Five on Friday: Bummers and Bright Notes

Part of why I feel DONE right now was that every day this week was marked by a pretty significant bummer. By the end of the week, I felt pretty run down.

Monday. I’m not quite sure what I did to mess it up again, but my shoulder was really hurting in the evening. I will admit that I haven’t put as much energy into rehabbing my shoulder because the first time I injured it, it eventually stopped hurting without any PT. This time I guess that is not going to be the case. It’s been since mid-January and it has bothered me more intensely and more consistently than my knee. It just really bummed me out to have it hurting so much again.

Tuesday. My physical therapist emailed me back with instructions on what to do when I got to 12 straight minutes of running and evidently it’s to… continue running for 12 minutes. And then, after doing that three times, and determining the average mileage I hit in that time, I can start upping that mileage by… 10-15%. I can probably run a little more than a mile in 12 minutes right now. Adding just 10-15% to that will be.. not very gratifying. I felt so deflated when I read that email. I haven’t run once this week because it feels like, what is the point? Getting all dressed in my running clothes only to run for 12 minutes kind of sucks. The thought of doing that for weeks and weeks just made me really sad.

Wednesday. I had 35 tamales to heat up on Wednesday and… the oven in my classroom didn’t work. I plugged it in and… nothing. I’m pretty sure the circuit breaker needed to be reset, but the janitor has been gone for weeks and sub didn’t have any idea where the circuit break might be. I was able to cobble together a solution (my sister’s old rice cooker/steam came in clutch yet again), but it was super stressful and the results were definitely not ideal. It was a really shitty situation.

Thursday. I forgot my glasses at home and had four 85-minute classes to teach and I couldn’t see anything and it was awful. To be clear, I did not actually forget my glasses, they just fell out of my bag somehow, and then someone else put their bag on the case so I didn’t see that they had fallen out. Thursdays are already bad days, but they are especially bad when I can’t see anything.

Friday. On Wednesday I had to move the Chromecart for the tamale party, and that required I turn it off before I unplugged it. When I moved it back, I plugged it in, but I didn’t turn it back on. So on Friday morning the chromebooks were out of juice by the end of 1st period and basically all my lesson plans for the day required them. I pivoted to a bingo game with 2nd period, while they charged a little (the cart charges each row of Chromebooks at a time, so they aren’t even all charging at once, which means it takes forever for them all to get even a little bit of electricity). Friday was another really stressful day, and I was running on pretty much zero by then.

So yeah, it wasn’t a great week. It was a pretty shitty week, actually. But there were some bright notes.

The 15yo did really well on her finals. She still hasn’t gotten her math score back, but she feels confident she didn’t bomb it. If that’s the case, she’ll end her sophomore year really strong.

My principal asked if I would be interested in teaching zero period again next year. And I would! I get to school right when zero period starts most days, so I’d only need to leave about 10 minutes earlier on a consistent basis to be there on time. And teaching zero period would mean I’d have another prep period during the day, which would mean that I wouldn’t have to teach four 85 minute classes on Thursdays! Sure, I’d be teaching a 55 minute class and three 85 minute classes, but I’d also have an 85 minute prep period on that day. I taught zero period once before and really liked it. I think it will be a good way to change things up next year, and I’m excited to do it.

My eyes are back to normal! And today is the last day of the antibiotic drops. I was so miserable with the double pink eye for so long, that I do not take un-crusty eyes for granted.

The husband has offered to clean the house for hosting on Friday. I tried three subs for next week and none of them were available, and I was kind of freaking out about having the house ready to host the grandparents for the 15yo’s birthday. My husband finally said he could take half a day on Friday and clean the house. Do I think he will clean it to my expectations? Absolutely not. But I’m going to set him up for success and then let him do what he can do. If that means the house does not look amazing when the grandparents come, that is fine with me. I’ll give him kudos for his efforts while everyone is here and they’ll know whose handiwork they are appreciating and I’m sure they’ll be impressed by whatever he manages because people have lower expectations of men when it comes to housework!

I’ve been dreading tomorrow for months and now it’s finally here and soon it will be over! I have to get my kids down to my parents’ house in time for a baby shower, then leave that early to get the 15yo to the scuba shop for our first pool class, and then leave that early (I can leave it early because I’m only renewing my license, which I got MANY years ago) to go to a party with a bunch of high school friends I haven’t seen since before the pandemic. I HATE having that many events overlapping, and I’m really only looking forward to the last one, but I’m worried I’ll be so tired by then I won’t enjoy it. Tomorrow really will be the perfect ending to an insane May, and I will be so relieved when it is over.