Back in School

Sad that summer is unofficially over, but a lot (good and bad) did happen.  I'm more upset about the things that did not happen, like the total inside-out cleaning of my apartment, but I'll work on that this weekend.  Chef is at the shore for the "bachelor weekend" for his cousin whose wedding we will attend in a few weeks.  

And no, I'm not worried he's doing anything bad.  In fact, I'm feeling a little bummed for him because he's sort of "babysitting" his relatives while they're drinking--he doesn't drink, for medical reasons mostly.  It's not fun being the only sober one in the room, I know that much.  And frankly I think these guys (most of them a few years his senior--and mine) are too old for that kind of "partying."  It bothers me no one's trying to make sure everyone has a good time.  Kind of rude.

I struggled with bad anxiety before the first in-service on Wednesday, and having bad PMS did not help the situation.  In a few months I expect the PMS will lessen as the result of the progesterone treatments, but we'll see.  The most anxious thing was the class schedule was up in the air for days--and was looking as if I might have to go teach kindergarten library classes at another school to help out, ridiculous because we're still the biggest elementary--but today it all got ironed out and it appears I actually have a tiny bit more breathing room in my schedule.  That's an answer to prayers right there.


Will I be ready for classes to start Tuesday? Probably not.  I was out all day at meetings today, and I have an off-site meeting Monday morning.  So Monday afternoon is it--and remember, I just got my schedule (after already having planned out three weeks of lessons which I now have to "fix").  My assistant was in yesterday and half of today, and won't be in Monday.  

On top of that, they re-drew the school boundaries so I've "lost" some students (mostly good ones, a couple of pests) and have some new ones.  The proportion of students in poverty and/or not speaking English as a first language has risen.  But I'm kind of excited about the challenge and I hope that encouraging them to embrace literacy will open doors for them here and in the future.

When I was putting away some extra packs of scratch paper under the Circ desk, I found an old dusty mug.  Inside it was a weird piece of plastic, a crusted-on, disintegrated rubber band, and a penny.

The penny's year was my birth year.


I try not to look for signs, but I really think it was a somewhat-needed confirmation that I'm in the right place.