Oh How Cute

Oh, how I cute I thought. They're having a "Wee Day" at the pub! Kids eat free or Irish entertainment for munchkins, etc. Or perhaps someone meant "Wii." This was exactly what I thought when I glanced at this sign.

Only as I walked around the corner and saw a correct sign did I realize I must spend too much time around kids to not realize what the sign was trying to say...
Gee, I miss grown-ups.

As if where I work didn't have enough rules and regulations to follow...

Sprinkle when you tinkle...

Squeaky Clean

I, like most elementary school teachers, keep a junk drawer (and cabinet) where all the odds and ends I take away from students throughout the year are kept. Items are babysat in the aforementioned locations either until the end of the class, day or sometimes until the last day of school. But like most kids, and teachers, a number of items get forgotten.

My son was cleaning out one such junk drawer for me after the end of the school year. He organized items I actually wanted to keep in the drawer like pens and sticky notes. He also came across the random stretchy bracelet, matchbox car or gum ball machine jewelry and asked me what he should do with it. Of course it all went in the trash. One item was more random than the preceding ones however. He pulled out a nice, clean, seemingly unused, bar of soap. Not a little tiny one that you steal from a hotel, but a large, regular size bar. I had totally forgotten about that bar of soap. And no, despite what you're thinking, it was not used for washing mouths out.

I remember one of my students holding a bar of soap during class activities. I remember asking her about it. She said it was from home. She'd been cleaning her bathroom at home and just slipped it into her pocket and forgot about it. Yep, that's what I do when I'm cleaning in the bathroom, just put any items I have to clean under in my pocket! Not!

I told her to put it away and take it back home. However, the soap kept reappearing at different times, days and locations in the classroom. Pet soap maybe? Maybe there's a marketing niche there? Who knows. I kept the soap. It was such an odd item to see a student with after so many toys, jewelry, gel pens, etc. etc. Just thought I'd share...

Proofreading is Invaluable

New Life Philosophy

So, the town where I live is a great boon for finding interesting signage as a form of entertainment. Yesterday, I came across "Accept Foo" painted on the side of a local convenience store. (The name of the store is fodder for a later post...stay tuned!) Obviously "food stamps" was what the painter's goal was. But, for some reason paint, money, or time ran out before the completed thought came to "f00"-ition. But that's good for those of us looking for local laughter.

I also think that "accept foo" makes a great life motto, in addition to its humor quotient. If I could only accept everything around me as it is at that moment, life would be much less stressful. No worries. It'd be great. So, for a teacher now looking at a lovely, free summer, I think this will be a good mantra to keep in mind. It'll give me time to practice it before the students return all too soon! :-)

Not a Slave to Fashion

Ok. So I was a leetle beet tired. I'd stayed up until 11:30 last night completing insanely detailed lesson plans for my sub for the week. I worked on the plans for about, oh, 7 hours give or take an hour. We're talkin' detailed!

But I digress. (Symptom of tiredness). Today I was happy to wear comfy jeans to work. (Yeah!) Got dressed in a jiff and ready to go. Out the door we went. Morning went great, kids worked hard, blah, blah, blah.

So, then at recess, my gradelevel bud just happens to take note of my Friday footwear and casually says, "Why are you wearing two different shoes?" Luckily I was able to stay on the bench I was seated on while I laughed so hard I nearly had tears running down my face. I hadn't realized what a fashion fauxpas I'd made until that moment. Now, to give myself some credit, both shoes were sneakers. Both shoes were white. But to look at them from above it's very noticeable how different they look.

Boy did I need that laugh big-time. My gradelevel bud was truly curious about my shoe choice and admitted that she thought maybe I'd done it on purpose to accommodate an orthotic insert or something. Sheesh! It is my 16th year teaching, but gimme a break! That, to me, made my goof even funnier. Only after that did one of my students note the different shoes. I just had to take it in stride, haha! and laugh with them. I'm glad I afforded those around me with a moment of amusement. I count today as a success! Just tryin' to keep everyone on their toes!

"To sleep, perchance to dream- ay, there's the rub." - Hamlet

Being in community theater is a wonderful thing. You meet new people, you test yourself on your ability to remember all of your lines and perform them consistently each night of the show. I enjoyed it. There was a point, however, in which exhaustion took over. A week of getting up at quarter til 6 for work, doing work all day, then quickly eating something and heading to call at 7 pm was beginning to take its toll. The show finished up each night around 11 pm. Then there's that high one is riding after a show which takes an hour or so to settle down enough from to go to sleep. So exhaustion took over.

I only realized this after waking up one morning not hunting for my glasses before I got out of bed. In fact, I had awoken a time or two during the night to let the cat and/or dog out and ne're gave it a thought that I hadn't grabbed my glasses. It wasn't until I was showered, dressed, and putting on makeup did I realize that I was in very clear focus. No taking off the specs to put on eye makeup. Hmmmm... that's the moment that I realized I'd slept in my contacts. Sheesh! Luckily the contacts I sometimes wear are the kind that can be worn overnight...my dry eyes just never have been able to wear them overnight. In 23+ years of wearing contacts I'd never slept in them! I was disappointed that the hand of God, or the Sound of Music for that matter, hadn't touched me in the night and healed my nearsightedness. Ah well.

The punchline on the tiredness occurred the next night when I was onstage talking to Maria. Instead of delivering the line about the "Von Trapp" family, my body musta really been a-needin' some caffeine, I told Maria all about the "Von Frapp" family! Musta been a subconscious message that I needed a Frappucino and fast!