Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2005
Trying Tuesday, posted at 10:49 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com It was a long day, a trying day, a day after which all I can really say is I'll try again tomorrow. Nothing specific bad happened, but a lot of little things happened that made it sucky. However, it was more than that - there was just a general feel of incompetence, disdain, and bad luck running through every minute.I'll try to categorize.
1. Seventh period, a class filled with really nice, good kids, went off its rocker today. A lesson that had gone swimmingly in the morning turned into a mush with this group. I don't know why, which is even more frustrating.
Seventh period was not helped any by our principal, who came onto the intercom at 2:40 to say, "We will have a very important announcement in one minute." And then a minute came, and a bunch of kids talking about senior dues were on there. So not only did we have two interruptions when only one was needed (and that one should have been at 3:04, not 2:40), the "important" announcement affected exactly 0% of my 9th grade students or myself.
2. Baseball practice, after one of our best and well-played games of the year last night, was a sloppy disorganized mess today. The kids were mostly tardy and largely lackadaisical. Practice fell apart before it ended and I'm not sure how I'm going to approach tomorrow. The dog days of the season are upon us, I guess, but we need to end these last few weeks well. This really left me feeling terrible.
3. I came home, and the porch furniture is moved aside, like someone had tried to get in the window. I glance in the window, seeing if anything was stolen. I freak out, then my key sticks, and I can't get in. It turns out that the painter the landlord hired a long time ago and told me was going to come came today, and painted some stuff. So, in the end, good news. But I was already calculating how much stuff had been stolen and mentally freaking out about weather I'd paid my renters insurance bill.
4. I came home, all primed to watch the Tigers game, only to find it rained out. This is the third weather-related cancellation in four days. It's killing my fantasy team.
5. I was trying to plan tomorrow's lesson and was nodding off after last night's late night. So I took a nap. I got up around 8:30, freaked out a little bit because I thought it was the morning, and then decided to just go back to bed. But then I thought to myself, "Hey, where's Tobey?" I realized I hadn't seen my cat since I got home, and the initial thoughts about my house being broken into had distracted me when I first came inside. I started calling him, thinking he might have gotten out through the broken front window and his body was laying mangled in the street somewhere even though a surgery to save his life just cost $800 last month. I called him and called him, to no avail. I'm wide awake now. Then, I hear a mewing from upstairs. I think it might be the roomie's kitty, and venture up there. There's the roomie's kitty at the top of the stairs, looking concerned. I creep up there, and she actually lets me pet her head. I think this is a bad sign, because she must be trying to tell me something about Tobey if she is actually letting me touch her for the first time in six months of cohabitation with me. The dog is also freaking out at this point, wondering why I'm calling and looking concerned and going upstairs, where I never go. I hear more mewing. Tobey almost always come when I call so now I'm thinking he's curled up somewhere, ready to meet his death, his urinary tract now permanently blocked and he's just waiting it out like Troy Maxson in Fences. Then I realize the mewing is coming from the upstairs bathroom door. This is strange, I think. I knock. I hear a shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. I open the door and out sprints Tobey. Why in the world he was upstairs in the roomie's bathroom, I do not know. I'm guessing the painter may have come into the house and shut the cat in there so he wouldn't bother his painting? Or maybe the wind? Either way, it turned out to be sort of funny, but it sufficiently freaked me out enough and got my blood racing enough to keep me awake even now, a couple of hours later. I'm sure the hour nap is not helping matters any.
This does seem significant I guess. The worst was the baseball practice. I'm currently questioning my competence a little, and need to design a kick-ass practice tomorrow or I might lose some kids.