Reassigned 2.1

The advantages continue as I was reassigned to an entirely different school site at the beginning of the year. Now, I have been reassigned to an entirely different classroom due to the fact that the Kindergarten class is too big and with some rearranging of the classrooms I some how ended up on the ghetto side of campus. I no longer have wireless internet access, the room is so old and dusty there were tumbleweeds roaming through it, and the beautiful work my aide did setting up the current classroom was all for not.

In addition, when I walked into the staff bathroom on that side of the campus I felt like I walked into a scene from Escape from LA. It’s amazing to me how the same campus could have such a contrast in regards to quality of facilities and equipment. In a matter of a couple of days I went from The Jeffersons, “Movin’ on up!” to Everyone Hates Chris. Sweet.



On another note, a couple of days ago I was trying to teach one of my students a simple word problem. As I was explaining what the problem was trying to ask, his eyes started rolling back as though he was being demon-possessed. I told him that it was okay if he didn’t understand the work initially and that I was more than willing to explain it to him again. He wasn’t having it. I never knew how a child would look like if his brain literally shut down but I do now, and lemma tell ya, it wasn’t pretty. Darn word problems. I don’t know how many times a typical person has the “Why Lord?” moments throughout a given week but that was one of them for me.

This past Friday we had English Language Development (ELD) training at the district office. If you’re an educator you know exactly how district training days works. If you’re not just know that teachers are the worst students. We do the same things that we tell our kids NOT to do (e.g., not paying attention, side conversations during instructional time, etc).

Let me explain the typical staff-training day. So the staff and I are in a Lotto poll. My buddy Larry did the math and if we hit the jackpot this weekend our take-home cut would be $7 million a piece. Word! While the training was going on, I decided to do something more productive and begin budgeting the $7 million I have not yet won. Here’s my running list:

$7,000,000 Take-home winnings
-1,000,000 Tithe – Got to give to the Lord first. If you don’t He might strike you down. Who wants to take that chance? I’m tithing more than 10% not because I’m spiritual but because I would feel better about myself when I spend it on superficial things.

$6,000,000 After tithe
- 20,000 Bills/loans
This would include my wife’s car loan. Bills/loans – I’m not really 20k in the hole but I want to give myself a buffer.

$5,980,000 After bills/loans
-1,000,000 Give this to my sister Vicky. After all that she’s been through these past couple of years, she deserves it. Not to mention if she came in with a lot of money she would do the same for me (or at least that's what she tells me).



$4,980,000 After hooking up my sister.
- 1,100,000 Buy some land and make a custom house.

3500 sq ft
5 bedrooms
4 bathrooms
Big yard for the dog. My buddy Larry did the math for me. The actual house would be about $535,000 – the rest would be the land. Interesting note, even though the lot cost 1.1 million, the property tax is based only on the cost of the house. So the 1% property tax is from the 535k and not the 1.1 million. I like to do my research when I'm budgeting money I have not yet won.


$3,880,000
- 300,000 Hook up Dom and Jess for a down payment for a home. Dom and Jess probably won’t be able to get a house in Santa Clarita for 300k but it’s a good enough down payment that will make the mortgage rate low. Of course I would require them to name their firstborn after me, regardless of gender.

$3,580,000 After hooking up Dom and Jess
- 500,000 Investment home Why not? I would buy one near Biola University, up-grade everything in it and rent it out to students. We’ll have a steady flow of income every month.

$3,080,000 After investment home
- 80,000 New car
I don’t know what I would get yet but this is the budget. Initially, I had put $30k away for a new car but Larry talked me out of it. The 80k would include a maintenance fund (e.g., brakes, tires, etc). Whatever car it ends up being it would definitely have a GSP system. I'm tired of getting lost. I could also verify any lame directions that Bryan gives me.

$3,000,000 After the car budget
- 500,000 Hooking up the in-laws – Serving the Lord faithfully through the years and raising six children, four of which turned out okay, I figured that is a pretty commendable job that deserves a kick-down. Since my mom is no longer around, I would help out my in-laws. This would probably be the nail in the “Whoever Becky (sister-in-law) marries will never measure up to Junior” coffin but I can’t help it if I rock.

$2,500,000 After hooking up the in-laws
-2,000,000 Conservative investments. Boring, I know.

$500,000 Miscellaneous: Vacations, Laker front seats, fine dining, Playstation 3, Starbucks coffee, an iphone for both the wife and I, a new laptop, buying all my groomsmen a cool gift of their choice, a puppy Rottweiler, training for the puppy Rottweiler so he could grow up and be a killing machine, a cruise for my entire grace group, and missionary support.


Well, it looks like another productive day of staff training. They even gave me a certificate for being ELD trained (I have no idea what that means). And we’re only two months into the school year. I wonder what’s going to happen next week. Stay tuned . . .