Skool Daze

Well, it's 9 pm on the night before school starts here in RWC, and I'm having those standard end-of-summer blues/jitters. Tomorrow morning I have to face a whole new herd of 8th graders and try to get them pumped about US history. Before you laugh uproariously, I have on occasion caused this to happen. Granted, it often involved bribes of the confection variety. Actually, I'm looking forward to it, as this is essentially my third year teaching (counting my student teaching year, but I was basically teaching two classes on my own and subbing a lot), and it just gets progressively easier and easier. Not the least of which is due to the fact that a lot of stuff is ready to photocopy and now it's just a time thing rather than an organization thing.

Last year, while I was pregnant, I tried very hard to stay organized because I knew that this year, with the infant Bean, my time was going to be severely crunched, and it really does seem to be paying off. Plus, my colleague and my wonderful sub did a ton of copying at the end of the last school year, so we are just that much farther ahead. Right now I'm just worried about the Bean's food supply being maintained, but we've got a small stash in the freezer, and hopefully I'll be able to create the next day's meals while at work. Oh, the beauty of double-action pumping. If this is grossing anyone out, I'm sorry, I couldn't have made it any more circumspect. Heather the Human Snack Bar. Okay, that was gross, sorry.

We're also still searching for a nanny, but had a good interview with someone on Sunday (part-time only, but we might be able to work around it) and then someone tomorrow night who sounds pretty good on paper. It dawned on me tonight that I really shouldn't stress out too much about the whole nursing thing, because why couldn't the nanny just bring Bean by school at lunchtime on (regular) occasion? I mean, not to sound snotty, but what exactly else are they going to be doing? This is in Bean's best interest, etc, and as long as we trust them driving, it shouldn't be a problem. Also, my husband is going to be working from home quite a bit, so perhaps he'd like the break sometimes. At any rate, there are a variety of options. Maybe I'm just having those first-day nerves.

Be prepared to be regaled in the coming Huzzahs with History Howlers (for instance, did you know that the "farmers" of the Constitution created its "farmwork"? I kid you not, I once read this translocation so many times it started making sense to me. They were many of them gentleman farmers and plantation owners, right?), tales of romantic woe straight out of Romeo and Juliet (except, quite honestly, I don't think Shakespeare really understood fourteen-year-olds. They should have had much bigger groups of friends and trash talked each other's group a lot more and then all the friends would have hooked up in a serial monogamy pattern and then everyone would have had a huge tearful breakup right before Christmas/Valentine's Day/Graduation)...where was I? Well, I'm definitely rambling, so looks like I'm ready for slinging pearls of wisdom at unsuspecting teenagers. Let's hope less of them this year take this Huzzah's title as a spelling guide.