SOLSC 29 of 31 - Wiped Out

Join me this month as I write a slice of my life each day this March and join many others sharing slices at twowritingteachers.com.  My 6-8th grade students are also be slicing this month and you can find links to their daily blogs HERE.

In the fall of 1998, it was my first year teaching in Olathe, Colorado. I taught two classes of chemistry and six classes of physical science, was the freshman basketball coach, assistant baseball coach, and National Honor Society sponsor. You might say I was kind of busy. One thing I learned was that the sunsets in western Colorado rival sunsets anywhere in the world for their beauty and consistency. The windows in my classroom faced west and I usually watched three or four a week from there while I tried to figure out what I was doing as a first year teacher. However, I usually never saw sunsets on Friday nights because when I wasn't at a sporting event, I left as soon as possible after the kids were gone.

You might guess what a twenty-three year-old man would do on a Friday night, but for me you'd likely be wrong. No matter what I had planned, I usually ended up asleep on my $5 love seat in front of the TV by 5:30. Somewhere in there, I would make a bachelor's dinner of mac 'n cheese, or hamburger helper, or frozen pizza, but mostly I crashed hard and early Friday nights. Teaching took so much time and energy my body could not keep up and it just hit shut-down mode.


Since that first year, I have usually been able to keep my energy at a more reasonable level, with the exception of the first year my daughter was alive. While there have been plenty of long weeks and some early nights, I'm usually good to go on weekends.

But today was the first day of my spring break and I was a wiped out as I have even been, without being sick. I got up when Clara said she was hungry and got her a breakfast of a hard boiled egg, fruit and toast. Then we watched some cartoons, snuggled on the couch (the couch cost quite a bit more than $5) and I was asleep almost immediately. I felt healthy but hazy the whole day and slept on the couch, with a couple of forays into the kitchen for meals, until 4:00pm. Every time I tried to get going, I just sunk back into the warmth of the blue leather, snuggled into the blankets and dropped off. I only was able to get through a few pages of the book I'm reading before my eyelids would close.

Finally at 4:00, my wife reminded me that we were expected at my grandparent's retirement community for dinner in an hour. A shower, clothes other than pajamas, and I was ready and we had a lovely time. But now, while typing this, I feel my lids drooping, and my eyelashes are starting to blur the words on the screen. It would seem I have need of at least one more early night.