Summer Vacation

Well, I'm all done working until the baby comes! (There is a slight chance I might work for a week or so right before she comes, but I'm waiting to see how I feel then.) I finished working as a preschool teacher back in April, I was a nanny for a little bit and that finished, and since then I've been working as a school crossing guard. Not that I don't take this job seriously- I do- but being a crossing guard for summer school has been a bit of a joke. Summer school at the elementary school I cross for lasted through the month of June and I think for that entire time I crossed and grand total of (drum roll please...) one child who was actually attending summer school! I crossed some neighbor kids a few times and they always asked me why I was still there. Yesterday I crossed a few older school-age girls and when they asked why I was there I told them it was because of summer school. They told me they were pretty sure nobody in their neighborhood was taking summer school. I told them I was pretty sure they were right. But no complaints. I have enjoyed sitting outdoors in my camping chair in a bright yellow vest in the mornings and reading the Little House books. I also occasionally crossed adults, but usually the adults who came through my area were joggers/ runners and they had sprinted across the street before I had a chance to ask if they needed to cross. No biggie. They are pretty good at watching for cars and not getting hit. So, mostly it has been a very low-key job (great for me and my oh-so-pregnant belly these days). However, there have been at least four (mildly) exciting things have happened while I've been on the job.

1. A bird used the crosswalk. Birds fly over that street all the time, but this bird flew down really close and flew right above the crosswalk. I wish I would have known. I would have held up my little stop sign for it. But it made it across okay.

2. I was tormented by a wasp. The little jerk thought he was real funny teasing me one day when I was trying to put away my little key that turns on and off the flashing school zone lights. All I had to do was turn off the last light and lock the key in its box and then I could go home. I think the wasp knew that. Right as I would finally think it had disappeared somewhere it would show up and buzz around the place where I needed to finish things up. I must have stood there waiting out that wasp for ten minutes. Finally, out of desperation, I said a quick prayer and asked for Heavenly Father's help. After the prayer I felt prompted to throw a rock at the wasp. I'll admit I hesitated a minute to do it. There were some Mexican guys who work at the ranch right next to where the flashing lights are who were just standing there watching me, which made me feel even more dumb. But I decided I'd said my prayer and so I'd better follow through, so I threw a rock at the wasp. I don't think I hit it (I don't really know), but I never saw it again. I finally turned off the flashing lights and locked up the key and went home.

3. A cop came to patrol the area one day. This was great. People speed through my traffic-cone-adorned, school-zone-lights-flashing, me-in-my-yellow-vest-and-stop-sign area all day without a thought that there might actually be a child around that they could hit. (Lucky for them there aren't really any kids around, but they don't know that.) I'm always pretty ashamed of the way people drive through that school zone. But, let's face it, there isn't exactly a whole lot I can do about it. When I was trained, my supervisor told me to not worry about it, but if cars ever sped through really fast, to go ahead and write down their information (license plate number, description of car, description of driver, etc.). Then I could call her with the information and she would pass it on to her supervisor (a cop) who would either write the person a nasty note or show up at their door and give them a little scare. This sounds like a fairly reasonable idea, except I'm still curious as to whether or not she was kidding when she told me this. Have you ever tried to write down that much information about a car that went speeding past you? By the time you think to yourself, "Hey, that car is going way too fast!" there is hardly time to see the license plate number, let alone get something out to write it down on. So mostly I just shook my head at the cars that sped through. But having the cop there was great. I think she pulled over three cars while I was there that day. There were plenty of other people speeding through that she could have pulled over, but you can't exactly make people wait while you go to pull over another car. Anyway, it was rewarding to watch after seeing so many people not take my flashing lights seriously.

4. Somebody totally drove over my traffic cones! This happened today and boy was I wishing that cop had been there to pull the person over. Little jerk. I had to walk out into the middle of the road and set them back up. And now there is a tire mark on one of my beautiful orange cones. How disgraceful.

Since today is the last day of June and summer school is over, I now get to just hang our and do pretty much whatever needs to be done/ whatever I feel like doing until the baby comes. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the least-stressful time for the rest of my life. I'm gonna try and enjoy it.