When I got to school today I was informed that it was cancelled, because of a water main break. No bathrooms = no school. So I spent the next hour watching student faces light up and parent faces fall as I broke the news through rolled-down car windows.
We were initially told we had to go to the other middle school to work in an empty classroom. Then we were told we could stay at our own campus (the Starbucks nearby still had water). Finally, around 10am we were told we could work from home.
I have to say, it was kind of nice to have a surprise work day. The Friday before Thanksgiving break is a pretty nice day to have it. I was supposed to give my two 1B classes a quiz, but otherwise I didn’t have much planned.
Here are five things I did get done today.
General prep work. I made a bunch of copies for next week, and printed a bunch of stuff on the color printer. I also picked up my room a bit.
Individualized comments. I commented on all 60 free writes for my 1A students. I have been dreading those and it was so nice to get them done. And I didn’t even have to lug them home!
Coached the husband through cleaning up cat puke. As expected, the cat reacted badly to the new food (even though I gave him so little of it) and I had to coach the husband through cleaning it up. After dinner I had to clean up cat puke all over the living room. It was so bad I called the vet and they said to stop giving Serval the antibiotics until he can keep the new food down better. Serval is a very rotund cat, so normally him keeping food down wouldn’t concern me much (in the short term), but the new food is what will help the crystals in his bladder resolve, so he does actually have to keep it down. I hope tomorrow, without the antibiotics, is better.
Impromptu run. I was not planning to run, but the stars aligned and I realized I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. First, I had a snack around 11am, so I had some fuel in me. Then there wasn’t any pizza left when I went to get some (our admin didn’t order enough and they felt so badly about it), so I didn’t eat lunch (I can’t run within a couple hours of eating or I get a side stitch). When I left school to run errands at 1pm, I realized that the weather was beautiful, I had all my running stuff (I planned to run after work on Wednesday, but it didn’t happen), and I had the time. So I changed and went up to my favorite spot for a very lovely 40 minute run.
Errands. Even with the unscheduled run, I still had time to run a couple errands. The most important was returning a bunch of wet food I bought a couple of weeks, that we don’t need now with the dietary changes we need to make. I couldn’t find the receipt but luckily I am a VitalCare rewards member so I was able to return them without any issue. It was over $100 worth of wet food cans, so I was very relieved that I could get my money back.
I’ve only been getting about 5.5 hours of sleep a night this week and am starting to feel it. Between the cat puke, and the disaster area of a kitchen I came home to, I am feeling very done, despite the easy day at work! I can’t believe it’s actually Thanksgiving break now… what a super weird last day of the work week. Maybe tomorrow things will feel more normal.
WOW.
To so much of this list.
Glad grading and run happened. Sounds like you actually caught an unexpected gold ring for the coming week. Was startled you seem to have the week of Thanksgiving off but think it is lovely and am so pleased for you.
Good wishes and thank you for writing!
We’ve had the whole week of Thanksgiving break off for a while now. Maybe 10-12 years? Honestly maybe 15 at this point. The kids only started getting the whole week about 8 years ago I think. It’s nice to have the whole week off. I appreciate more breaks during the year and a shorter summer.
That’s a nice surprise! I wish a water main would break where I work and I could stay home today- I have SO MUCH that needs to get done (oh wait- then I wouldn’t get paid for the day, so I guess I don’t really wish that). I’m glad you got out for a run! But- ugh on the cat puke. Did he manage to get it on all the rugs? We have SO MUCH TILE in our house, and just a few carpeted areas- but anytime a cat throws up, they manage to do it on a rug.
I hope Serval starts eating the special food- it’s hard to get them to switch.
I’m writing this on Saturday, so you’re on Thanksgiving break now! Hooray!
Not just the rugs but all the many litter mats we have, which are even harder to clean than the rugs. I actually just got a new rug for the living room but didn’t put it down yet and I’m so glad. Now I don’t care what happens to the current living room rug because I know I can replace it whenever he stops throwing up everywhere.
An impromptu free day does sound pretty nice! The cat puke, not so much. Poor kitty. I hope he adjusts to the new food quickly!
A random day off on a Friday before a break – that’s what dreams are made of. I recently decided it was too cold to run, and then forced myself to do it anyway and I was so glad I did. Hooray for finding time for a run, and for writing all of those comments.
the cat puke situation sounds so miserable. Good luck with that.