The Week of Goodbyes

I am calling these past seven days, "The Week of Goodbyes." Some of the goodbyes have been bittersweet, some humorous, some sad, and some have been felt nationwide. Here are five goodbyes from this week:

Goodbye to two students who moved away
I am at a school with a lot of mobility. It is not unusual for students to move in and back out of my classroom within weeks. However, these two students were kids who had been with me since the school had opened. One of these kids had made tremendous growth in behavior this year, and the other one had overcome her shyness to play a role in our spring musical last year. I was sad to see them go so suddenly. One little boy keeps teasing me and telling me he is moving to California. When I threaten to hide him under my risers so that he can't leave, he grins and says, "Just kidding."

Goodbye to those two front teeth
Yes, this is the time of year that the six-year-old kiddos start losing teeth by the truckload. I can hardly walk down the hall without coming across little ones with plastic tooth carriers hanging from their necks. (If you have ever worked in an elementary school, you have probably encountered those contraptions at one time or another.) Hence, the popularity of the song "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth" during the month of December.

Goodbye to our student teacher
Friday was my student teacher's last day, and as you can see from the picture on the left, the kids will really miss him. The comments I heard on Friday ranged from, "I don't want you to leave," to "You'll come back to visit, right?" And he thought he was going to be a better band teacher than a general music teacher! But I know he will be moving on to better things. And the kids understand to the extent that they can understand this adult world truth: A paying job is always a plus in the end.

Goodbye to George McGovern
An American political icon died this week. His anti-war stance forty-plus years ago still rings true for much of my generation - a generation born at the end of Vietnam, then thrust into a couple of decade-long wars where we saw our younger siblings, friends, and, for me, students sent off to fight and sometimes die for a cause that not all of us accept as war-worthy. One thing is for certain. If I had been alive and an adult during the Watergate scandal, my car probably would have been donning the famous "Don't blame me - I voted for McGovern" bumper sticker.

Goodbye to Nellie
My family suffered a sad loss when they had to put their pet dog, Nellie, to sleep. She was a member of the family. My stepsister referred to her as her little sister. My father fed her bananas every morning at the breakfast table. She provided the entertainment for us every time Dan and I visited. Even though we aren't a part of that household, we will miss her energetic personality when we go to Twin Falls. And I know that Nellie's passing has left a Mini-Schnauzer sized hole in the lives of my family who shared their home with her.

RIP, little Nellie.

 

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When the Utopia Ends

It has happened. The honeymoon is over.

Here is the hallway chatter from today:

"It's the weekend!" (with a relieved sigh).

"Thank goodness it's Friday!"

"Math with this class is like being in a very dark place."

Even my student teacher said, "I feel like I've worked really hard this week, putting out fires and keeping kids entertained."

Now that we are eight weeks in, the weather changes, the darker mornings, and Halloween being just around the corner are taking their toll on our up-until-this-point calm beginning to the school year.

Just this morning, I heard someone say, "I think this is the smoothest start we've had since our school opened."

Then this afternoon, I saw two of our repeat offenders from previous years looking chagrined and being marched inside from recess. And these kids had been doing so well.

In my class, a kid stood with his hands down his pants and yelled, "I think I broke the root of my tooth!"

Another one said quite loudly, "I just don't feel the beat! I just don't feel it!"

And yet another brought a plush toy frog to music and, instead of singing "This Land is Your Land," croaked, "Ribbit, ribbit, ribbit!"

"Am I doing something wrong?" my student teacher asked.

"No, it just means they feel comfortable with you now. Take it as a compliment."

Then I added, "But don't forget to nail them to the wall if they deserve it."

So we're back. The never-a-dull-moment aspect of my career has resurfaced. As crazy as it sounds, it is why I love my job. And I am sure I will have many more entertaining anecdotes as the year progresses.

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Who Knew Showering Could Be So Disconcerting?

I have begun taking my showers at my night rather than in the morning. I started doing this in September, around the start of the new school year. I had several reasons for changing my showering habits.

1. During the school year, I usually work out in the evening. It's nice to go to bed refreshed - as opposed to sticky - after a 5K or an hour of Zumba.

2. It cuts about fifteen or twenty minutes off my morning ritual. This is especially important on my before school choir mornings. I am all about simplifying my life right now.

3. I'll let you in on a little secret. I have a couple of minor neuroses, as if you hadn't already guessed. For example, I suffer from night terrors. If you have ever followed the comedy of Mike Birbiglia, you have an idea of what I experience occasionally (on a smaller scale, thank goodness).

Anyway, showering at night has helped me wind down before bed. Consequently, I have had fewer night terrors since the school year began, and the first months of school are often my most stressful, night-terror-filled times of the year.

These three significant positives were enough to convince that it was time to change my showering schedule.

However, my husband, Dan, was not so enthusiastic. And I couldn't figure out why. Dan doesn't emote about anything. His response to almost every question I ask is, "Sure, if you want to."

Here is a sample conversation:

Me: "Do you want to go to Johnny Carino's tonight?"
Dan: "Sure, if you want to."
Me: "Will you go with me to a romantic comedy next weekend?"
Dan: "Sure, if you want to." 
Me: "Are you willing to go to four Broadway shows when we are in New York?"
Dan: "Sure, if you want to." 
Me: "Do you want to have four kids by the age of thirty-five?"
Dan: "Sure, if you want to."
Me: "I don't want to."
Dan: "Okay, that's fine too."

But when I told Dan, "I'm going to take a shower now. Is it okay if I leave you to do the dinner dishes tonight?" his response was, "Yeah . . . I guess."

He does the dishes every night, so I knew his reluctance didn't have anything to do with this particular domestic chore. But I shrugged and took my shower anyway.

I noticed that he continued to reply hesitantly every time I brought up this new nightly ritual. One evening, I decided to pry a little deeper.

"I think I have found out how to sleep sans night terrors."

"How's that?"

"I shower at night. And then I put lavender oil on the nightstand. It helps me wind down."

"That's nice . . . I guess."

"Does that bother you?"

"What?"

"That I shower at night?"

Dan sighed, "No . . . not really."

"That's weird. With all of my personality quirks, my showering at night is what bothers you?"

"No, it doesn't bother me . . . really . . ."

"What's the problem, then?"

"Well, it's just . . . that's what my parents always did. They took their showers at night. Does that mean we're getting old?"

"I never thought about it," I said. "That's what my parents always did too. We are getting old!"

However old it makes me (or my husband) feel, I have continued taking showers at night - most of the time - at least the nights before my early choir mornings. But now that it's getting colder, I am starting to miss a hot shower in the morning. Of course, that could be because Dan turns the thermostat down to sixty every night. Now I wonder if there is an ulterior motive behind our Arctic bedtime temperatures.

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