Just another manic... Tuesday....

Yeah... Photo courtesy of Corbis.com... You didn't think I actually snapped it at school, did you? It all began one dark and stormy night.. ah, last night was soooo windy and rainy, and my sinuses were having a big dance party, so I decided to take one innocent little Zirtec. It did say on the bottle that it might cause drowsiness. So what, thought I. I'd like to be drowsy... And I was... This morning was a shock to my system. It couldn't be that the sound I'd been "snoozing" for over half an hour was actually my alarm? Oh, it was? I'm up. Breakfast of Champions, Strawberry Special K. Off to the races. I had a plan. We were going to watch Sally Field on the computer in certain scenes that showed journalism.... from Absence of Malice.... to correspond with our journalism vocab.... Uh... what? no Internet again? Uh... no copier? Only one more lesson left in vocab books? Ah... a student saves the day with a plea to watch The Day After Tomorrow to go along with our Weather Words from last week. Yeah... sounds delightful.

Second hour: big, big deadline. No Internet, but the kids are typing happily and ready to print. Wait! What's that sound and smell? Burning paper? My new printer has eaten and barbecued a few sheets of Heather's homework. After crawling inside the copier, I discover burned paper and crisped assignments. I feel faintly ill, but luckily, thanks to Zirtec, I decide it was a bad dream. We assess the printer and decide to wait on a technician. Good call.

Not bad. The rest of the day was a sea of excellence until... duh duh daaaah! (fanfare of sorts) sixth hour arrives. We also needed the Internet to work on our State End of course exams. Faster than a sea of bullets, I switch gears to a crossword using terms they need to know. We are all at work... life is redeeming itself, then.... RING RING RING RING RING (get the picture?) a statewide tornado drill. They are off... shake em up flashlight, emergency bag, and class roster in hand. When the twenty kids return, there is no hope. I heard a veteran teacher ask the principal if we could just leave them down in the shelter for a while longer! hahaha... I hadn't thought of it, but it sounded delicious. Here they were to recount how deep the water was in the basement shelter.... (remember the rains?_)

At last, my free hour... but a student decided to come in and share a very accurate account of his latest bout with the stomach flu... excitement mounts...

Finally I'm home, and my mom is talking away to me when she catches ever so slightly.... a little snore... That dratted Zirtec again... hahaha... When I wake up, I'll post for today....