Week in review - Nadir and Zenith

In my world, April is not the cruelest month, March is. It's a long haul between February and the end of March, when the quarter ends and spring break beckons. Yes, there IS that carrot, the promise of a week that offers trips and lazy days.

However, we all must get through March.

This past week was definitely the roughest of the year (so far? Perhaps I have forgotten things like giving a student the option to withdraw or to be expelled. Hmmm...). No, it was. Between feeling like I was hungover for the entire day for a few days thanks to a really awful sinus-cold-thing that I've been struggling with, dealing with our school's accreditation process, and finally chaperoning a school dance on a SATURDAY night, I'm not sure what was the nadir. I'll process, however.

The cold/sinus-thing has been a major drag. I usually get sick about once a school year, but I'll be really sick for a day or two and then bounce back. I have felt low-energy for over a week now, and I am so tired of and frustrated with the sinus headaches and occasional coughing bouts. I've also been getting through the day self-medicating, which I hate.

The WASC accreditation - this was actually the end of what has been a long process, starting last year, but it was the most stressful point. An outside committee comes to evaluate the entire school, interviewing people, meeting with departments and randomly dropping in on classrooms. Of course, the class of mine that they visited was less than scintilliating - last period of the day, half the class missing because of a track meet, and a lackluster (on my part) discourse on "adverbial clauses". FUN times. Not that they were evaluating ME, per se, but there is still that sense of paranoia because I did not "perform" appropriately. Also, the entire school, being under a microscope, gave off a general impression of high stress.

Obviously we are going to be accredited, that is not the question, but the process is rather grueling.

Finally, the school dance last night. I can now say that I have definitely heard a Lady Gaga song, a fact of which I had been dubious before said dance. I actually don't hate being a chaperone, but it's a long and a late night for me and I usually have thumping music and pop-y songs stuck in my head for at least 24 hours afterwards. No drama last night, except when the

DJ (a student) decided to play a song with extraordinarily sexually explicit lyrics. I'm no prude, and Idon't mind the occasional F-bomb in a song here and there, but this went far beyond anything like I had heard. To me, it sounded like porno in a song. Maybe I've become an old hag, but the other chaperones were equally outraged. I played the 'heavy', but it's times like that when I wish I were really tall and imposing and could scare the shit out of a 16-year-old kid.

...

Okay, the GOOD part of the week?

The major excitement for me is that I bought a new skirt at Anthro. I did not get a new, spring-summer print skirt last year, for whatever reason, so I felt that I was due one. Plus, the temperatures next week will be balmy - in the 70's. Perfect timing for a new skirt!

And so:

I always have such the dilemma when I buy something that I really like: do I wear it school and then it becomes tainted because it is for "work" or do I separate the item and wear it for fun? I do think that I'll wear this to work, as it will be nice to throw in a fresh look, but hopefully it will still be 'fun'. I may have bought some other items too (oops!).

And...

Michael and I have been experimenting with curries, and we made a fantastic chicken red curry for dinner this past week. It was a welcome change from the Progresso chicken soup that I had been eating to combat the sinus thing. Not only does it look pretty nice (I think), but it tasted great and is so easy to make. We will definitely incorporate it into our standard repertoire.