Why February Has Not Been Great

This post could also be titled Why I Have Not Completed the Meme That Shawnee Tagged Me With.

Or simply Why I Am Exhausted.

But I digress.

Thursday, February 1st. Arrive at school 7:45 AM. Shit. Late for meeting with parents about student who refuses to do work. Sit and listen to parents argue about whether it would be better for me to phone or email to track said student's progress. Rush to 1st period class. Continue to have fairly normal but hectic day, including a well-intentioned but not as effective-as-I'd-hoped review game for below-level Algebra I students. Suffer disapproving looks from the special ed teacher who collaborates with me in that class. Go to track practice. 40 degree weather, girls who are late and/or complain and/or refuse to run entire workout. Wonder what possesses girls who have little interest in running to go out for TRACK. Come home and collapse exhausted on couch.

Friday, February 2nd. Arrive at school 8:20 AM. Shit. Late. 10 minutes before class, students are waiting at door to classroom. Open email to find slightly reprimanding letter from school bookkeeper asking where track fundraising monies are. Spend ENTIRE planning period running around school reminding girls that these monies are due. Go to track practice. See February 1. Work gate at freshman basketball game, sitting by a door which opens periodically to let in arctic blast. Head home at 7 PM, hoping to catch movie with friend. Enter house to find said house has been broken into. Call 911, find out what is missing. Am at first broken-hearted, thinking all heirloom jewelry is gone, but am then relieved to find it dropped on floor. Realize this means that I actually *came home while thieves were in house*. Freak out a little about this. Fight with Sprint over stolen cell phone.

Saturday, February 3rd. Try to straighten out new account at bank to make up for stolen checks. Fail. Hurry home to meet friend who will board up broken in back door and cable guy who is supposed to fix intermittent cable problem. Cable guy fails miserably. Friend succeeds. Rush to store to purchase new cell phone and fixin's for chili cook-off taking place next day.

Sunday, February 4th. Fix chili. Forget to fix matching blue-cheese cornbread until last minute. Curse self for being stupid. Find out cell phone number has been messed up by Sprint. Curse Sprint. Go to Super-Bowl Party, drink too many beers, win 3rd place in chili cook-off. Take home big wooden spoon as prize. Realize I forgot all about grading papers, and grades are due Monday. Grade feverishly until eyes cross. Collapse into bed, leaving all chili paraphernalia on counter to congeal nicely.

Monday, February 5th. Arrive at school 7:50 AM. Shit. Not as early as I'd meant to. Feverishly enter grades. Yell at classes because grades are so bad. During planning, rush to bank to try to take care of account. Fail. Rush to middle school to do various stuff. Rush back to high school to teach rest of classes and yell at kids. Go to track practice. See Feb 1 and Feb 2, but subtract 10 degrees. Rush back to bank. Finally succeed at changing account. Go to Sprint store. Fail to resolve phone issue. Curse. Drive to rural school, getting lost along the way, for mandatory track rules meeting. Curse slow-talking country leader of said meeting for stretching a 20 minute meeting into 45 minutes. Miss dinner date for sushi with friends. Come home, too tired to care, change into pajamas and sit in front of computer for mindless entertainment.

And one more thing. It's my birthday in 45 minutes.