Krispy Kremes and Catching Up
Today was the first day back. First days are never fun, and usually begin with everyone catching up in the hallway on the way to the beginning of the year faculty meeting. They herd us all down to the cafeteria where we sit on itty bitty stools (my butt was too big, and I am not a large person) throw KrispyKremes at us and deliver the exact same opening of the new year speech that they gave last year. Word for word. I look around the room. Lots of teachers are talking quietly amongst themselves. A few are passing notes. One or two appear to have fallen asleep. My eyes wandered over to and met those of a close colleague. She rolled her eyes at me and we shared a secret smile.
My classroom is being painted. Actually, they are repainting all of the classrooms, but just recently got to mine. Now, on the one hand, I am thrilled that they are doing it BEFORE school starts. On the other hand, I had to deal with the smell of the paint(yuck) and was unable to do anything all day as far as getting my room back in order. After all, I am still unpacking from my aborted move. Speaking of which, several colleagues came over to say they were thrilled to hear that I had decided to stay. One said, however, "What are you doing back? You had made it to the wall and were about to reach freedom! Why did you change your mind? Are you crazy?"
How many different ways can you explain, "I just couldn't leave?"
Two painters (school system maintenance workers) were in an out of my room. They had set it up as a base camp: plugged in their coffeemaker, turned on their radio full blast, and stretched out. They spent more time on their coffee breaks than they did painting. I kept wanting to say, let me paint a wall. I'm a great painter. The radio: oh my god!! They had it tuned into a christian radio station. The worst music ever. I thought I would lose my mind. A fellow teacher thought it was my radio, and was shocked that I had been born again. She thought it was my music. "It'll be a cold day in Hell when I listen to music like that," I snarled.
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