Thank God She's Gone

I am celebrating the holidays this year with extra joy in my heart. For thirteen unlucky years I've been working with Mrs. Borderline Personality, and for thirteen years she has been making life at school slightly uncomfortable on a regular basis.
A big part of everyone's job description in the department was to tiptoe around and not set her off.Complimenting her outrageous clothes, bolstering her flimsy self-esteem and not acknowledging her constant stream of lies was a part of every team meeting and departmental staffing.
She finally got 'picked on' so much with her multiple preps and service hours that she just "showed them" and retired at the semester instead of waiting until May. Hallelujah, choruses of angels are singing!! Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty we are free at last.
I really can't remember the school without her, so it's going to be a real shock to get used to some peace.
There was always something. If she had prom duty,she wanted graduation. If we had to go to central for inservice, she wanted to stay on campus. If she had morning classes that was when she really needed to have planning time. If she had afternoon classes that was when she really needed to have planning time.
In keeping with her theme of all these years, she had to be coaxed to her retirement reception because she had her feathers ruffled over the lunch arrangements. Then she stood in the doorway like a recalcitrant two year old while people tried to say nice things about her. The next day at the faculty luncheon she sat at a table of teachers from our department and said that a piece of Gorham crystal was not a retirement gift. She wanted to know where she could take it back, it's not going in her house. Can you even believe the lack of manners?
I know that she grew up in modest circumstances in the North and people in different parts of the country have different behavioral expectations about these things, but I'm pretty damn sure my Mother would have had my hide from grammar school on if I'd ever said anything so thoughtless of people's feelings.
It is a time of goodwill toward men, so I'm going to stop denigrating this poor soul and just be glad that come January, back to work in 2009 is going to be a happier new year!