If you and your principal think he may be abused at home why the hell haven't you reported it? Aside from the whole common decency and moral obligation to protect him, you are mandated reporters and legally required to report it. I am a teacher, and teachers who look the other way in suspected abuse cases make me furious and sick.

My student had a good day today. He let the other kids hug him and wish him happy birthday. He didn't scratch me, bite me, or try to escape from the building!

(Usually, if other students try to play with him, he pushes them or hits them in the face screaming GO AWAY! which makes our social skills groups interesting)

There's this one woman who works for four of my clients. I issue her four different W2s every year. And the one client... wow, man, I don't know how she puts up with his shit AND all the rest of the jobs. And she does wildly different jobs at each place. And she's like sixty years old! She's smarter and cooler than three out of four of her employers.

I put a colleague in charge of a big project. He keeps thanking me and saying how much he respects my skills. When I copied some higher-ups on the notes from our meeting, he got defensive and said "we" didn't want them interfering. Number one, I think he's full of shit about respecting me. I have no illusions about that. Number two, I wish I'd listened to my instincts. My first impression was that he was a mansplaining asshole, but when I heard how much experience he had, I gave him this. I'm starting to regret it. In the meeting he broke the first rule, which is talk less, listen more. He also is clearly egotistical and controlling. I started to write a snarky reply to his email, explaining why I did what I did, but I didn't send it. I'm not responding to him. Sometimes it's better to ignore.

Every day he pats my hand and says, "Sad?" Every day! And then each time he says something different. Today he said, "...sad?" and I said, "A little." He said, "I give you medicine!" and pretended to give me a spoonful. He's so cute. My hand is infected though. :/ Yeah, he bit me today, but this is nothing compared to what the teachers in the middle and high school special ed classes experience, or people who work in mental health settings. He's doing this because he doesn't have the communication skills he needs. All behavior is communication.

Huh. I just found out I can do an internship in my city at the wastewater treatment plant any time I want. I am betting the pay is either nothing or minimal, but hey, good experience!

I'm so burned out at work. Each night I have nightmares about scheduling depositions, dealing with idiotic court clerks, missing a deadline, and the frantic pace of the job while working for the most annoying lawyer in the universe. Then each day I go in to deal with the realities of my nightmares. I need a break, but can't afford one.

My boss fired a client once for being such a sexist dick to me. It was pretty rad.

I just applied for a job that I think I'm slightly underqualified for. But hey, I can dream, right?