Come On Summer!

It's been a long school year. I can almost taste the last day of school. It won't get here soon enough. It's been an interesting year as far as being a crossing guard goes as well. There have been some good things about this year, as well as bad. I have to remind myself of the good when something bad happens.

I had to make a list to help get me through the last few weeks of school. Here goes. 

The people and things I will miss:

-The moms who allowed me to get to know them by name. They've made the mornings and afternoons a pleasure. Here's to new acquaintances and friends. 

-The kids who were ready to get to school each and every day. Some of those kids had the sweetest disposition.
-The school bus driver who actually tried to keep the Christmas spirit alive by leaving his interior Christmas lights up well after the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour was over.
-The extra money was nice. I could earn a little play money and it didn't take me away from my kids.
-The people who drive by and just wave to say hello. They're not dropping off kids, they're just on their way to work. Or wherever.

There will also be some things that I won't miss:
-the alarm clock. Need I say more?
-Seeing kids that are way too small to be sitting in the front seat of cars.
-People who don't understand what my "Stop" sign really means.
-The woman in the minivan with a permanent scowl on her face. Everyday.
-The extreme cold/heat. The weather has not been my friend much this year.

It's been an interesting year. Goodbye homework. Goodbye to being a crossing guard at the corner.  Hopefully, summer will wipe away the headaches of the past school year. It will give us time to nurture new friendships and maintain the existing ones. Plenty of opportunity for fun, relaxation and FREE TIME.

Stop! If You Know What's Good For You....

I've seen on a couple of other blogs about rule followers. I have to admit, I am one also. For the most part. It occurs to me at times. Not every time, but I guess when I'm playing crossing guard it REALLY occurs to me. The process before leaving my corner is to:

1. hold up stop sign

2. blow whistle

3. stay in middle of intersection til every child is out of the crosswalk and on the sidewalk

The steps for the simpletons behind car steering wheels is to stop moving and stay put until the kids are out of the crosswalk. This is for the safety of the kids. The walking kids. 

There's hardly a dull morning or afternoon. I guess this particular morning was no different. I'm doing my usual routine when kids are coming across the crosswalk and a fellow* is turning right. Right in front of the kids who are crossing the crosswalk. 

Then there's another idiot who thinks the stop sign doesn't apply to him. Same story. Same day. He thinks it's okay to turn right when there are kids coming toward him in the crosswalk. Then when said idiot comes back by after dropping his kid off he finds it necessary to drive by me slowly and stare. As if I was in the wrong. 

I wish I had a sign big enough that says: "You people will get to wherever you're going. If you're late, it's not my problem you should have gone a different way or left earlier. You are sitting in a warm, comfortable car. These kids that are walking aren't. If you don't like your odds of getting stopped in the intersection go another way. I have a pretty good memory of the a**holes that come through here. When I see you coming again I will purposely stop you each and every time until you learn your lesson." 

I kid. I kid. A little. 

I gave mankind too much credit when I was considering this job. There are some loons out there when it comes to getting kids to/from school. 

*the father of a kid who plays with my oldest. they live down the street. a fellow with five kids and old enough to know better.

P.S. Kudos to the wife of the older fellow! She called later on that day to say, that he knew he was in the wrong. He apologized. There is hope!

Relationships and Their Ups and Downs

William James* once said, "Whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude." Forget conflict, isn't everything better when your attitude is in check? On most days my attitude longs to be different. Then, when striving to be different with people, some of those people aren't willing to let that change or deepening happen. It's a constant battle of me wanting to be better and others putting me down for wanting to be that change.

On most days I kid that if you have nothing nice to say come sit by me.** I love to have a good time, and kid around. I have a sarcastic sense of self. Whether trying to meet new people and forging new bonds or repairing or deepening those that are already in place seem to be a challenge. I can make all the changes I want to in me, but if others aren't willing to let those changes come to fruition and let the relationship move beyond and into what it could be, I'm still stuck.

Take for instance, during my crossing guard duty I have some of the nicest moms come through. They are always nice and wanting to have some conversation. No matter how short it might be. I even have people drive through who aren't dropping kids off and they wave! There are other moms that come through and it's as if I need to roll out a red carpet for them. They're still back in high school thumbing their noses at the chick who's working the corner. To give me the time of day would be against their religion. Whatever. 

When we first started attending a certain church I thought to myself, "Let's try and invite people over for conversation and get to know each other". I was going to break out of my shell and try to be social. So we did. I love having people over. Hospitality is probably my only spiritual gift, but hey, it's a gift. We invited lots of people over a few different times. I thought a good time was had by all but it was never reciprocated. Either we were geographically undesirable or personality wise undesirable. I don't know. That's here nor there. Sometimes I like to invite people over for no reason. Just to spend time with them. But, after so many "no"'s I just quit asking. I can take a hint.

What to do? Go ahead and put the walls back up? Then again, walls are no fun when they're put up in my face from others. It's almost exhausting with how many walls there are to keep up with. I don't want to give up hope that people will one day be more receptive, but alas, I can't force them to feel something they aren't ever going to feel. 

I'm not sure what my goal is to change things or if they can be changed. Is it just life or our fate that determines how many or how few people we get close to? Is it parental upbringing or social status, life experiences or political/religious views? It's out of my control and out of my hands.

I have to give it up to Him. I have to keep making the changes in my life that lift Him up. I don't think I've lost hope just yet. 

*American philosopher and psychologist

** Steel Magnolias has some of the best movie quotes of all time

The Things I Like About My Job as a Crossing Guard

During the cold months when my face is freezing I am going to have to remind myself why I do this job. Well, I guess I'll be reminding myself, "Why" again when it's 100 degrees as well....

1. I get to tell people what to do! A ticked off crossing guard is not pretty. That red sign I am holding up  really means to "STOP". Don't go anywhere. Nothing else. Just wait. You will get to where you are going in plenty of time. 

2. I can walk to work if I want to. The school is only four doors down. 

3. I have my own parking spot. On days when the weather is really bad, I just park my car in my spot next to the farm*. It's like this little parking spot just for ME. 

4. Most of the kids who walk through my crosswalk are great. They are sweeter than sweet and so polite! 

5. I only work on the days my kids have school. 

6. I get paid for three hours worth of working, but I only work about an hour and fifteen minutes. It's like getting paid to take my kids to school and walking them home. There's just a few more kids in the mix. 

7. There are some moms that are very friendly. I'm not sure I ever would have met these moms since I live in another direction of my corner. 

8. It gives me something to look forward to besides doing laundry, cleaning the house, and doing the grocery shopping. I feel like I am contributing something to more people than those in my own home.

9. I do it because I want to, not because I have to. 

Those are the reasons I like my job as a crossing guard. I have the best of both worlds. Don't knock it! 

*Yes, I really do live near a farm in what some may call a "snobby, uppity and pretentious city"

Enthusiasm

Everyday while "working my corner"* I see a mix of people. People going to work. People going to school. People just out getting exercise. Young, old and in between. Some of them are nice, Some are jerks. There are some that seem indifferent. 

There is one little girl that has stood out. Her mom drops her off each morning by car. But, whatever the weather, the little girl rolls down the window and waves to me and smiles. While I was bundled up this morning in below sixty degree weather, she still rolled down her window this morning. She waved to me and smiled enthusiastically. Her happiness was contagious. 

I am not necessarily a morning person. Not on days when I HAVE to get up. On days that I am allowed to sleep in it always works out that I wake and and I'm ready to go at 0 dark thirty. So me venturing into a job where I have to have myself and two kids ready to go by 7:10 in the morning is wild. Much less having to be cheery about it. 

This is easier said that done, but may we approach things and people with the same enthusiasm of that little girl. 

*My trainer kept referring to it as "working your corner". WOW. Where the mind goes....

I Thought Wrong!

Before I started my crossing guard duties I thought to myself, "a piece of cake!" This morning was my first morning where curse words were wanting to rear their ugly heads. It was not pretty, folks! The morning started off the same as it did yesterday. The sun came up. Yeah! I remembered my gloves. Yeah! It was Friday. Yeah! 

But if all Fridays go like this, I'm ready for summer break! School starts at 7:45 and it was getting very close to the last bell. There was one last little girl that came walking up. The rules are that the crossing guard needs to stop traffic and give the go ahead for the kids to cross. I had cars blocking the crosswalk, which they're not supposed to do. So, I couldn't necessarily let this girl go across because I've seen cars back up in the cross walk and personally, I don't need any casualties on my watch. Thank you very much. 

The little girl asked if she could cross, but I told her just to wait until the cars moved out of the cross walk. I would then stop traffic so she could cross. Then one guy in his car stops in the middle of the intersection and starts flagging for the girl to cross. There were other moms there with me who had already dropped off their kids. We saw what he was doing and all of us chimed in for her not to go. The driver stayed in the middle of the intersection and started saying some very colorful words. It didn't impress me much because one of my very unholy talents is that I could probably cuss him under the table. 

This is why you don't stop in the middle of a crossing guard intersection. You never know if the car behind you is a bigger jerk than the one in front. In this case there was a bigger jerk behind the first one. The second jerk pulled out and went around. Sure enough, had that girl gone ahead and crossed she would have been flattened. 

I'm sorry if she slept late. I'm sorry that she had to wait a little while to cross.I'm sorry that she had to stand in the cold maybe a little while longer than she might have wanted to.  I'm not sorry that she's still able to walk among us. I'm not sorry that she's still able to breathe in air and be with her friends. I was truly petrified for a moment. I was thankful that I had other moms there with me to witness the whole thing. 

Mornings will truly be a little more stressful than the afternoons because of people going to work. And I was thinking my biggest worry was going to be the weather?!?!?!

Tales of a Crossing Guard

Recently the job of crossing guard became available at my children's school. I've heard it once said that being a crossing guard is like getting paid to take your children to and from school. Yes, you saw that right. I'm getting bank for this! Of course we get all of the school holidays and breaks and it's not even two hours out of the day. SWEET! 

Yes, there is a down side. The bad weather days. I have a rockin new rain coat, courtesy of the city in which I live and baseball caps are my friends. My ears will stay warm thanks to the cute little ear mitts that I recently purchased. Another down side would be the offensively bright yellow/green reflective vest that clashes with my hair color and skin tone. That color should be illegal. 

I had my training session yesterday afternoon. It was alright.  I listened and observed my trainer. I was petrified. I kept thinking of the worst scenario that could happen. Like a kid darting back out into traffic. Or, an driver that thinks he/she doesn't have to obey the traffic laws. There's really only a small ten minute window that's a little crazy. For the other 20 minutes it's really boring. My trainer kept making it clear that a police detective lives in the house across the street from the school and he's called several times about kids being in his yard. Dude, why did you buy a house right across the street from a school? I'm supposed to get the kids safely across the street. If they happen to accidentally step into his yard, it's really not my problem. 

We headed out for my first morning of crossing guard duty while it was still dark outside. It was so quiet. As if everyone was still asleep.  I've never made it a point to get up early enough to see the sun come up, but that was a nice surprise this morning. Slowly it came over the houses and trees and the dark was no more. It was glorious. 

Most of the morning it went off without a hitch. It's really a very quiet neighborhood. Not a lot of traffic. The kids were nice. The moms were nice, until I met one. She had walked her kid to school and she was walking back home and said, "Good job, for the most part". Excuse me? I said it was my first day, and that I thought I was doing relatively well. I'm not sure if she thought I should have rolled out a red carpet just for her. But dream on lady. 

There were a few drivers who thought they didn't have to stop as I was walking into the middle of the intersection. I'm thinking if you don't want to get stopped by a crossing guard, find another way in and out of the neighborhood. There are plenty of them. After the first one, I let some words fly. I was pretty sure they couldn't hear me, but they could see my mouth moving and the expression on my face was not a nice one. Don't worry, there were no children around to hear my words. 

Here's to good weather, cold weather, rain and sun. Here's to making bank just for taking my kids to and from school.