Hecticness

It's been a whirlwind of a couple of days. After the play on Tuesday night, I looked forward to a quiet night in on Wednesday night, cleaning the house and awaiting my journey back to Michigan on Saturday. However, a good friend came back from Costa Rica, where she's been teaching this year, and of course that meant a trip to her (and pretty much my) favorite haunt, The Brewer's Art. Some garlic and rosemary fries and a goat cheese, and three Resurrections later, it was 9pm and I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open.

Today at school was our holiday program, where our legendary choir performed. I don't know why they don't do it on the last day before holidays - oddly, I think it's actually because they're afraid too many kids will miss school that day because it's so close to break - because it really disrupts the school day and makes the day crazy. Tomorrow, the day before the break, will also be crazy, so this creates two days of chaos.

[I don't mean to complain about the choir too much. They were awe-inspiring.]

In addition, my smarty pants Juniors are spreading rumors that suggest that aforementioned colleague from Costa Rica and I are in a feud. I'm teaching her former students, and today one of them came to me and said, "Is it true that (she) read all the commentaries and said she couldn't believe that you were teaching us this way and that she's going to teach the class for a week?" It couldn't be farther from the truth, but it still stings, because (a) I wear my heart on the sleeve with the kidsabout this new course that I'm teaching, explaining all my thinkings and uncertainties and trainings with them, and I feel like it bit me in the rear end just then; (b) she is an awesome teacher, but totally different than me; and (c) I'm working probably harder than I ever have in my life right now.

I cleaned my classroom and did a lot of work after school today, and now I'm off to buy gifts for five students for our "Secret Snowflake" celebration in all my classes tomorrow. I also will spend several hundred dollars on books that I hope the kids remember to bring me $ for tomorrow.

With all this in my mind, I'm awfully excited about my week off. My goals include reading a book per day and watching at least two seasons of The Wire, because my friend just got all of season 4 on bootleg and is having a Wire party when we return in January, and I've got to be caught up. I know, I know, I'm a bad person.

After the hecticness of the last two days, though, it was great to come home to the following message in my inbox, with the subject "Best Hanukkah Ever.":

I just want to share with you the best Hanukkah present I have ever
received in my life. I just sit down to look through this 430-page
novel for the best quotation to properly demonstrate a sacrilegious
motif in the House of the Spirits. I must have spent five minutes (it
usually takes thirty), and frustrated, I threw the book at the wall.

It fell open on page 87. Do you know what's on page 87? Nothing really,
only a quotation in which Ferula says the rosary for members of the
tenements, who spit on her and throw bedpans in her face. That sounds
pretty sacrilegious to me.

It seems as if God has given me this great Hanukkah gift. They say
Hanukkah is the holiday where miracles come true. I just wanted to let
you know.


I'm probably going to that hell for teachers who post e-mails from students on their blog, but that's okay. It cheered me up, and it will probably cheer you up, too.