Where have I been?

Okay, it's been another long break from blogging or even living.  As I last wrote, I was doing a stint as a long-term substitute teacher in a high school math special education classroom.  With any long-term sub job, I was responsible for everything -- teaching, planning, meetings, etc.  It, well, became my life.  Here was a typical day:

• 5am -- get up and feed most of the cats
• 5:30am -- feed Maggie and Isabel by hand
• 5:45am -- drink coffee and eat breakfast
• 6am -- feed Maggie, medicate Isabel
• 6:15am -- pack lunch, change clothes
• 6:30am -- leave home
• 7:30am -- arrive at school
• 8-9am -- should be my prep period but often I was subbing for someone else this period
• 9-11:45am -- teach morning classes
• 11:45-12:15 -- lunch, do some grading, supervise Anime club
• 12:15-3pm -- teach afternoon classes
• 3-5pm -- "teacher stuff": grade work, enter grades, call parents, tutor, talk to other teachers, etc.
• 6pm -- arrive home, change clothes
• 6:15pm -- feed most cats
• 6:30pm -- hand feed Maggie and Isabel
• 6:45pm -- eat supper
• 7:30pm -- play on internet (mainly at http://www.persian-cats.com/)
• 8:15pm -- clean litter boxes
• 8:30pm -- groom Isabel
• 8:45pm -- put cats to bed, feed Maggie
• 9pm -- got to bed, read for 15 minutes if lucky

As you can see, there's not a lot of extra time in there for anything.  The "play on internet" was the only "fun" thing and it was there because (a) anything else was too tiring and (b) helping others with their cats was what kept me sane.

So, the end of the school year comes, the administration talks about how they want me, the teacher I was subbing for says he's coming back, and I was exhausted. 

I'm still exhausted, actually.  It's all mental stress from not knowing if I will get his job permanently or not.  If I do, I need to go back to school for 2 more years while teaching fulltime.  If I don't get the job, do I still work on a special ed credential?  I've applied for various other jobs, but thanks to my experience in special ed, I'm now branded as a special education teacher.  So do I chuck education all together?  Do I apply for every math job even when I would have to get  an apartment there and barely break even?  (Sorry, I refuse to sell this house!)  I can't decide whether to cry or scream.

Enough gloomy stuff.

The cats are doing well.  I'm going to start doing some art again -- stone sculpture and oil wildlife paintings.  I found a wonderful site on which to catalog my books (http://www.librarything.com/ ).  I have several ideas for Plan C and even Plan D, if this teaching stuff doesn't work out.