Try my patience. PLEASE.

I just got back from my evening class. You know, while things are generally good, I think with the new job, there is a certain hazard for working where you enjoy your recreational exercise. I'm getting really angry about it, but I'll explain in a moment.

Class was fine generally. I had to work with Matthew on drills and form. I don't mind generally, but when you are working with a Downs kid, you have to slow things down DRASTICALLY. Em was helping us, but while she's a walking encyclopedia of understanding the forms, at the same time (and she's been criticized for it too), she truly lacks people skills. She even knows less with how to deal with little kids, and effectively Downs kids like Matthew (in many respects, you treat them the same way). When I work with Matthew, I never talk down to him. I try to speak on his level, but I'm always respectful and help him, and I think in many ways he does well in class when working with me because I have the patience and can talk him through things better than most people. It's probably from having a nonverbal child with sensory issues that I know how to elicit the response I need, not that Matthew is nonverbal, because he's not. But while he's probably about 20 years old, instructing him is not too different from me instructing my Bear Cubs, but he's a little more responsive because he knows what to do from a long time of repetition. So anyway, I had to learn my form from Em, and do it super slow and be patient for Matthew to catch up. While I was in an okay mood about it then, in retrospect I wish I had a night where I could do it at a normal pace. I have to know the whole thing in a week and a half, after all, and doing it ONCE VERY SLOWLY isn't going to help me learn it. It helps me learn my teaching skills, but not what *I* need to learn for myself. I did get a little extra help on my Jahng Bong tonight, and learned another section. Again, Em is no help because unless she's showing, and she can't show it well due to rotation limitations she has due to her CP. Thank goodness Ryan could show me the next section, and then when talking about a new move, Dean was there to show me this move that Em couldn't demonstrate. It's called the butterfly move, and it's something I'll have to practice. Sparring was fine; it was against Matthew first, and then Dima, who's a little boy about 8 years old (yeah, small class tonight), and then against a punching bag. Good practice, huh? Board breaking was really good. I did my side kick in one shot tonight, no do-overs, so I'm happy about that. I'll pass permission to test next week with no problem.

So, after class, I'm looking behind the desk, making sure that things are organized and I understand what's been going on during the night so I know what to follow up on tomorrow, and that's when it happened. Let me backtrack a little. I keep a folder of my "To-Do" things either at the Front Desk or on Susan's desk, which is only about 3-4 feet away (in another room just off the mats area). Yesterday, my folder, which is clearly marked, disappeared. I reasoned this morning when I found it missing that perhaps Susan picked it up by accident last night when gathering some other things. It had my notes to myself and my cheat sheets in there. I can't find it anywhere, and I haven't asked her, but I figured maybe it'll show up. (Still hasn't tonight). But since we are now handing out the graduation forms that people have to return to indicate which time they are coming and the fee they are paying, I made a folder for the return forms, as some parents fill out the form and pay immediately. (In fact, my form was the first one in there.) So, yes, you can guess what's missing tonight when I got to check the desk after class. GRRRRRRR! I want to scream! I am SO sick of these kids goofing off and not doing what they are supposed to be doing. Who moved it? Who put it in a place that no one can find it to follow up if needed? I need to talk to SW about this. She's hired me to basically be able to run things during the day and keep things organized to help run her business efficiently in her frequent absence. How can I do this if a bunch of teenagers have no regard for what they need to do? Most of these kids are honor students at school too, so you'd figure that they would be relatively good at helping out, since they, too, are being paid to mind the front desk and help out. Instead, they goof off and they pay no regard to what they are doing. I'm being paid to keep things going in such a way that SW doesn't HAVE to be there, but she can pick up where I leave off, and I can pick up where she leaves off, and the business runs smoothly. Even tonight, Ryan thought he had a walk-in, and it wasn't completely. He wrote enough info down that I was able to match it up with a call sheet of a call where I returned a voice mail message that we got, but the person didn't return MY call. She did by being a walk-in tonight. I was able to put all the info together, and I was thrilled that the system that we are trying to develop worked. But then to find that the grad slips' folder is missing, and my personal work folder is missing....I am just fed up. I think I have to write SW a email to, well, not so much complain, but at least bring to her attention things I'm concerned about going awry. (How does that sound?). I swear I think there is a conspiracy today to try my patience. Really. It's that bad. I feel like I'm losing my mind, but it was lost to begin with, so I don't need this.