840 Minutes

I was at work for 14 hours today.  I have words.  They might make sense.  I'm not sure.

Here's my day in a nutshell:

1. Arrive at 7:15 AM.  Work for 45 minutes.
2. Go to duty.  Yes, I do my duty out on the back patio in front of everyone.  I do my duty with Russ.  We talk while we do duty.  Sometimes, parents ask me questions while I do my duty.
3. Yes, Chris Drury, that duty talk was just for you.  And it's listed as item #2.  Because we're all blessed with the humor of 7th grade boys.
4. Teach a lesson.
5.  Informal meeting while while working.
6.  Teach same lesson.
7. Lunch
8.  Pick up my class and a discarded wrapper for a condom off the back porch as two boys squealed in dismay.
9.  Said a prayer that some kid filled it with water and just made a very awkward water balloon.
10.  Laughed about that image.  It could be totally legit.
11.  Taught the lesson for the 3rd time.
12.  Killed a roach and saved a roomful of terrified children from said roach.  It was tiny.  It was barely a roachette.
13.  Taught the lesson... again.
14  Taught it one last time.
15.  Meeting.
16.  Duty!  Twice in one day!
17.  Leadership team meeting -- 90 minutes.
18.  Twenty minutes of the volleyball scrimmage.
19.  Prepare sub notebook, sub lesson, and create escape plan for my not-so-good-might-erupt- with-change student because I won't be there tomorrow (for a day-long meeting) and that is a BIG change.  Please pray around 12:15.
20.  Read and re-read my sub notes to make sure that even a 7th grader can follow them because sometimes substitutes don't show up and then, basically, a 7th grader MIGHT BE RUNNING MY CLASS because they don't go tell anyone there's no teacher.
21.  Left at 9:15.
22.  Got dinner, drove home.

Yeah.  Teaching.  How hard could that be?

But every class was genuinely upset that I wouldn't be there tomorrow.  Even the wild boys.  That alone was worth all 840 minutes at work today.

You take the victories where you can get 'em, I say.