PTA Headache and other aches

So I have been asking myself why the hell did I take this position anyway. PTA President. Sounds good, sounds all official and important doesn't it? Yeah well that could not be any further from the truth. Not that I took the job to feel important. I am the one with the good self esteem...remember? I know I am important. lol Anyway.

I knew it was going to be work. I am not afraid of work. I need to be busy. That's who I am. This MS PTA was flat. No enthusiasm, no fun, just flat. So here I come to save the day. I have a great relationship with the principal, a definite plus for the president. I know most teachers by first name from being involved up to my eyeballs in the school for the past four years. I genuinely like this school. My kids have done great...they have had some really great teachers. So I think. I can do this. I am organized, outgoing I know 9 million people that I can get to help......hear the crickets? Yeah me too. But that's OK.

I have been kissing enough ass since the summer that I joke that I need a case of chapstick for Christmas. Again OK. I can do it. It turns my stomach yes, cause it goes against my grain to be a suck up. But for the kids of the MS I will do it.

I fend off annoying parents who call the school to complain. Of course said parent's name does not appear on one sign up sheet for a committee. I have never heard the name before. OK but I put on my best PTA smile and phone her up. She is taking issue with the way we are running the fundraiser. So after smiling from ear to ear during the conversation...and listening to her talk smack (teenager term I love it...kids hate when I use it apparently I am not allowed cause I am 40) I actually have her apologizing to me for calling and she is thanking me for doing such a wonderful job. I am finding that each situation is an adventure. And there is one pretty much every week. I actually said to her..."...and you can understand that pulling off a fundraiser is quite a cumbersome task." CUMBERSOME TASK?????????????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? WHO THE HELL SAYS THAT???? Apparently an ass kissing PTA President. I laughed my bloody head off after I hung up with her. What am I becoming?

The most upsetting thing about this position is that all the people I blew off who said..Are you nuts doing this? You are crazy you are gonna want to kill yourself after you are done with this...blah blah blah, may have been right.

It's the PTA psychos. The one's that are in it for the power trip. The ones that I want to say to them " If I took away your PTA title, who are you" Is this how you define yourself? Did you forget that we are supposed to have the interest of the children as our focus? Not going to PTA training weekends and having meeting after meeting to say the same stuff over and over. Not telling treasurers to fix up your books to make it look like you didn't raise money. What the hell is that???????????????????????????? I am on the warpath now and I think it will get worse before it gets better. I have even contemplated quitting. And I am not a quitter. I will probably be burnt when this is all over in June. (and I kinda signed up for two years of this crap).

One good thing is that I am part of Shortys PTA, a Kindergarten class mom. Where my biggest problem is deciding if we should use black or sparkly pipe cleaners for the spiders' legs we are making for Halloween. Where parents ask me if it's ok if they come to the Thanksgiving party and make butter with the kids rather than just send butter in. Is it ok? I could have hugged her. It reminds me why I became a PTA person. For the kids. To help make their school experience the best it can be. For my own kids. They know that I know what's going on and that they better walk the straight and narrow. I could show up at school at any given time. That the principal calls me by my first name and sometimes even calls me on my cell phone on a Sunday. (freaks them out!! haha) How the Short one's face lights up when Mommy comes to his classroom. Melts my heart. And ya know...even though the big ones say they don't like when I am up at their school, they are full of it. I was sitting at table for something at MS the other day and Jr. turns the corner on the way to the bathroom during class...and that same light his little brother had was on his face. He even said hey mom...whatcha doin'? So is it worth it? Times like that tell me yes. Gotta just keep reminding myself.

As far as other aches...that would the one in my shoulder/arm area. Well, during my morning power walk yesterday and yes I am power walking....finally Hubby set up my iPod he got me for Valentines Day and I am out moving and grooving to my LOUD music...heaven. Thud. That would be me falling...yes FALLING on my face on the sidewalk on U. Boulevard...(very busy thoroughfare in the land of I.) There was no catching myself. I was going down and hard tripping over uneven sidewalk that jumped out in front of me. Talk about embarrassing. I got up as fast as I went down...palms and knee bleeding, chin scraped. Charming. So let me tell you next time your little one falls and scrapes his or her palms on cement because they were trying to break a fall...don't blow on it and tell them it's ok it's just a scrape. It FREAKIN' HURTS. I must've pulled a muscle too trying to brace myself. ugh. Staying home and eating is much safer than exercising. I have been trying to tell people that....now do you believe me?

One more thing..congratulations to the other Mrs. P. On baby number four. It's crazy, and things will be looney in the P house for quite some time. But it's all good. And besides she is keeping my daughter in business. It's not all good it's really wonderful.