It Was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

By mid-afternoon I was ready to curl up into a ball, preferably someplace soft and warm where no one could find me.

Yeah, it was that kind of a day.

Kids misbehaved, and one even kicked a chair, causing it to hit another student.

A spider that the kids have been watching for days, picked writing time, when I had all the kids sitting on the carpet in front of me, to rappel from the ceiling, headed straight for one kid's head. It was up to me, as the only adult in the room, to save the day. Looking at its thick, hairy black body I secretly wanted to scream and look for another adult.

A somewhat disturbing situation with students prompted me to seek out the school psychologist for help. She, too, was disturbed, enough to speak with the students and help me sort out the unpleasantness. I'm still in a state of disbelief about the whole thing, and really wish I could have gotten to Spring Break without it.

The aforementioned conversation with the psychologist led to unpleasant conversations with parents after school. One even yelled at me for not calling later. Or earlier. Or not at all. 

Checking email I found one demanding a phone call. What was one more unpleasant phone call? I was on a roll.

It would have been some comfort had I been able to leave work at a decent hour to be wrapped in the comforting presence of my family (although I'm sure one of them would have found a reason to be mad at me), but tonight was the PTA meeting, which didn't start until 6:30.

Wiping away the two seconds of tears I allowed myself to cry, I headed to the meeting.  Last meeting ended at 6:55. Tonight's went until 7:25. Knowing I had a blog to post by 9:00, I started writing notes on the back of the agenda, worried there wouldn't be enough time to write once I finally got home.

At 7:30, 12 hours after I left my house, I left my classroom. Climbing into the car, I realized I had forgotten my cell phone.  As I headed back, I laughed quietly to myself.  Of course, I had forgotten my phone!  After all, it had been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

But, as Alexander's wise mother once said, there are days like that.

Even in third grade.