It’s been a very stressful week.  It was so stressful that I thought I was having a heart attack and spent my weekend in the hospital… and then they told me I wasn’t.  And the worst part was that it was the weekend!  Just about everybody was surprised that I was back at work Monday, but the teachers out there know how it is.  I had a heart attack once (technically it wasn’t a heart attack, but I did have an angioplasty) and I missed one day of school.  You teach through the pain, through the tornado, through the gunfire.  You’ve probably heard many people talking with wonder at what teachers have done.  But you haven’t heard teachers talk about it much.  It’s just what they (we) do.

Anyway, back to the stress.  My last big duty as Yearbook Advisor is tomorrow: The Yearbook Signing Party.  Once that is over, I have just one more day of teaching and then three days of Exams.  Fortunately for me, that pressure is over– I’ve already had my exams approved weeks ago.  Some others aren’t so fortunate.  Now the stress is for the kids.  A group of them was taking it far too easy, not studying.  I told them that in four years they were going to wonder how come their GPA was so low, and that they should remember this day.  I said I wouldn’t remember, because by then I would be on an island beach somewhere eating pineapple off the brown skin of a mostly naked woman.  One smart alec asked “What about your wife?” I told him that she was welcome to come too.

That little story should tell you that I’m just a wee bit off the rails, but by this time next week, I’ll be relaxing (alas, no beach, no mostly naked woman– maybe some pineapple).  I’ll be relaxed enough and have free time enough to get some writing done.