Screenings.

Performing hearing and vision screenings on approximately 160 eighth graders in one day is exhausting. Managing hormone crazed, know-it-all teenagers is no easy task and I'm not quite sure how teachers do it on a daily basis. But performing such screenings when your LVN (that is supposed to cover your diabetics twice during the day across town for you) calls at 8:45 am when school, and therefore screening, starts at 8:55 am to say she won't be able to help you today makes the day even tougher. Then when you can finally steal a lunch break, and you check your email to find a teacher whose classes you screened last week has sent a nasty letter, cc'ing the principal on it, complaining about how disruptive your state-mandated screenings are, that just doesn't help your day. When you just want to go home and sit down with a cold beer watching Game 1 of the World Series, and your day has been so terrible that you wonder why you even bothered to go to extra school to do such a crappy job, a parent might call you. A parent that you used to hate (Epilepsy Mom), but has since fallen in love with you, and came to drop off - albeit very belatedly - a seizure care plan for you as well as to thank you for your support - well, somehow, that makes most of the mess worth it.