Home Early

Schools let out today at 2 o'clock due to impending inclement weather. It was overcast, yes, but didn't look so bad. So, I took my cue from the cows--most of them were laying down in the pasture, which is not ordinary. That's a sign, right? I've decided to stay in instead of running to Hobby Lobby to get some fabric with my 40% off coupon in the sale paper this week.

And Sylvan called to tell me that so many students were calling off due to the weather that they don't need me tonight. I am relieved. Mostly I just want to go to sleep.

I have Bible study tonight, but I'm secretly hoping that gets called off, too. But not because I'm sleepy. The Baylor Bears play against Penn State in the NIT final tonight in Madison Square Garden @ 6 CST. I will watch the beginning of the game, but would feel terribly conflicted if I had to miss the end (I would have to leave for my study by 7:15).

I honestly thought about taking the day off tomorrow (call it a "mental health day") but cheerleader applications are due and I have to be present to collect them. Maybe I can finagle it so that I'm ready to take the day off on Monday? That would be a trick. The kids are just crazy since it's testing week. They don't want to do anything in the afternoons, so it takes more energy to entertain/engage them, energy that I just don't have. It's right about now that I wish I didn't have a "no movie" policy. That would make my life so much easier. As it is, I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the kids for the last weeks of school, since I will have a sub who may or may not be able/willing to teach something new. Ugh.

And on an unrelated note, I had two students at my table at Sylvan last night -- a 4th grader (doing math) and an 11th grader (doing study skills). I said something exclamatory to the 4th grader, and started with "By George!" The 11th grader decided that he was going to correct me, starting on some diatribe about the decline of the English language, about how, as a teacher of English, I should know that it's "by jove" and not "by George." I wanted to slap him. But instead, I told him he needed to go home and look up the origin of both phrases and that we would discuss it when I have him at my table next week. Jerk. It was one of those situations where I knew that, yes, "by jove" would be appropriate, but that I wasn't wrong in using "by George" either. That just made me mad.

By George, I think I'm ready for maternity leave!!