Teachers of America Unite

And no, Texas has not become a teacher's union state over the holiday. I am referring to the fact that ALL of us who had to start back to school today were united in our severe depression over the past weekend. I'm completely serious...I was really depressed all day on Saturday. I was going to write a blog entry earlier than today, but couldn't fight my way out of the depression. And for those of you who aren't teachers who really want to challenge me and say "yea, but you get 3 months off in the summer and had 2 weeks for the Christmas break"...quit your bitchin' right about now because you would need that kind of time off if you did what we did every day.

I called Amanda yesterday, she was depressed as well, and we decided that we should grab a bite to eat and try to collect ourselves before the big day arrived. It was pathetic. Marisa came too and she took a picture of my pitiful face (her word, not mine, although I'm not arguing) as we left the restaurant. Unfortunately, I can't get the picture to upload to my computer, but whatever...I'll let you imagine.

BUT! It ended up being a really good day! I think I was even more of a wreck considering I had been out for an entire month and on my drive up to school, I had to remember exactly where my room was, but eventually, I found it. Thankfully, my boss let me work in my room for most of the day, which was great because I had no idea what happened in there when I was gone. By about 2:00, I was starting to get really tired and my side was aching...I don't know if that was the swollen spleen talking, but it didn't rupture today, so I'm good. I left around 2:30 and headed home where I passed out for quite a while...even still, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to sleep just fine tonight.

It was great to get back into the groove. And the thing about being a teacher (at least in my opinion) is that it's the kind of job where when you come back after a long break, the people you work with smile at you like you're a rock star that they're just seeing for the first time (and by people, I mean the little people)! I went down to the office while a class of kindergartner's was walking to lunch and do you know what happened?! My sweet little friend, Zyana, was heading the line and her face lit up when she saw me and of course, she gave me a hug (as she always does when she sees me...even if she gives me a hug on my way to get a fork from the cafeteria, she'll give me another one as I pass her leaving the cafeteria 4 1/2 seconds later) and then, the 18 other six year olds that trailed her waved "hello!" and wanted me to hug them back as well. That's the beauty of my job...no matter how I'm feeling when I'm at home and away from it all, I really do love getting back to it!