happy tuesday!

And a very happy one it was, as it was a short day. For on-track teachers this meant an hour and a half of PD; for me, the sub, it meant going home at 2pm. I tried the new bus-metro method I've worked out for getting to the new apartment; it is gloriously simple. A complete success.

In fact, I had a few successes today:

I walked into an alien classroom this morning and, before I could even take stock of my situation, students were calling out, "Hi, Ms. L!" and hastily putting their cell phones away.
(Technically that would be Miss L. They are not good on the whole Miss/Ms. thing, though they seem to understand it intellectually after our feminism mini-lesson. I am picking my battles, and this is not really one of them.)

Upon discovery that said classroom's regular teacher was out longer than expected and had not left enough work, one unfamiliar student asked, in a very familiar gleeful tone, if we would be having free time. Again, before I could say a word, one of my long-term students more or less shouted, "Yeah, right! You know we be doin' work in Ms. L's class."

This felt better than I can describe with all the words that I know or can reasonably expect anyone (apart from Amelie) to comprehend.

Also, when checking out this afternoon (at 2 pm - did I mention that part?), the principal's secretary told me that another teacher had requested me for Thursday morning. I am being requested! In addition to being formally asked by the SSLC to continue covering this long-term spot!

It's like being asked to a high-school dance. And then a party on the weekend. By separate boys.

It is not quite like being asked out by boys you like - more like those early dating years when you are not yet discerning enough to decide whether you like them or not, or to have realized that such things matter. It's definitely more about being liked than by whom.

Less fun things:

I have one of those pounding, splitting headaches that makes you lose your equilibrium and your head sway side-to-side. I am attributing it to a combination of dehydration, inadequate nutrition, sleep deprivation, stress, noise, eye strain, smog (which is drying out my eyes and all-around aggravating my allergies) and shifting rapidly and repeatedly from darkness to harsh brightness and back again - otherwise known as "my lifestyle." Does anyone else get these?

I have officially lost my taste for both soda and fast-food french fries. In addition to not tasting good, they both make me very, very sick to my stummy.

Root beer is still OK.

We are moving this weekend, which entails finishing painting the new apartment tomorrow (in the lurid brights I so adore), packing this apartment on Thursday, and driving up to the bay on Friday evening so the four of us (me, Aaron, Jody and Seb) can pick up all of our remaining possessions, jam them into a truck, and drive back down again. I do not anticipate having any free time to see anyone, which makes me really sad and lonely, but I'm telling myself (probably not incorrectly) that they're all so busy with classes right now that they wouldn't be free to see me anyhow. Also, the baby shower (Aaron's sister) is on Saturday, so I must finish the sweater before then. All the pieces are done now; I just have to stitch it together and do the design work. This will probably happen tonight, despite the whole splitting-pounding-balance-losing business.

Assigned the students the prologue to Kindred tonight and warned them that they would be quizzed tomorrow. As the prologue is two and a half pages long, I am steeling myself for the gut-blow of how many students fail the thing. Not to have low expectations or anything, but some of them wouldn't even carry the (264-page paperback) book home with them as it was "too heavy."

My job is awesome.