Shoe Personality of the Week: 12/13/2010

Flat.

That's my desire.

This week marks the beginning of the countdown to winter vacay for me. That means this week will be the 1st in a series of extremely difficult weeks on my calendar as a teacher.

Every morning, from now til the 17th, I'll wake up & fight myself NOT to call in & take a mental health day--I have 10 of them coming up in a row. That won't make it any easier for me to bound out of bed, ready to greet the day. What will make it worse is that the Little Darlings can smell the coming break as well & will be practicing the art of Off The Chain-isms all week. Behaviors will be atrocious--the very opposite of what children should be if they actually still bought into the concept of receiving coal for X-mas (since most of them celebrate it). Instead, they'll leave coal in my stockings on a daily basis until the dismissal bell on Friday. Joy to the world.

The next week that's going to suck is the 2nd week of the vacation. Each day will feel like it's 1 day closer to the end of the world. In fact, it's 1 day closer to having to return to deal with students who are behaving poorly because they were over indulged over the break. They'll OD on TV, video games, & foods containing yellow & red dyes. They'll come back showing off they're holiday booty [no pun here] & give us wonderful things to confiscate, followed by conversations with irate parents who essentially want their figurative money back. Sigh...

Our return to school begins the countdown to Spring Break. Once that's been cleared, the countdown begins to summer. Notice I didn't add break to the end of that. Summer is when all of us teachers get to either work summer school, aka free babysitting for delinquents, or be taking some course work or another toward maintaining our certification or gaining another degree. Thankfully, I've already scheduled some Me Time so that I don't begin to lose my mind between occasions for respite.

I type this now from my bed, where I'm practicing early for this concept of laying flat on my back. Ironically, work does this crazy thing where you don't have time to adequately take care of your personal business either. That makes laying flat still a dream. What will actually happen is that I will continue to wake up as though I have to go to work every morning. Then I'll get to the work I've brought home over the break. *I can see some of your faces who know how I work* & I'll be running around trying to see doctors and dentists that never have available appointments after work. Don't forget, I'll also have to try to kick it like I'm in my 20's, hoping to store memories like a squirrel to get me through the coming 3 1/2 very focused winter months back at work. The laying flat will occur at the same damn time it always does--nighttime--with the occasional Oprah-induced nap thrown in for good measure.

Ahhh well...at least my ability to dream still works. Does yours?

Watch me move.

Post Script--did anyone notice these shoes also fulfill my love of giraffe print? & yet I still have none. Perhaps I'll have to actually order these today.