Homecoming

So... finally back from Italy. (And none too soon, as much as I loved it, I was getting a little tired of the traveling routine) You all will be getting a complete-but-hopefully-not-too-wordy written account soon (I'm still cleaning it up.) I would have updated as I was going along but a) internet connection was expensive, sketchy or non-existent. b) They kept us pretty busy and c) I love you all dearly, but hey... I was on vacation.

Of course, my first morning back I got and and enjoy something I haven't had in ten days - a big American breakfast. But after that I decided to top the morning off by running by the school and saying "hi" to the secretaries. (I was curious to see if they got the post card I sent.)

Well, it just so happens that Principal Palpatine caught me and pulled me into her office to talk about scheduling for next year. I swear, the woman still has no idea how to talk to me without ligthing my fuse. She hasn't caught on that I'm trying to give her what she wants, and that she should leave it at that - she seems driven to make me not only understand, but accept and incorporate her point of view.

The short of it - it started off as a heated meeting but in the end we walked out with an arrangement that I can live with (acvtually, it was the same arrangement I thought we had just before school got out... I don't understand how everything had gotten changed around in the two weeks that I've been gone.

Here's my moment of glory (I think it says loads about both of us):

"Mrs. Palpatine - understand that any time that you suggest that the purpose of the music program is to meet the needs of people who are not enrolled in the program, nor have any children enrolled in the music program, I'm going to react badly."

"But you don't understand the pressure that has been coming down from above..."

"Yes, I know. That is a principal's lot, and I'm sorry for it. But I have to remind myself that I don't work for the people you work for, I work for the students."

"No, that's not true. You and I work for the community and the board.... and we try to do what we can for the kids."

"Mrts. Palpatine, with all due respect... You can get me to dance with the devil, and you can get me to sell him everything but my soul. It has come to this: I will give said community and said board what they ask for. I will even give you what you ask for. But the day I accept the statement that I work for anyone else but the students is the day that I stop working for the students. Do not ask that of me. Now or ever."

She tried to end the meeting by saying that we were on the same page all along, and that we just didn't communicate well.... but I am too weary of her ways, too mindful of the times in the past that she has made me feel comfortable, only to betray me shortly after. I hope she understands now that I do not trust her, and never will. Still, with each passing incident... she is becoming the "Devil I Know"... and I remain, for the time being, in control of my destiny.