just counting the days

I'm off to DC tomorrow for City Year's National Leadership Summit and it couldn't have come at a better time. I just finished probably the most (unnecessarily) stressful week of the year.  I'm really excited for the Summit.  All of the major donors for City Year will be there plus a bunch of staff and senior corps from around the country.  Pretty awesome. Plus, we get to go to all of the fancy dinners, talks, etc.

Anyways, this week was extremely stressful. On Wednesdays, I got to school and realized that the bracelet that Mike gave me in Guam was missing. I never take it off, so I began to panic.  I retraced my steps, went home during my lunch break to search my room and couldn't find it.  When I got home from work, I tore apart my room and house looking for it, with no avail. At that point, I had pretty much accepted that it was gone, although lots of prayers to Saint Anthony were still being made.  Luckily, Mike wasn't too upset and understood that it was an accident (thanks for that!).  Thursday, I was heading to my car and as I was walking, a little glimmer caught my eye.  I looked down at a pile of leaves and there was my bracelet! I guess all of those prayers worked! I walked back and forth the day before looking in that same spot, but the sun was out that day and there it was! I was so happy I wanted to cry! Needless to say, yesterday, I took it to a jeweler to get tightened because it was pretty loose before.

On top of that, my teacher was really strict with the students this week, to a point where he was kicking them out of class when they didn't even know why.  I had five students get referrals in a class of 20, all for things that they've gotten away with a million times. One of the students I work with every day got kicked out because she asked why she wasn't allowed to go with me (a valid question since she goes with me all of the time).  I didn't even understand what she did.  I also don't think he understands that it's my job to pull her and other students on my list out of class to work with them. It was so frustrating.  At one point, I had to leave the classroom because it was so overwhelming and frustrating. Students were asking me what they did and I couldn't even tell them.  I don't know what happened to make my teacher so strict.  He mentioned that one class was really talkative, but nothing that merited his behavior.

Add some stressful grad school stuff into the mix and you've got one stressful and crazy week.  Luckily, Mike has been in port all week, which has helped.  I'm grateful to be taking a little "vacation" away from Jacksonville for a few days to clear my head and refresh.  When I get back, there will only be three and a half weeks left of school and until Mike comes home!! At this point, I'm just counting the days....


I'll leave you with this quote my student yelled across the room to my teacher....

"Mr., you on your period?" -Amy after my teacher made her move seats and kicked four people out of class (little did she know she was going to get kicked out next).  Welcome to my life.