Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Oh What A Day!

...Oh What A Day!

Yesterday was a serious getting school work done day.

Other than drop my daughter off at school, take my wife's car to get her front tires changed, get her car reinspected, then picked my daughter up from school, at 11am, I've got the whole day to properly prepare for tonight's class.

Sooooo, I drop Jamy off at 8:00, just in time to hear the bell ring. Then I head straight to Discount Tire. They tell me it's going to be about a 30 minute wait.

*15 minutes later I'm out the door.

I had to run back by the house to pick up the inspection paperwork, no biggie. The shop is like 2 minutes from the house. But when I get there, the inspection machine is down. No problemo, I'll drop back by after I pick up Jamy.

I get home and hit the books till it's time to pick up the little one. Oh yeah, I've got a video copy job for a friend that I'm doing. No big deal, I'm just transferring some gymnastic competition and home movies to DVD. I can multi-task that into homework time easy. :thumb:

10:48 rolls around and it's time to skee-daddle to pick up Jamy. I get Jamy, *we do the happy dance, and head to the car. She tells me she's had a big day and wants to have "5 minutes" (Family code for nap time) when we get home. Sure baby, all we have to do is get mommy's car inspected right quick and you can have "5 minutes".

Get to the shop and the machine is up and running. The prawlem is we are 4rth in line. 20 minutes per inspection x 4 customers in line = 1 hour & 20 minutes. Like I said before, Jamy was ready for naptime. So I can't check that off of the honey-do list today. We leave, with no inspection. The wife ain't gonna be happy! Oh well. I put my mind towards finishing the stuff I needed to do for tonight's class.

The wife comes home around 4:15 and I'm still not done. So, I coax her into helping me with some stuff that I was having trouble with. We're doing that until it's time for me to get ready for class.

I had a group teaching lesson assignment to do, so I had to all get pretty. So, I scramble to put together a descent outfit, get my materials together, and get packed up.

Done. I emerge from the chamber to get my gear together. Jamy had a playdate scheduled about that time. Jamy's friend's mom and the wife were sitting in the living room talking about girly stuff. I can tell from the lsudden silence and the look on the ladies faces that I had put together a nice ensemble.

*Wow! Am I a gorgeous hunk of man or what!

I kiss the wife, daughter, cats, snakes, and iguana goodbye...:eek2:, hit the freeway, set the cruise control for 78, and try to relax. Maybe I should put on some music...no...some talk radio...no...some Christian preaching...no...heck! I'm all wound up in knots. I can't relax! Hmmm...why the heck is there a silent "K" in knots?! What's the point of that? Arrgh! Why am I distracted by stupid random thoughts like this? I'm supposed to be mentally preparing for my presentation!

As you may have noticed, I'm a little stressed.

To top it off, I realize that I had left my journal assignment sitting in the printer tray, AT HOME!

*Luckily, my handy-dandy wife was able to email it to me so that I could print it out at the computer lab at school.

My drive to school (Rockwall to Commerce) usually takes, at relaxed speed, about 45 minutes...

*...30 minutes later I'm in Commerce.

I stop at Brookshire’s for my usual munchies, plus a soft sided binder to turn in my teacher portfolio in. Yes, I'm nerdy like that.

(Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm studying to be a coach/P.E. teacher. This means I have to study all this teacher stuff; stuff that goes over my head most days. This doubles my stress load don'cha know.)

AAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Get to school, meet up with my group, and go over our PowerPoint. “Everybody good? Uh, sure. I guess.” (Sigh) Too late now, class starts in 2 minutes. :shrug:

Almost forgot. I need to print out my journal assignment. Sugar Honey Ice Tea! I don't have any credit on my Lion Card. THE COMPUTER LAB DOESN'T ACCEPT CASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ohgawd! I’m gonna get a zero on this assignment because I don’t have 20 cents on my student credit card?

*Fortunately, one of my classmates was in the lab and let me bum some credits off of her card.

Got my assignment printed, after some minor technical difficulties and head to class. After the usual shuffling around, getting things organized, and idle chit-chat class starts. Our presentation is up first.

*We did a fantastic job! 23/25 points possible.

Considering the time we actually spent collaborating on the thing our score was nothing short of a miracle. Another group was up after us. Not to brag or nuthin', but they were not even close to as good as we were:trust:. After that, teacher tells us some stuff and things. We turn in some more stuff and things. I needed to talk to her about some stuff and things. It’s now about 10. I grab my stuff and things and start on the 45 minute drive home.

I usually take a coffee to the head on the way to class or while sitting in class (to stay awake in class), then I take another one on the way home (so as to not fall asleep on the drive home). By the time I get home I’m still pretty wired from all the coffee. But, I have to get to bed early enough so that I can get the kid off to school.

So, I’ve taken to drinking a beer or or two (or four) to wind down. I stop at the gas station for a single serve. Grab my brewski and hit the counter. Then lo and behold what to my eyes see? 50% off six-packs at my feet. SCORE! Let’s see, what on sale here?

*6-PACK, FAT TIRE, $4.45!!!

I get home, unload, get into my p.j.'s, and let the games begin.

Four bottles later, I startle awake, Xbox 360 controller still in hand, Lara Croft has died in some horrible fashion (because her puppeteer had drifted off into La-la land), my wireless head phones sitting so askew on my head that the arm of my glasses was just about ready to take out my good eye. I’d better get to bed, I say outloud. It’s almost 4:30.

What a great day I had yesterday, I say to the cats as I pull my feet under the covers.

Thank God for the little things (*)