Fridays

Remember when Fridays used to be the best day of the week?  From the beginning of the day it's like TGIF mania.  Nothing can get you down.  You have basically started your weekend that morning and are really just killing time until work is over.  They don't call it Casual Fridays for nothing.  Casual is the word and mood of the day. 
I miss those Fridays.

My new Fridays are not casual, nor are they enjoyable.  I don't love them anymore.  Because Fridays are now a gathering of my week.  A gathering of papers and correcting for the week.  I took this picture after school today of my desk.  I started laughing when I came back in from yard duty after school and looked down at the mess.  At this point...I laugh, so I don't cry.  This is my new Fridays.  Thirty-six kids times six different subjects times two different grade levels.  Exactly what time does Happy Hour start and why am I not there more often?

Someone asked me the other day how I am doing.  I said I am doing fine.  I drink more now, but I am fine.  If I am successful this year...and by successful I mean I do not enter a twelve step program by the end of the year...I will look back and remember what a fantastic class I had this year.  I have twenty-five fantastic fifth graders and eleven fantastic sixth graders.   I'm a lucky girl.