what i have been doing
I was unconscious.
I felt somebody kick my foot and then loudly call my name.
"Mrs. Smith"
I shifted uncomfortably, idly wondering why I had lost the feeling on one half of my body, but ignored the voice.
Another kick, another voice, another call, all slightly more urgent than the first. "Mrs. Smith"
I peeked open one bleary eye and saw one of my students standing in the bus aisle watching me with a scared look on his face. Another student reached out a hand to shake my foot again and yet another student wondered aloud if I'm still breathing.
I am aware they are standing there, I am aware that I have fallen asleep into the shape of a pretzel on the bus seat, but I don't feel capable of responding back or moving. My body was finished. done.
When I finally did raise my head enough to acknowledge that, yes, I was still alive, one tactless student dramatically gasped as the paleness of my face apparently registered a gasp worthy moment. (how rude)
What happened to cause me to find the pretzel like sleeping position preferable to actually walking off the bus, collecting my suitcase, climbing into comfy pajamas and falling blissfully asleep on the Hilton hotel bed?
Nothing overly dramatic. Just a 12 hour stretch at Bush Garden Amusement Park, chasing around 44 very active teenagers all the while growing a 19 week old fetus and surviving on very poorly nutritioned amusement park food.
Oh yes, and a two hour ride to the hotel. I turn into a pumpkin at 9:30pm. I warned my coworker about that, but he did not listen. No. That's why my students are still talking about poor Mrs. Smith who couldn't manage to get off the bus. Sigh. There's a reason why pregnant people don't go on trips like these.
For those of you who are completely confused- On Thursday morning, bright and early, my fellow band director and I along with two parent chaperones departed school with a 44 member band, heading to Virginia Beach for a band festival.
I am not going to outline every detail of the trip here...I'm sure it would bore you, but I will give you a condensed, bulleted form of the trip (and for those of you grammar geeks, it will not be parallel or necessarily "correct". If you read the whole list, I'm sure you'll understand why I'm operating on only half of a brain today)...here goes
-13 hr bus drive with the band...all the while watching teenager chick flicks on the DVD system and, vomiting unobtrusively into a ziploc bag, and attempting to save my energy for what I knew had to be coming
-Having to stay up until 11pm every night to do room checks on the teens before being able to head to bed (this was a hard one for me)
-My roommate got sick and was throwing up all night and then informed me in the morning that she now also had diarrhea. (such a comforting thing to hear)
-I got many frantic calls from Aaron...Addison got her first ear infection that first day I was away. I hated that I wasn't there to comfort and take care of her (or find the thermometer for Aaron)
-One of the seniors from our school was in a horrible car accident back home and died that first night that we were away. A lot of my students knew him really well, and they took it quite hard. The first full day included me circling through all of the students, talking to them one on one to make sure that they were OK
-The coach bus backed up into a parked car while we stopped for a lunch break (apparently those buses are pretty hard to park)
-Our actual performance went really well...the only bad part was when one of the saxophonists mouthpiece apparently fell off and got replaced in such a way that caused him to be a half step off for a soli saxophone section. Wow it sounded bad...for about 30 seconds.
-Our sailboat cruise dinner got changed to a motor boat cruise dinner
-On that cruise dinner...I got tired of watching teenagers dance on the top of the boat to Brittney Spears and such...so I headed down and joined a poker game with m&ms, totally wiping up the competition. The students now think that I have a gambling problem. (for the record...I don't)
-The day at Bush Gardens. Seriously people, would it kill you to offer a veggie sanwhich???And what is the deal with every tiny little food item costing SO MUCH. My simple lunch cost me $20...and furthermore made me sick AND gave me heartburn.
-Ride home back to Vermont...more teen flicks....and more sleeping attempts. Couldn't quite find that comfy pretzel position again, so unfortunately I did no sleeping.
Late last night at 10pm I was reunited with my beautiful little girl... who was feeling better after a few rounds of antibiotic treatments. Wow I missed her.
The kicker is- technically right now I'm supposed to be at work. And I DID drag my sorry little self into work to teach the first block class. But, I almost fainted...and had several contractions...and developed a slight fever. So, I am home....typing out these thoughts before I forget and have a blog mutiny.
There it is. That is what I have been doing. So sorry to neglect you. I am back.
Now for that nap....
I felt somebody kick my foot and then loudly call my name.
"Mrs. Smith"
I shifted uncomfortably, idly wondering why I had lost the feeling on one half of my body, but ignored the voice.
Another kick, another voice, another call, all slightly more urgent than the first. "Mrs. Smith"
I peeked open one bleary eye and saw one of my students standing in the bus aisle watching me with a scared look on his face. Another student reached out a hand to shake my foot again and yet another student wondered aloud if I'm still breathing.
I am aware they are standing there, I am aware that I have fallen asleep into the shape of a pretzel on the bus seat, but I don't feel capable of responding back or moving. My body was finished. done.
When I finally did raise my head enough to acknowledge that, yes, I was still alive, one tactless student dramatically gasped as the paleness of my face apparently registered a gasp worthy moment. (how rude)
What happened to cause me to find the pretzel like sleeping position preferable to actually walking off the bus, collecting my suitcase, climbing into comfy pajamas and falling blissfully asleep on the Hilton hotel bed?
Nothing overly dramatic. Just a 12 hour stretch at Bush Garden Amusement Park, chasing around 44 very active teenagers all the while growing a 19 week old fetus and surviving on very poorly nutritioned amusement park food.
Oh yes, and a two hour ride to the hotel. I turn into a pumpkin at 9:30pm. I warned my coworker about that, but he did not listen. No. That's why my students are still talking about poor Mrs. Smith who couldn't manage to get off the bus. Sigh. There's a reason why pregnant people don't go on trips like these.
For those of you who are completely confused- On Thursday morning, bright and early, my fellow band director and I along with two parent chaperones departed school with a 44 member band, heading to Virginia Beach for a band festival.
I am not going to outline every detail of the trip here...I'm sure it would bore you, but I will give you a condensed, bulleted form of the trip (and for those of you grammar geeks, it will not be parallel or necessarily "correct". If you read the whole list, I'm sure you'll understand why I'm operating on only half of a brain today)...here goes
-13 hr bus drive with the band...all the while watching teenager chick flicks on the DVD system and, vomiting unobtrusively into a ziploc bag, and attempting to save my energy for what I knew had to be coming
-Having to stay up until 11pm every night to do room checks on the teens before being able to head to bed (this was a hard one for me)
-My roommate got sick and was throwing up all night and then informed me in the morning that she now also had diarrhea. (such a comforting thing to hear)
-I got many frantic calls from Aaron...Addison got her first ear infection that first day I was away. I hated that I wasn't there to comfort and take care of her (or find the thermometer for Aaron)
-One of the seniors from our school was in a horrible car accident back home and died that first night that we were away. A lot of my students knew him really well, and they took it quite hard. The first full day included me circling through all of the students, talking to them one on one to make sure that they were OK
-The coach bus backed up into a parked car while we stopped for a lunch break (apparently those buses are pretty hard to park)
-Our actual performance went really well...the only bad part was when one of the saxophonists mouthpiece apparently fell off and got replaced in such a way that caused him to be a half step off for a soli saxophone section. Wow it sounded bad...for about 30 seconds.
-Our sailboat cruise dinner got changed to a motor boat cruise dinner
-On that cruise dinner...I got tired of watching teenagers dance on the top of the boat to Brittney Spears and such...so I headed down and joined a poker game with m&ms, totally wiping up the competition. The students now think that I have a gambling problem. (for the record...I don't)
-The day at Bush Gardens. Seriously people, would it kill you to offer a veggie sanwhich???And what is the deal with every tiny little food item costing SO MUCH. My simple lunch cost me $20...and furthermore made me sick AND gave me heartburn.
-Ride home back to Vermont...more teen flicks....and more sleeping attempts. Couldn't quite find that comfy pretzel position again, so unfortunately I did no sleeping.
Late last night at 10pm I was reunited with my beautiful little girl... who was feeling better after a few rounds of antibiotic treatments. Wow I missed her.
The kicker is- technically right now I'm supposed to be at work. And I DID drag my sorry little self into work to teach the first block class. But, I almost fainted...and had several contractions...and developed a slight fever. So, I am home....typing out these thoughts before I forget and have a blog mutiny.
There it is. That is what I have been doing. So sorry to neglect you. I am back.
Now for that nap....