well, that was an interesting weekend...

That's for sure. For starters, I received a phone call from a member of management from the school district that has the charter agreement with Gateway Learning Academy. He explained, in great, bumbling detail, that I was not hired because...

"...the staff demographic did not match that of the community which the school services."

Oh really? And what might that mean? When I pressed this fellow for more answers, I posed the very direct question, "so, are you telling me I was not hired because I'm a white male?" The reply...

"...I'm not necessarily saying yes or no. I'm telling you that you were the tipping point, therefore you were deemed ineligible for hire."

Translation...yep, I was not hired simply based on my ethnicity. However, that can be deemed legal under some laws here in CT. Some hiring laws for public education can be read so as to dictate that the school district must at least attempt to match it's service demographic. My thought is, essentially...whatever.

Sunday was met with running around all over New Britain as my future bride's grandmother (all 89 years old of her) was in the hospital, seemingly ready to take her last breath. Honest to goodness, when I tell you she looked as though she was going to cross to the other side at any minute, I'm not speaking a word of a lie. Attached to machines, doctors and people talking about what DNRs and DNIs, etc. We stayed until about 5, having to pick up Kathleen's cousin at the airport.

Yet low and behold, by 6PM, the woman was back to her old self, asking for dinner and anxiously awaiting the arrival of her grandson, grand daughter and me. Amazing. She'll be 90 very soon, and she's one tough Assyrian, that's for sure. Wow. From thinking death is imminent to asking for dinner and wanting to know when she'd be able to eat Capitol Lunch hot dogs in one day...geez.

And today, I get what I believe is a real, honest to goodness commitment for a teaching gig here in town, right down the street from my home (I'm a mathematics specialist for the diocese of Norwich, based in an elementary school in Rockville). Granted, it's at a low paying Catholic school. But the money is better than substituting, I can walk to work, and it will allow me to pursue MA licensure and hopefully a job up there (nothing available here in CT, that's for sure).

So, while this weekend was a pretty strange ride, it turned out for the best. In fact, my head is still spinning as I now have to return to the parish to pick up my curriculum materials and figure out what I'm teaching on Wednesday...yes, Wednesday.

Wow, I can now really afford bowling! Yippee!