Math Is Not My Forte

 I made a math mistake. That is not shocking in itself as I am no genius--and certainly not a math genius--but my mistake does have long-term repercussions.

For work, I get a certain number of hours per calendar year, and I cannot go over. For the last two+ years, I haven't had an issue, but yesterday I checked my hours and realized I was in danger of going well over my limit if I didn't do something. Rather than run out of hours and be forced to take off the entire month of December with no pay, I've had to cut down my daily hours to half. With all the no-school days and holidays between now and the end of the year, I should be ok.

I was confused about how I'd managed to get through the last few years with no hours issues when I remembered that for two of those years, Covid played a large part. I was quarantined three times: once because Husband was sick, and twice because I was sick. Quarantines were at least ten days each, and missing those days, plus the fact that I take most of the summer off, got me through the years without going over my hours. This year, I haven't missed a day since summer ended, and for various reasons I won't further bore you with, the craziness of this year has had me working some longer hours. 

The good news is that I get to sleep in starting Monday. Griff decided he would prefer me to be at the building for the last part of the school day rather than first thing in the morning, and I will leave a few minutes before the last bell so I can beat the mad rush from the parking lots. 

The bad news is that I won't have as much time to talk with the students, and I will miss those chats. On the other hand, one of the students, a junior boy, is probably too attached to me, so putting some distance between us will be the best thing for him. He'll be forced to go and seek out some of his peers instead of showing up in my office every day after school and when he has his seminary class. He's a great kid with a lot of brains in his head, and he does just fine socially, so I'm not worried about him. This could be a silver lining for him. 

Meanwhile, my youngest, Gary, ended up with not one but two dates to the other high school's Homecoming dance. 

Gary and Molly, the cutie in the black dress, have been besties since they were seven, and even though Molly has since moved to a nearby town, they still get together frequently to hang out. Molly informed Gary that if she was not asked to her high school's Homecoming dance, he would be taking her. Molly also invited her friend, the girl in the red dress (whom Gary found very attractive); and Molly's older sister, the girl in the back, accompanied them and drove them all to the dance.

Poor Gary with his trousers that aren't quite long enough for his long legs! Those are the suit trousers we bought for him to wear to Sophia's wedding last year, and Gary has grown so much since then that I had to let the hem down as far as it could possibly go, and they were still too short. He's long and lanky, with no fat or muscle on him, poor kid. He is growing so fast that his pants are perpetually too short for him, but he gets longer without getting wider, so finding pants with long enough legs but a narrow enough waist is very difficult.

The next time we buy him a suit, however, it will be much more fashionable.

Gary bought them all dinner (pizza, breadsticks, and hot wings because he has a job but he can't afford four fancy dinners at a restaurant), and they had a good time. I bet he was one of very few boys who showed up with two dates instead of one.