I'm sure my family has noticed a sharp decrease in my online time. I am sorry to have faded back to RT without sooner notice, but I have been busy-busy-busy!
For those of you who weren't aware (and since I have a big mouth when I'm excited, I think that's almost NONE of you LOL), I am one of two new English teachers at the local High School. This past week has been a blur of new hire orientations, High School staff meetings, District staff meetings, and room cleaning projects. I've literally fallen into bed and died no later than 9:30 since Tuesday on - and for those of you who are familiar with my insomniac night owl tendencies, you know that's unusual!
Of course, there's a strange reason behind my exhaustion. This is MY life, after all. LOL (If you don't want the details, just skip to the last paragraph.)
See, I was told that one English dept. vacancy was created by a teacher who retired, the other by a young woman who moved back to New Jersey after one year with the school. It was unclear which of the "empty" rooms would be mine; as it turned out, I got the room of the Retired One -- and it looked like a floor-to-ceiling storage closest because she didn't bother to take her crap with her when she went. I'm a person who cannot bear to leave any task unfinished, so the concept of leaving behind 30 years of teaching is completely inconceivable to me. Nevertheless, there it all was -- two extra teachers' desks; three useless tables approx. 3' x 5'; a 10' long mirror; two backboards about the size of the mirror; the most hideous 3' x5' painting of sunflowers I have ever had the misfortune of viewing, complete with a clunky, paint-peeled wooden picture frame; two or three complete sets of textbooks that should have been discarded years ago; four or five tubs and as many crates of worksheets more suited for middle schoolers; chalk boards covered with writing; bulletin boards still plastered with the most horrible floral contact paper ever printed; a standard-issue teacher's desk and two filing cabinets crammed with the same crap I found in the tubs and crates; AND -- this is my favorite -- an old metal cabinet containing mail slots.
I took one look at the room, screamed, and then marched across the hall to see the disaster area that had been left for the other new hire. I discovered that her room was completely barren and required no cleaning. At this point, I wondered if I'd been Hitler in a past life, for Karma to be this unkind. Then I started dragging shit out of my room. I literally filled a hallway with the debris of the Retired One's life, until the room looked as barren as it SHOULD have. I worked from 7-5, limped home, and made it online for about five minutes, to let a few people know that I was heading to bed, so not to worry about me not being around.
The second day, I found the REST of the hell the Retired One had left on the book shelves and attacked THAT, plus I decorated. I put in a another 7 - 5 day, then helped my mother clean out my car for another two hours (my husband had been driving it to work while his car was being repaired, and it now looked like a mini version of the Retired One's room), then crawled head first into my mother's hot tub and just... floated... I didn't even make it online to tell ya'll not to worry about me. I was pretty sure that I was going to die, so whatever I said about "but don't worry, I'm fine" would have been a lie. LOL
The other two days of this past week have been one meeting after another while trying to put the finishing touches on my room inbetween them. I made it online for a couple of hours on Thursday, though just to ICQ; yesterday, I simply died again, at 8. (And a big kudos to Mom, who came to wipe down my blackboards, dust my shelves, and vacuum my floor on Day #3. WOOT!)
Not that I want to give ya'll the impression that I hate what I'm doing. Walking through the halls of the very high school from which I graduated is an awesome feeling. It's MY school, damnit, and I'm proud of it. I'll be teaching alongside some of the educators who taught me, and that's a powerful feeling in and of itself. And to step back and look at how far my room has come, how AWESOME it looks, just shows me what I can do when I set my mind to a HUGE, seemingly impossible task. I can't wait for my kids to walk through the door on Tuesday... ~excited smile~
So, what does all of this mean for my schedule, once I get used to it?
I'll be getting up at 6:30 a.m. (or sooner) and working from 7:15 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. (or later, depending on tutoring and such), then using the hours between 4 and 9 to cook dinner, do grading, help kiddo with her homework, do the family thing, etc. At 9, both kiddo and hubby will head off to bed -- and then I HOPE to spend 2-3 hours in MTC before I crash and burn. Yes, you read that correctly -- I plan to be in camp this school year. I don't have a 55 minute commute each way, so that leaves two whole beautiful extra hours in my working day. I'd like to spend then with my online family. Sooo, that's what's up with me! Love you guys!
