Good Week, Bad Week, Good Week?

So, the whole "I hate everything" day that I had on Monday? It was turned into an "I love my husband" moment when he made the evening restorative and romantic. So bad day, good day. (Things that made the day bad...literally chasing a student through the halls and out the door and back to convince said student to actually go to after school detention as assigned by SOMEONE ELSE, because not going can mean suspension, and nobody wants that, but then it ended in the assistant principal's office and I had a whole long meeting about how to help this child who is clearly at a tipping point, and the meeting was the next day for next year's plan and so the timing of all the drama was just NOT GOOD, and I barely got to any IEP writing that day despite my lateness in the building). But, a bad day turned into a good day by the end.

And then I wrote about feeling like I'm drowning and clawing my way to gasp for air, and you were all so kind and encouraging (and made me feel doubly grateful to have Bryce to smooth out the rough edges). You helped make me feel so much better about everything.

Tuesday
I had meetings all day, and thought I might get some work done in between (I didn't). The meetings went GREAT, even the one with the child who is having behavioral breakdowns and figuring out how to do this school thing without imploding. Except my second student came down for the meeting and said, "You know you don't have a sub, right?"

Um, no. I didn't. So I ran, literally RAN up the stairs to see what was happening for English, and panicked that maybe Reading had been a lost cause (it wasn't, my Teacher's Assistant is AMAZING), and set things up and made sure we were good and then returned to the meeting, albeit a little sweaty and huff-and-puff-y. Crises averted, and I let my other non-co-taught period assistant know she'd be on her own after that meeting (and also went to find out what the heck happened since I had a copy of paperwork stating that I did actually have a sub). But, it was all good.

We had time to go to a salad and sandwich place for lunch that, although it carries a shit-ton of bread, is surprisingly very safe for me as a celiac. So I left my lunch in the refrigerator and figured I could eat it on Wednesday, and off we went for a luxurious middle-of-the-school-day lunch out.  I ate salad. SALAD. And then all of a sudden there was something crunchy and gross in my mouth, kind of sandy like unrinsed lettuce, but more substantial. I tried to get around it, but spit it into my napkin and swallowed something and kept eating.

Until I realized I was missing half a molar. Yup, I broke my last upper right molar on SALAD. I can't even blame it on croutons, since I can't eat them. It was a crown I'd gotten 10 years ago (sadly from grinding my teeth from stress in my first teaching job), and a whole bunch of it was gone, most of it in my napkin but I'd managed to eat most of the composite filling. Yum.

I got an appointment for the next day at my dentist, and went back to my meetings. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful.

Wednesday
I had the dentist appointment during my lunch and possibly into my second prep period, so I had to eat my lunch during my first prep period at 10:00 am. I went to get my lunch from the day before and brought it to eat while I helped a student with a Social Studies essay... and it was warm. Like not cold at all. My frozen gluten free mac and cheese was totally defrosted and goopy, and my yogurt was runny and separated. All I had left was a Sumo orange (oh Sumo oranges, how I will miss you when you are gone, which I think has already happened). It turns out that while I was in meetings all day on Tuesday, the refrigerator broke and I wasn't there to hear about it and nobody told me (because I wasn't there)...so my lunch was just sort of sitting on a claustrophobic boxed-in shelf for more than 24 hours. Good times.

I went to the dentist, and the wind was already picking up (we had yet another High Wind Warning). BUT, it turns out I only lost the cosmetic part, the porcelain, and the white gold alloy that covers the root and protects the tooth and imbeds in your gums was perfectly fine. I even had the half that was still there in the right place, up against the neighbor tooth, so he said he could just smooth it all down and leave it as is if it didn't bother me, since it was too far back to impact my smile. SOLD. No $1000+ crown replacement to empty my FSA funds? Count me in as partially toothless for as long as it lasts. So, bad day...good day! And, because it didn't take long, I could stop and get a rice bowl from Chi.potle and still have time to meet with my team. Score.

But then, the wind picked up and picked up and we clocked 81 mph gusts at the airport and it sounded like the school was trying to take off and we lost a giant pine tree...so we had all after school activities cancelled and sent all the kids, even the walkers, home on buses tout suite. Which meant that the faculty meeting was cancelled, because the wind was real bad. REALLY bad. So, scary wind, but no meetings and forced go-home at 3:00! Score.

Except it got worse and worse and it was really scary and trees came down and power lines came down and the drive home had me skittering in my lane and flinching when chunks of bark hit my windshield. Have I mentioned I hate wind? But I made it home, and unlike in my scattered mind, a tree had not fallen on our house and our cats were safe and not escaped and we actually still had power. Whew.

We turned out to be a lucky few with power, because thousands of people lost it. We just lost internet, but not before I could write a bunch of narratives for two IEPs. Score. And then the bad day got even better, when it turned out they closed schools the next day due to widespread (and historic) damage across the county. A no-school call the night before? That's the ultimate awesome thing, because you know you can sleep in! You can stay up later because you have NOWHERE TO GO the next day! I had candles on until we went to bed because I wasn't convinced we weren't going to lose power, but it was a lovely reprieve from everything, especially when we lost internet and I had no choice but to sit and read. Ahhhh.

Thursday
I slept in, I had a leisurely gluten free bagel and cup of coffee, I mailed some important paperwork, I went for a walk and surveyed the damage in our neighborhood, I did a little laundry. And then I started panicking, because I need to get those IEPs done and with no internet, I can't do anything in the web-based IEP system. So, I went into Bryce's office at the university where he's working towards his doctorate, and picked up BBQ takeout so there was incentive to let me crash in his office while he worked. Holy crapola, there were so many trees down. It's a miracle we have power because there are at least five trees that fell and are leaning on the power lines on the main street by our house. Those cables are STRONG. (I hope, or we're screwed.) The drive was a little harrowing, because I was distracted by the downed trees in part but also because so many signal lights were out, especially the ones at the railroad crossings. We can't get anywhere without crossing train tracks here, and when the signal lights are ON they cause me anxiety. And then I saw a bunch of people just sail over the tracks without even stopping or looking or doing the school bus thing where they open the door because they don't have windows (I have windows so I just rolled them down). SO CRAZY! I made it though. I did not get squashed by a train that didn't know I was there because of power outages.

I did get all but one IEP written (well, minus goals, which I'm doing en masse tomorrow), I wrote up my sub plans (and then promptly panicked because I would have put everything out today, and now I have to go in early so I am prepared since I have more meetings tomorrow), we ate tasty food and went for a walk. It was quite enjoyable. Tomorrow I won't be there for my kids but I'll sit in on the meetings for the students I'll have next year, unless I'm on maternity leave (always with the unless). So it should be a lovely day.


Bad day, good day, bad week, good week -- it's been as much a rollercoaster as the crazy wind that tore through our area and left trees down and roofs ripped off and power lines down and sparking all over the roads. I think more up than down, though. There's always been a silver lining. And now our internet is back, so I can tell you all about it. And I don't have to feel guilty, since I spent over 5 hours writing IEPs today at Bryce's work. Yup, Bryce to the rescue again!

I think I can chalk this up to a pretty good week, but I'm a little nervous about what tomorrow might throw at me, given the other four days!