Facing the Reality of Break Being Over and a New Copy Machine

I can't believe Winter break is over! I know all of you out there with non-teaching/education jobs are collectively telling me to get over myself ("You had two weeks! Isn't that enough for you?!) but it really did fly by, and I feel like I was just starting to feel rejuvenated when I found myself back in the classroom.

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining. Break was wonderful. We got a lot of family time in, went to some wonderful concerts (Michael Allen Harrison and Straight No Chaser), ZooLights and of course, reverted back to collegiate style eating and sleeping habits. I had initially set out to not go to bed later than midnight, but most nights I was lucky to be asleep before 2 a.m. I blame the books for that.

Evan and I at ZooLights

You see, I hardly have time to read for pleasure, as my daily life consists of lesson planning, grading, or trying to put student work on the absolutely inhospitable walls of my classroom. So when break came around, I took it upon myself to sit and devour as many books as possible.

Thank you for the sleep deprivation!

I managed to read four, which I think is pretty good, but it is also to blame for why I have felt like a total leaden pile of mush with terrible hair all day.Well, I can blame the books and my system's complete and utter denial that today was Monday and I had to be a responsible adult-ish type person.

My denial of having to trot back into the classroom resulted in my justifying that I could totally stay up and watch the two hour season premiere of Downton Abbey. I love that show, but it meant going to bed at around 11 p.m. Whoops. Then, because of the aforementioned collegiate sleeping habits, my brain saw 11 p.m, and scoffed. "We're not tired!" It proclaimed. And I, of course, listened. I stayed up reading until about 1 a.m., and then I tossed and turned, wondering how savage my 7th and 8th graders had gotten in the 16 days that we had been apart. Winter break is akin to a total brain wash for a lot of students, and they come back with all sorts of knowledge about their new Uggs, Xbox games, and tablets, but haven't the slightest clue what an adjective is. This comforting thought occupied my brain for another half hour before I finally fell into some fretful sleep. As a result, when my alarm went off at 8:30 (my part-time position didn't seem so bad today) I remember pawing desperately at my phone, jabbing the snooze button, and mumbling a few expletives before completely passing out again.

Totally. 

Let's just say I did this about three times, which then meant I was running late to work. Add to that I managed to slice my finger open on some makeup brush packaging (I had bought them to assuage the upcoming work week) getting blood all over my new eyeshadow brush, and then having to wash both my finger and the brush, Macbeth style ("Out, out, you damn spot!") before  rushing out the door.

I felt like my coffee wore off before I made it down the driveway, and my head began to throb almost as badly as my stupid finger, which kept insistently bleeding. I finally made it school and was faced with one of a teacher's worst nightmares: a new copy machine.

"What the Hell is this monstrosity?" I approached it with caution. It was a giant, hulking dark blue machine with glowing lights, a massive touch screen with multitudes of buttons, and I swear it growled at me as I approached. It might as well have been a rocket ship.

I jabbed a few buttons and found myself on some screen asking me if I wanted to fax something ("Press here for German/Spanish/Portuguese/Basque") and after trying to escape that, the new machine and I reached an impasse. I would jab a button, it would beep disappointingly. I jab, it beeped. Finally, I gave up and went in search of Maribel, our wonderfully patient tech guru. She saw my face and instantly said, "New copier?"

"I think I'm about to fax someone in Guam,"I replied.

Luckily, Maribel tamed the beast and I was able to get  my copies made. Fortunately for me, the rest of my day went by splendidly. My students managed to remember what a protagonist was and my other class seemed at least willing to participate in the memoir unit we have coming up. They all seemed to be the same sort of sleep-deprived haze I was in, so we understood each other on that front. Hopefully the rest of the week goes smoothly, barring any extraneous cosmetic packaging or run ins with that blasted copier.

Until we meet again, Winter break! I will miss you, but 2014 is gearing up to be another interesting year!