On top of this, I’m trying to deal with the stress of figuring out my graduation requirements, figuring out when I am supposed to find time to study for the GRE, and actually apply to take it, stressing over all the work I have to do for my classes, figuring out time do even do that work, stressing over planning two bridal showers and helping plan my brother’s wedding, AND dealing with my father and his demands for the house. I am definitely the kind of person who becomes stressed over the slightest things, so at this point my stress level is at a 100, I can’t sleep, I have a constant migraine, and anytime I complain to my mom, she replies, “it’s okay honey, just don’t stress yourself out”…really? Thanks mom!
There really are just not enough hours in a day. For the past couple weeks, I’ve been working at 6:15 am, the going to school, gym if there’s time because I have 3 months to get in shape for my brothers wedding, then I go back to work until 6 pm, come home and cook and clean and by that time all I really want to do is sleep, but I usually am awake until about 1-2am doing homework. Sleep has not been much of an option lately, and it’s beginning to really take a toll on me. I can tell that I’m crankier, have less patience, have crazy mood swings, and get so emotional over everything. I sound like a 13 year old going through the beginning stages of puberty, it’s just fabulous.
All I pray is that all of “this” be settled soon. I hope we hire 3 new fabulous teachers, who aren’t pregnant, disabled, or lazy. I hope that everyone gets their “stuff” and really starts to work hard. I would like to have time to just sleep, study for my GRE’s, and just “relax” a little. I really can’t wait until December, when I should be going to Egypt for a month for my best friends wedding and to visit friends and family I haven’t seen in almost 3 years. This will be the first actual vacation I’ve taken off work and school in 3 years, so I would say it’s much needed and deserved. So, dear next 3 months, PLEASE move along as quickly as possible. Thanks!