Waiting for the Phone to Ring

There was this hysterical card we passed around when I was single. It showed a single woman lounging on her couch saying how much she enjoyed evenings alone when she could reflect and listen to her favorite music. Then when you opened it, you saw her staring at the phone with the bubble in her head saying, "Ring you miserable hunk of plastic!"

Now the phone I listen for is actually a recording of the subfinder calling me about available substitute jobs. Last year it rang off the hook and I was picky. If I heard it was a middle school I would hang up. I would turn down jobs that were more than 10 minutes away. But oh what a change in the economy will do. With the huge amount of displaced teachers the Santa Ana district is giving top priority to these pink slipped teachers. Thus I can't even listen for available jobs to choose - No they call me and I grab that miserable piece of plastic and dive for Middle School Boys PE miles away, Advance Math, and Special Ed.

I can still be proactive with the Orange School district and look for available positions but again they prioritize the displaced of which I am one from last year, so the calls do come but I can't afford to be choosy - I just took a High School job teaching history since it was 2 days and I'm Middle Schooling tommorrow unless the other district comes through with one closer.

They called me at 8:30 this morning for a job that started at 8:00 but I was happy to work - in many ways I am a day laborer. At the beginning of September I took a mystery job at a High School praying that it wouldn't be Math and was ecstatic that it was Science - something I could bluff - well it turned out that I was basically babysitting a new teacher waiting to sign his contract.

Anyway I feel like I'm dating again, scared to leave home lest the phone ring. I can transfer it to my cell but it's still that being at the mercy of that miserable piece of plastic.