...since my last visit to the old country, so it's time to go again. The last few days have been a frenzy of gift buying, laundry doing, and bag packing. The airport shuttle is coming in an hour, and we'll be off to Chicago and then Germany. I have about 17 little things left to do, so this has to be quick!
First: A wrap-up of the student teaching thingy:During my last week, my students were awful. On Monday, things were fine just as any other Monday (these kids are great on Mondays - maybe tired out from all the partying they do on the weekends...). On Tuesday, I had a hard time not banging my head into the wall in frustration in the face of so much misdirected energy. Argh! It was so bad, that after school, I couldn't stand to wait for my carpool buddy D. for the usual 3.5+ hours. Instead, I went to the movies (theater in walking distance - excellent!). For the first time in my adult live, I bought popcorn and a drink (water... exciting, I know) at the movies. I paid less for my ticket... I saw Harry Potter and it was just. so. good! I hated - nah, despised - the Prisoner of Azkaban. It's my favorite of the books, and they made such a mess of it that I was fuming for days after seeing it. I was reluctant to even see Goblet of Fire, but alas, it was playing at 4pm, so... great movie.
The rest of the week, my kids got better, but they still overall had not had a worse week since I'd come. Grrrr. My favorite moment happened on Thursday during Math. We were learning about fact families and they had a hard time with the subtraction problems. So when we were getting started on the subtraction part in our second example, I told them "This is a little hard, but I know you can do it, because you guys are so smart!" One boy promptly replied "I'm not smart." which caused a slew of other kids to pipe in with "Me neither." I decided that this was more important than Math and sat down with them. I went through the whole class in number order and told them why I knew they were smart. E.g. "I know (name) is smart because she is good in math. She gets stars on her papers all the time." Then I rounded out the speech with a general "Don't you ever let anyone tell you that you are not smart!" And then I had to quickly get back to subtraction to keep from crying.
Second: A quick overview of the almost heart-attack:For the last couple of months I was under the impression that our flight was leaving on Wednesday. I had beautiful plans: Relax and clean over the weekend, then go Christms shopping on Monday, laundry and packing on Tuesday. I loved the plan. Until I printed out the reservations and saw that we were in fact leaving on Tuesday, not Wednesday. My beautiful plans withered and died. So sad.
Third: The near nervous breakdown weekend:The shock at the death of my beautiful plan was hard to get over. You might think that a person who finds out on Thursday night that her plans cannot work out would just adapt. A normal person might do just that. Me? I got mad at the universe and sulked for a while. By Saturday, I was back on track enough to concede to hitting the mall and bookstore with D. for mutual Christmas shopping. But then? I had a major gift crisis! That man! He has everything! And despises waste! So buying a gift for him is nearly impossible. So I went over budget a bit and bought him a beautiful coat. Of course, he needs that NOW, not on the 24th (which is, of course, the real Christmas). So... I needed something else. He then picked himself out a CD that I proceeded to wrap for him. That'll be some surprise!
Anyhow. Then I got a bad haircut, because obviously I couldn't do it on Tuesday with my regular person AS PLANNED. Jennifer, if you read this: I'm sorry I cheated. I will be back as soon as it's grown out beyond recognition. Sorry.
My bangs were too short, my gifts were not surprises, my hormones were riding their stupid little rollercoasters in my brain, and I was mad. Poor D. went into hiding with his second love, the computer. Which of course made me madder. And then I broke down crying and telling him that Christmas needed to be skipped because he was impossible to give stuff to. So then we talked and we had Christmas right there and then. (The life lesson here is of course to let the crazy woman have whatever might distract her from her misery for a while.) D. got me some really nice PJ's that I like ohsomuch. And a robe that goes with them. And he loved his coat. And then we snuggled on the couch and watched a movie and all was calm and bright and all that.
On Sunday, I was back to my evil madness. D. swooped in yet again to rescue me from myself.
Fourth: The recoveryOn Monday, I basically sucked it up and did what needed to be done. Here's a list:
* Dropped off my paperwork at the university.
* Dropped off a gift at a friend's house.
* Did laundry.
* Went to the mall about bought a SECRET GIFT for D.
* Packed
* Cleaned a bit.
* Printed, cut, and glued, enveloped, and mailed out 30 Christmas cards and 2 packages.
* Went out to dinner for excellent Fajitas.
So now, I must go. I will be back in time for a last post in 2005... Until then: Have wonderful holidays. Or at least try.
And if you've read all the way to the end, give yourself a pat on the back!