Time Is On My Side

Isn't this lovely? I laid on a bench here this afternoon for about twenty minutes, just watching the hummingbirds flit around a large tree that was covered with tiny blossoms. There were always 4 or 5 of them hovering overhead, and occasionally one would pause on the slim twig attaching the drooping blossom cluster to the leave base. It was calm, pleasant, relaxing. I reveled in it. The air temperature was comfortable, a slight breeze wafted by now and then. Almost no one was on campus---this is on the main quad at UNLV.

Why was I there, lolling in the early evening air and blissfully watching birds?  I was between classes. I really, really needed this little natural respite because I've bitten off a huge chunk this week. It is the summer term. I've enrolled in two classes to try and catch  up for the semester off with Frankenfoot. The term is four weeks long--June 6--July 7.  I have class on MTWTh---4:00--10:00. And this week, compounding the craziness, it is the end of the term for the school district where I work.

Here's today:  up at 6:00, out of the house by 7:00. Stop at Walmart to get supplies for the traditional 4th grade Last Day of School Pancake Feast. Get to school by 7:30. Snatch up master copies and head up to the workroom to finish the Memory Book copies. Machines won't accept the card stock I need to use for the covers. Now machine won't acknowledge that I really asked it to make letter not ledger prints. Waste more card stock. Finally discover the one copier that won't screw up my cover pages. Finish making them all just in time to hurry upstairs for morning duty. Collect class--go downstairs and pledge/sing/announce...blah blah--drop them off at Art.  Rush back to my classroom to revise numbers on report card cover pages because I have too many days listed for this term.  Print off cover pages. Print off Parent Report Card pages. Start printing report cards. Half-way through the printer jams--repeatedly, again and again. Get all the jams cleared. Go get students from Art.  Spend a frenzied two hours, thirty minutes at a pop, with each class assembling the Memory Books. WE DID IT WITHOUT A HITCH. Probably because no technology other than a stapler was involved. Send every one out to recess. Print off more report cards. Stamp principal's name and sign my name on all of them. Throw some lunch down in 10 minutes. Pick up students from cafeteria. Have students read their contribution from Memory Books aloud. Go to Awards Assembly in the cafeteria at 2:00. Read off all my awards, have my picture taken repeatedly with smiling children by their terrific parents (really--such a great group this year.) Go back to rooms where we hold a 45 minute autograph session for all the 107 fourth graders milling between our rooms. Sign my name a zillion times. Clean up, stack up, bell rings. Realize that the baby shower for a co-worker is today and the gift is at home. Dash home to pick it up and drop it off. Sign in on my computer to upload my assignment for the 7:00 P.M. class to WebCampus because the instructor never facilitates this function until about 3:00 P.M. each day...arrgh.  Get back into the truck and drive across town to campus where I am about 40 minutes late for the 4:00 P.M. class. After it finishes...I go outside and lie down on the bench pictured above and breath slowly and watch hummingbirds.

Tomorrow is the last day of school. I got home at 10:20 tonight. But I'll survive---it's only one more day. Then, all I have to do in June is homework and go to class and then July will come and I won't have to do a thing besides swim and lay in the sun. Time is on my side.