Peaks and Valleys

Monday my throat was on fire. I felt like absolute crap. I almost always get sick right after a prolonged period of stress. It’s pretty incredible how the minute things start to calm down, my body reminds me that I put it through the wringer, and now it’s pay back time.

And of course Monday night, I got my period.

Monday I was feeling really down, and I actually thought about my period and how it had been a while and predicted that it would rear it’s scarlet head soon. So when it showed Monday night I wasn’t surprised. It’s imminent arrival probably had a lot to do with how bummed out I was on Monday. It probably didn’t help the week before either.

The good thing is that I planned ahead to make this week really low key. We’re watching Inside Out in the 6th grade classes, as a celebration of our finishing the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum last week. We had to work through A LOT of lessons and they were not very popular, so we were all really excited to be done. (I was probably the most excited because I had to work through each lesson SIX TIMES!) I had only seen Inside Out once, in the theater, and I forgot how incredible it is. It’s such an amazing movie, and the fact that it got put out by one of the most successful animation studios in the world is heartening. I’ve watched the first half six times in two days, and I’m not even a little bit sick of it.

The main reason I planned for an easy week was because this Thursday is Open House. Open House is my LEAST favorite work obligation. I hate standing around for an hour making small talk with a million parents. I hate being asked questions about next year’s foreign language program that I can’t definitely answer. I hate the whole thing, really. And the worst part is, I have to have my room all cleaned up for the occasion.

So this week I’m cleaning my room. It really needed a lot of work. I kept telling myself I was going to spend a day there over one of the breaks but it never happened. I always spend a day at work when I have a break (at least one), but I spend all that time grading and planning and never have time to tackle the shit show that is my classroom. But now I need to get it done–no more procrastinating!-and it’s just as unpleasant as I feared.

A huge part of me wants to start purging and packing right now, but I know I can’t do that until after Open House. So I try to focus on putting things away. It already looks better, but there is a lot of work still to do.

And I better get most of it done on Wednesday because Thursday I’m bringing my daughter to work for Take Your Daughter to Work Day. I took her two years ago and she has always wanted to come again. This Thursday is a good day to do it, as we have a short day (on account of Open House) and not much planned so she can lead some games with my students who are always really nice to her. I also have to take her swimming in the afternoon anyway, so it’s not annoying that I have to go back home and come back to work for Open House.

I also have a meeting with my principal tomorrow about next year. It’s late April and my schedule is still totally up in the air. I find this supremely frustrating, especially since I’ve had some disconcerting conversations with different admins, which collectively make it clear that they don’t fully grasp the scheduling complications that arise when one teacher is working on two campuses. This year there is another teacher at the one campus, but next year that won’t be the case, so I have to ALWAYS be at that school when class starts and I have to ALWAYS be available at that time.

My request for 1st period prep (so I can continue taking my daughter to work without being stressed out about making it to school on time) definitely complicates matters, but it doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. My biggest fear is they won’t think hard enough about it, and then at the last minute decide that it’s not possible and give me a class 1st period. And yes, I know I have no real right to demand a first period prep, but I also think I’m helping them out by working on two campuses (I don’t actually have to do that this year, as our contract states we don’t have to teach a class we don’t want to for more than one consecutive year), I don’t think it’s too much to ask for them to help me out be giving me first period prep.

So that is where my life is right now–not quite as low key as I was hoping, but so much better than last week. And after this week there are only seven more until the end of the year! I can’t believe it! Goodness gracious I need summer this year like I’ve never needed it before.