It was a rough day again at the old factory, mi gente. I find it hard to try and not take things too personally when kids get nasty with me, but today was an especially different case. I just found the level of disrespect at inordinate levels. I really looked at some of them like I didn’t even know them for the past couple of years. That coupled with my nervousness about the future has subconsciously messed with my sleep.

In other words, I need another vacation.

But all is not lost.

I do have ways of dealing with funks like these:

1. Go to the gym (went yesterday, but that’s because I need to stay on my weight loss game).

2. Plan something special for myself (like a trip out to DC, or Europe, or a Syracuse University alumni conference in September *CBT for my Cuse heads*)

3. Think positive thoughts (like me going to the Kanye / Lupe / NERD / Rihanna concert in May, or all the positive feedback I get from some of my closest associates and friends)

4. Breathe, laugh, and bite into a Twizzler.

5. Write (like I’m doing now).

6. Read (I’m still working on A People’s History … by Howard Zinn, but I have a good 80 or so blogs in my GReader).

7. Upgrade to WordPress 2.5.

8. Listen to the following tracks:

• Scarface feat. 2Pac and Johnny P, “Smile”
• Metallica, “Hero of the Day”
• Metallica, “One”
• Jay-Z, “All I Need”
• The Beatles, “Free as a Bird”
• CRS (Kanye, Lupe, and Pharrell) – “Us Placers”
• KoRn – “Got the Life”
• Joe Budden – “Broken Wings”
• Alanis Morisette, “Thank You”
• Juan Luis Guerra, “El Niagara En Bicicleta”
• Lupe Fiasco, “Hurt Me Soul”
• The Verve, “Bittersweet Symphony”
• Anything else my iPod / iTunes has in store for this brotha …

9. Think and think hard about what my next move’s going to be for the next day.

10. To interpolate Jay, “Take off the blazer, loosen up the tie, step inside the classroom, Mr. Vilson’s alive …”

How do you de-stress? Not just for educators, but everyone.

jose, who’s still fielding questions. I’ll take more than one.

p.s. – Happy B-Day, Amber.