First Day of School

Maybe I should back up a bit, to the Saturday-night-before-the-Monday-the-kids-started-school. I had a bit too much wine & the next day (Sunday) I stay on my couch all day long. Finally at 7:45 p.m. (yes, that evening) I pause Big Brother so that I can go puke (thank you, Chef Boy Ardee!). Blah blah...hangover, schmangover. Ok, now this brings us to 5:15 this morning, the first day of school! I wake up feeling so nice & refreshed (thank you, Tylenol PM!) & decide to eat some oatmeal to get something healthy in my system before going to school. After that I am straightening my hair, thinking "wow the plates feel really hot I could hurt my neck or ear with the heat!". Of course I burn my ear right after that. :- After getting 1/2 of my hair done I let down the other 1/2 of my hair & just like that, the bam straightener wasn't hot anymore! So here I am with 1/2 of my hair straight & the other 1/2 frizzy & wavy & curly in sections (the night before, being hungover, I didn't feel like drying my hair all the way). Bam hangover. So I used my blow dryer to do the best I could with my hair. Oh well. So driving to school at 6:15 a.m. this morning, I realize: I didn't brush my teeth! Crap! I decided to wait to brush my teeth, since I was eating oatmeal, but after I ate it, I forgot about brushing them! All I could do was laugh about it. I drank some coffee at school & ate my granola bar on my conference & it was only after lunch that my tongue felt really nasty.

On my conference, the VP came & got me & said she needed me in the office...NOW. Wow. That was scary! I'm thinking it has something to do with the reading dept. gone wrong. I follow her to the Principal's office (yikes!) & there is a whole group of teachers in there, some very upset. Now I'm really nervous thinking "am I about to get fired like all of these other people??" Well, it wasn't that, thank goodness, but it was terrible news. A girl I had in class 2 years ago had died in a car wreck last Friday night. Her parents had just gone up to the school to tell the administration so her old teachers could know. They had called in her 8th grade teachers, & one of the teachers knew I was close to her the year I had her, so they called me in too. She was in my 7th period, where I didn't have enough desks for all the kids in there, so I let her sit at my desk. She was my assistant & I called her that in front of everyone, too. She answered my phone, kept me organized, reminded me to check roll if I forgot, etc. She even did NOT steal anything from me, while using my desk. She was a teacher's dream! Very very sad. . .This makes 3 of my past students who have passed away (car wreck, suicide, & shot-gang related, I think). Wow. :(

I had to skip Yoga tonight to take back my straightener. Would you believe I had the box & all the papers that came with it, minus (of course) the receipt. No worries! They had me in the system & proved that I had bought it less than 3 months ago. I got a new one that was $10 cheaper. So at least I made extra money today! :)

So far my classes are great. EXCEPT...3rd period. Yuck. There are 30 kids in there (no, I don't have enough desks for them!) & GANGSTER wanna be's in there! When I mentioned they'd be getting reading logs this Friday, one boy cussed & said "bam!" & I looked at him evily & said "you don't have to cuss about it, just deal with it!" Funny (not really) that I know the boy from when he was in 6th grade & I had morning breakfast duty. He wasn't good in the cafeteria, either! Jerk! I will have to really be strict with that class. I do have 2 honors classes, which is cool. My 1st period only has 14 kids. My 7th period has 29 in it but they seem decent.

I'll keep you updated. . .