Day 187: Back To School

Wow, was it ever hard to get out of bed this morning. I used to pride myself on the fact that I was a morning person. I would never hit the snooze button, but instead, pop right out of bed as soon as the alarm rang, ready to take on the day.

I wish that were still an accurate description of me. But oh no, that snooze button doesn't even know what hit it this morning. I kept my head on that pillow for as long as I could but finally had to acknowledge that, while my night-shift husband would sleep till two in the afternoon, it was darn near time I had to be at work and I'd better get my booty out of the bed. That was the hardest thing I've done in two weeks!

As you know, I love my job. I have found so much joy since being hired by Grandview Preparatory School. Even on my worst days, I come home feeling like I've done something productive, valuable, and rewarding.

But not today.

Obviously, we teachers all look forward to our Christmas break (or winter break, as we must call it in our non-religious environment). But after two weeks of doing nothing but drinking eggnog and increasing my Netflix count, the first day back is a cruel burst of reality - right in my tired face!

And I say this after a fairly easy day of being at school with NO STUDENTS! Yes, that's right - I get a teacher workday after two weeks of break. This is a good idea in theory (because who's going to lesson-plan over the holiday?), but I certainly didn't get any work done. What I did do was visit ever teacher in my hallway and in the one above me (that's all of our hallways, by the way), get the scoop on all of their breaks and share all about mine. I went out for lunch with a few of my colleagues, during which I stated that I absolutely HAD to get something done in the afternoon. And so, I went to my classroom and stared at my computer for the next two hours.

I still love my job, and I'll get back into the swing soon enough. But no, today was neither productive, nor valuable, nor rewarding in any way.

And the worst part of it all was this: when this non-productive, non-valuable, non-rewarding day was finally over, I had to come home to an empty house. And an evening that was therefore also non-productive, non-valuable, and non-rewarding.

As I said, I'll get back into the swing soon enough. But I'd really rather just stay on Christmas (or winter) break with my eggnog, my Netflix, and my husband forever.