Yeah, I’ve been pretty tired lately, on account of it has been a shitty week. This time last week I thought I had a nice teaching job lined up, within driving distance to home, and everything was looking OK. I quit my job at the liquor store so I could start on Tuesday. Then, on Monday morning, I actually went down there to look at the school. That’s when things started to turn shitty.

When I talked to the people there, everyone kept telling me over and over how hard the school was. How the students had no social skills and how I couldn’t teach the way I usually did because they would find the work too hard. They warned me, and they warned me again. Then they warned me some more. It seemed like the worst school in the history of anything. As I drove home to get ready for my last shift at the bottle shop, I was freaking out.

But eventually I coaxed myself into a state of cautious optimism, so I rang up the education department that afternoon and said I’d take the job.

That night, I couldn’t sleep because I had started to freak out all over again. After watching dvd nature documentaries until four AM, I decided that I would turn down the job. There was no way I could turn up in the morning all jittery and white as a sheet and expect to be taken seriously by the students.

After that I got about an hour’s worth of crappy, crappy sleep. I showed up in Mandurah at seven AM and waited for the school to open, then told them that I couldn’t do the job. They seemed OK with that, and the secretary even gave me the number of the RAC when I realised that I’d locked my keys in my car.

So, that was shitty. I did some relief on Wednesday and Thursday at a really good school, and that was fun but it just brought home to me how hard it is to get into a place like that. All the dudes there had been on the job for twenty years and could do it in their sleep.

Anyway, with no job - not even my old casual job - it’s time for me to find something asap. Maybe I’ll forget teaching for a while and do something simpler. With bits of paper and a computer. Less pay in it, but I might enjoy it.

I just got offered a job at a junior high in Mandurah, and it’s a 90% probability that I’m taking it. I’ll probably have to start Tuesday. Here’s the pro and con:

Pro: MONEYZ; it’s a small school so it should be easy to get to know the kids and develop a reputation as a tough teacher; it’s in the metro area; jobs are rare this year.

Cons: it’s still 50min by car which will suck; it’s a poor area so the kids will be difficult to work with; I have no idea about the programs that I’m supposed to be teaching; it’s a junior high so I’ll have to move again in one or two years in order to teach senior school.

But obviously, the moneyz is the important thing here. I’ll let you know how it goes!

Man, I remember the days when people didn’t know about my blog and I could bitch about them on it. Seriously. Good times. I have a whole list now, but I can’t use it. You should probably just assume you’re on it and treat me with more deference next time you see me.

Anyways, instead of ranting I just want to know if anyone else has read The Best Australian Poems 2009. There is a lot in there that just doesn’t make sense to me or seems crap. For example, what’s the deal with ‘Dark Bird’ by Kevin Hart? And is ∏.O.’s poem just a jumble of words or does it mean something? If you could help me with this stuff, I’d be grateful.

In other news, I still have no class. Of students, I mean. Not even relief classes. Bottle shop work is boring and there are a million cockroaches in that place. And now Centrelink wants me to take a class on writing a resume or something. Fuck that.

On a positive note, I have been able to spend my free time watching the TV show Weeds. Someone should have told me about it ages ago. It’s excellent. Funny, fast-paced, and with heaps of swearing. Not to mention Mary-Louise Parker, who now holds the special place in my heart formerly occupied by Tina Fey.

But really though, has anyone read that book?