Time Warp

Just floating in time and space. Real time? Reality? Get a watch? Get a calendar? Whatever.

• We have 18 days of school left. By this time of year, I'm often stressed out about how I'll fit it all in. This year I just do not feel like the end is near.

• We will receive our check-out list on Monday. Is it really time? Check-out is going to be horrible this year because we're moving. I already have 20 boxes of textbooks piled up in my room. I have a long way to go... It would really help if my students would return their textbooks, too. But, nooooo! They'll have to wait until I spend hours of my time filling out fine slips before they will take me seriously.
  

• Just as it has in the past, my brain will probably be a jumble of insanity by this time next week. Once I start thinking about all of it...oh boy.
  

• The yearbooks have arrived a week earlier than I expected. The release party isn't planned until May 23rd. I don't know if I should move up the date--or if I can since the calendar is pretty full. In our area, students don't tend to buy the books until they see them, so I could use more time to sell the books. Regardless, I'm not ready for the yearbooks to be here. We don't even do a complicated release party, but it still takes a few days to get things pulled together.
  

• Today was the travel expo where our students showed off their travel videos, which was a foreign language project with cross curricular connections with math and English. Last year, it was a nice but tiring day. This year I saw only a few videos, and then I spent the rest of the time prepare or serving food. The foreign language teachers could learn from the geography teacher who told kids not to bring anything to her food-related event that required heating. Crockpots okay. Teacher running back and forth between microwaves in teacher lounges and ovens in decrepit, unused kitchen classrooms is not okay. (The geography teacher and I talked a kid out of his shirt so we could use it as a pot holder. He had layers on. He was willing. I know. It was still weird.) It might have been more okay if I had snagged a pupusa before they ran out. I left the building not even knowing which way was up...let alone what day it was. And was it me, or did I really smell like a hot dog?

• Oh yes! It's two days away from Mother's Day, and I don't know what either of our mothers is getting. (Yea, it really is on me to do this.) Our moms are fine with whatever we pick--and they haven't complained if it shows up late. It's a huge cop-out for children who don't live near their mothers, isn't it? It's okay. I'll pay the price for my lack of ingenuity and planning this year.
  

• Last night my dad called to tell me that he and Mom are making an impromptu trip to see us this weekend. I'm so excited! (Still can't think of a gift, though!) The plan was for them to leave late Saturday morning after Mom was finished with work, and arrive in the evening. It's about a 8-hour drive. It sounded suspicious to me. They are weird (Nervous? Excited?) travelers who tend to leave before the rooster crows. Tonight there was a message that they would be leaving much earlier tomorrow--probably 4:00 A.M. I called to check that they hadn't left already. They are tricky like that--surprising people by showing up HOURS--almost a day--early. The story Dad gave me this time is that they were planning on leaving around 2:30 A.M. That puts them here around the time I'd be thinking about cleaning the house in the morning. OY!
  

• It's only 9:00 P.M., but it feels much later. I barely remember when Friday nights didn't end so early like this. Exhaustion. Fogginess. Confused reflection. Incomprehension of time.