That classroom is half full

A pessimist would say that I have only set up half of the stuff I need to do in my classroom.  An optimist would say I am already halfway done. 

Hey, it's a work in progress.  I talked to my mother for a few minutes today while I was working on things.  We discussed how we're pretty optimistic people.  We tend to find the bright side of things.  I told her that, if I had decided to become a prostitute, she would try to find the sunny side of that, too.  She would say something like, Well, she really likes to work with people, or At least she's earning her own money.  

You have to look on the bright side of things, so to be as sunny as possible about it all, I have a lot done.  

On the home front, though, there is a slight hiccup.  The buyers want to have me reduce the sale price by a ridiculous amount because the foundation and plumbing aren't perfect.  News flash- things like that are pretty common on homes that are three decades old.  By the time I reduce the sale price to please these people, I would end up with a $10,000 profit from the whole ten years I lived there.  That was the same amount as the STEM award I won in 2007.  

I'm waiting for word back from Alejandro to see if they come back with anything close to a reasonable compromise.  I am not terribly inclined to give even an inch.  Someone else can buy my house.  

Back to the day I had at work, though- I was a special kind of stupid this morning.  I had my classroom keys in my hand.  I keep them on a lanyard.  I managed to drop them at just the exact correct angle to fall between the car of the elevator and the floor.  I took a picture so I could explain how much I screwed up.  

The head custodian had to call the elevator maintenance guys and have them come out to retrieve the keys.  I wasn't expecting them back in any kind of short order, but I had them in my hands again at the end of the day.  In true half-full style, I was very thankful that it was the classroom key instead of the car key.  That way, I could at least make it out to lunch and back.  Still, it was a pretty special kind of stupid mistake.