57 plus

Spent most of my birthday helping my new colleague getting her classroom in order and downloading my brain about all the stuff that will be helpful for her to know.  She is coming from the same school I worked at, so we compared war stories while we moved boxes of books and basically put things away.  Tomorrow (later today, really) is our "Nitty Gritty" day -- long meetings where we go over a thousand and one things.  My heart goes out to all the new teachers everywhere!

My own classroom is in not-bad shape but I still haven't set up my museum or tidied my bookcases.  I may or may not bother.  Parents and students will be popping in at pre-arranged times for a very abbreviated Meet the Teacher with the social distancing, so the room needs to look good. But since no one will be allowed to linger, I'm not going to sweat the details too much.

I also did an inordinate amount of running around today both before school (dropping off our ballots, searching for bulletin board fabric) and after (assembling my birthday dinner).  Dinner was great but of course too much, and then I indulged myself by watching the most recent Pride & Prejudice movie, newly returned to Netflix.  I appreciate being able to fast forward through the most embarrassing scenes with Mrs. Bennett & company.

After that I think I fell asleep for a couple of hours and now here I am.  Tomorrow is my official first day of work and I really should be in bed but as usual I am doing this sort-of sabotage thing.  I'll survive.  I don't feel like I'm 57 years old, but I suppose I don't know what it's supposed to feel like.  Two of my colleagues wished me happy birthday today and I told them "57!" and they both told me I'm about the same age as their moms.  Didn't surprise me, and didn't bother me, either.

I wouldn't give back any of my years because they made me who I am now, still a work in progress but at least I think I'm going in the right direction. Most of the time, anyway.