The Greatest Gift!

So, sub duty today. Enjoyed the heck out of it. I subbed for a 1st grade teacher today. Last night I was still up near midnight and still there was no job. This morning there was a comedy of computer errors. Well, first it was my own error…I hit the snooze button. It froze the first thing off. I rebooted. (do we still use that word?) It took ten minutes for the damned computer to come up again. By that time it was 623AM…I thought, “There is NO WAY there is still a job up for me…” Well, guess what! I was wrong. As soon as it came up, there were two sub jobs open. One was a half day, the SPED teacher at TH had requested me( I have not yet subbed for her, but I assume she heard about me from the SPED teacher at Moxee, and has since put me on her list of requested subs). I looked at the other, it was a full day. That teacher, I later learned, was putting in time as a vice principal at the middle school…for the next three days.

I took the latter. I met my students, and began to get a sense of what I was in for. It wasn’t as bad as I make it sound. At the beginning of the day, I am watching them just as much as they are watching me.

When I got there and read the directions, I noted the teacher left a note for NANCY. Then, later, I kept getting questions. “Are you here all three days?” I began to get the idea that I was not the one they expected. I was somewhat worried I had taken another sub’s job.

I had a good day. We went to a “program practice,” for the last hour and twenty minutes of the day. It was like herding grasshoppers (that is even more difficult than herding cats). Finally the day was over, though. I left my notes for the teacher and what I figured would be tomorrow’s sub. Then I went to meet the teacher who has me set for tomorrow. When I walked back in, though, there was the teacher I had just subbed for.

She asked me if I was going to sub for her tomorrow? I said, no, I was taken. So, then she called the sub that had originally signed up. No answer. She asked me to be open to changes in the morning. I may be subbing for her (instead of the one who had originally requested me). Fine, so long as I have a job tomorrow. Teachers don’t like to have multiple subs, they prefer some semblance of continuity for their kids.

They seem to like me there at the elementary. I know I always say this, but it still baffles me. What am I doing right? Must be something. But, what? I guess I should not let it bother me. I should just accept it. Still it makes me happy.

Some migh save, teaching is the greatest gift...I disagree! Read on!

So, Cora’s birthday was yesterday. Her Dad must REALLY love her, because he took a piece of the fish he caught this last weekend and smoked it and then gave it to her (and by extension, me!). We both love his smoked salmon and steelhead. This is special, though. It is SPRINGER! Springer is a salmon…Chinook, I am pretty sure…and it is so fresh to freshwater, it still has all the fatty tissue and yumminess that you would expect to find in an ocean salmon…yet, well, it is an indescribably yummy taste…I don’t like fish, but I love SPRINGER!!!!!!!! This is the Cadilac, the Lexus, the Filet Minon, the caviar of foods…it is a Northwest treasure. My father-in-law creates an indescribably perfect jewel of food…OH, SWEET YUMMINESS!!!!!!!! There is no way you can repeat the experience, especially when it is this fresh! It just came off the smoker! It is still warm and obscenely yummy.

This was a good day!