I forgot today was Wednesday. Just for a moment. And then I remembered today is my attempt to put something in under the “Wish I Had Written That” tag–been thinking a lot lately about dwarfs, drinking and eating dwarfs specifically, and the scene in The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien) where the dwarfs invade Bilbo Baggins’ hobbit hole, and food is simply, elegantly, found. It appears. Found, eaten, enjoyed, shared.
But I’m not going to write about that today.
I was also going to write about how it felt to be 99% done with my redo on my Board’s entry. Last year, I had joked about the five-stages of National Certification. But then I didn’t pass by five points, and I wasn’t laughing anymore. The redo entry is due this Friday. Along with our taxes. Along with my father-in-law’s birthday. And I haven’t taken care of any of that. And yes, the burden does fall on me. I’m feeling almost relieved, and now kind of, sort of, understand why people procrastinate: that adrenaline rush over crossing the finish line might be fairly addictive. That is, if the stress and anxiety doesn’t do me in first. I did the math: each point cost us a minimum of $280 for a total of $1400, and that doesn’t include the ink cartridges, paper, or overnight shipping costs. And I say “us” because it’s our money.
And my state put a salary freeze for teachers for the next two years. I don’t really care. I’m grateful I have a job I love.
But I will write about this:
It’s no secret I’ve invested, sunk, spent, etc. a lot of my personal resources into my classroom. Today, just now, I was looking for a book I’ve had in past, in fact, I’ve had about three or four copies of this book, for a student in the reading class. I found its series, the second one, easily. But the first one – have no clue. So, I hopped right over to my trusty laptop, knowing that my Amazon account was good to go, to buy a few more copies of the book. Books go missing all the time – I don’t track them. I used to have a sign out sheet and most students who were interested in taking my personal books home were also pretty darn good about returning them. And, if a few didn’t make it back, what’s $10-$15 dollars here and there, if some child gets ownership of a good book?
Well–here is the book, and I want you to notice the fine print:
Guess I won’t be replacing this one anytime soon.
Postscript: (I did buy the $27.98 paperback “acceptable” condition copy, though…)
