What a day

This has been one hectic, roller-coaster adrenaline I'm glad it is over day.
Here is just a short re-cap.

I woke up with a head ache that was turning into a migraine by the time I left for work. I was going to get a coke or pepsi when I got to work, but as soon as I got to school, I was asked to sub for homeroom. That was really ok as the class was a good one. After the class was over, I did get a Dr. Pepper and took two Excedrine and went to my room to enter some things in the computer and do a bit of filing and just chill hoping that the headache would go away before I got sick to my stomache. There were a couple of boys hanging outside, so I went to check on them to see if they were sluffing. They weren't, just hanging outside the gym for PE because we had just lost power to half of the school. (I had power in my room but my neighbor didn't have any in his room. It was spotty like that)

I was glad I had to go outside, so I knew how cold it was because as I was listening to the principal and the engineers talk about what the problem was and wasn't, it became evident right after second period began that there was a serious problem. The principal smelled an electrical burning smell and asked for the school to be evacuated. That is when it got interesting. The principal gave those of us telling classes to evacuate a different plan that is the norm for when we have fire drills. A couple of the teachers decided they didn't like that plan and "made an executive decision" to tell the students to stick with the original plan. It all centered around where the students were supposed to meet to be accounted for. I am supposed to then go to the teachers and ask if there are any students not accouted for.

You can imagine the chaos this caused. Students being told 2 different places to meet, students wanting to know what was going on, teachers wanting me to override the principal's direction, students wanting to be assured that all would be ok and me with a major migrain trying to account for some 900 students in this. I even had one teacher tell me to give up and not worry about it. Excuse me??? This was NOT A DRILL, THIS WAS FOR REAL. I finally got through all the teachers as best I could, the fire was put out (or went out- not sure which) and we were allowed to go back in.

One good thing, I was able to take my sweater, so was not too cold, and the hour of being in the cool air helped calm my headache.

Then when I got home, the construction company had not called, so I called them again. The guy told me that he had given my info to another guy who was supposed to come by and talk to me. I asked if he planned on coming while I was at work so he didn't have to deal with me. The second guy called me 5 minutes later ;) He didn't even have my address, he hadn't even planned on coming.

He got here and we talked. Well, mostly I tried to tell him the problem without yelling. He told me that he had talked to his crew and was told "what does it matter, the plant was dead". WHAT!!!! It most certainly was not. It was in it's fall dormant stage. Now I was good and angry and crying besides and he just confirmed my dislike and distrust of men in general. After going around and around for about 15 min. he told me that he would bring it up in his meeting with the city tomorrow. Good, I said, the mayor is a personal friend of mine. (he really is, he has even been in my house on more than one occasion) We went a few more rounds and I said, "You know, you will neve be able to replace what was lost, so what agreement can we come to that we both are happy with?" He asked what would make me happy and I told him, "a white peony and some purple irises" Then he looked at me and said "do you honestly want me to shop for them?" I almost started laughing he looked so afraid I would say yes. I told him that I would settle for $25 and written apology stating that the workers were wrong to discard my flowers.

I then wrote an e-mail to the mayor explaining my experience as well as my agreement. Now, this is why I like our mayor. Within 5 minutes I had an e-mail back from him and this is what it said:

Sandra,

Thank you for letting me know what happened. I have copied our City Administrator and Public Works Director on this response. One of them will be getting in touch with you to see how we can rectify the situation.

That is all I really wanted (well, besides the flowers back). This is the answer I should have gotten from the engineering company yesterday- "Sorry, we were wrong, how can we make it right?" Simple. My ruffled feathers were smoothed and again I believe that there are some good men in the world. And in the end, I found one tiny piece of peony bulb sticking out of the ground, so maybe, just maybe I can nurse it into a full lush pretty bush again.