A Weakening Week

Last fall, the yearbook kids started calling me Yoda. I took it as a complement because Yoda is wise, calm, and has some sweet Jedi moves. Way back then, I felt that I truly embodied the spirit of Yoda.

Today I just look like him. It has been that kind of a week.


What kind of a week could cause me to shrivel up, turn green, and grow claws? Well, the kind of week wherein I had all of my normal responsibilities like teaching Sunday school, teaching kidlets, and teaching institute, plus the added time-sucking black holes of parent teacher conferences and the final yearbook deadline.

Expect for the whole "time sucking" part (correcting papers and tests, entering grades, verifying grades, printing grade sheets, and sitting in a very uncomfortable desk for seven hours) parent teacher conferences went really well. Not a single kid tried to set me up with their father/brother/uncle/cousin/mailman, and I somehow managed to make it through the whole experience without my slip falling off in front of a crowd even once! I did, however, have several parents make reference to my still-crunched-tailbone and even more offer their hopes that I won't fall down any more stairs over spring break. ( Note To Self : Remind the kidlets that repeating every single thing I say back to their parents does not qualify them for extra credit points. )
The "final yearbook deadline" part didn't go quite so well. The deadline is Monday, so I wanted to have everything finished, completed, finalized, and submitted by the time I left school on Friday. I am now sitting in my apartment on Friday evening and there are still four blank index pages sitting on the yearbook company Internet server, mocking me with their naked, empty, whiteness.

We (Here, "We" should be translated as "I" due to the fact that the kidlets have been blissfully enjoying their spring break since 3:14 p.m. Thursday) are waiting on the yearbook company people to fix some things on Monday so that we can finish and submit those index pages. But the rest of the book (the other 69 full-color pages) has been finished and submitted thanks to the diligent efforts of the young, force-wielding-Jedi's who made up this year's yearbook staff. They worked during school and at home during the week, and then back at school during Saturday workdays to get the book finished. Just look at them diligently designing pages in the computer lab during a....wait a minute! Where the heck did my yearbook-Jedi's go?
They have been working so hard, maybe they had to pull themselves away from the computers long enough to eat something...you know, to keep up their strength.

Nope... No sign of them near the food either. I wonder where they could be...

Of course! I should have guessed that missing computer lab roller chairs meant that the kidlets were turning the ramp into their own personal roller coaster!

I mean, why wouldn't the yearbook staff be performing high-speed roller stunts in the middle of the empty school on a Saturday? What else would they be doing? Working on yearbook pages? The real Yoda would be astonished and disappointed by my level of naivete.

But despite being sidetracked by the roller-ramp-of-death, the kids did get their pages built, indexed, and proofed, which only left me with a few minor edits and touch-ups.

I had planned to have the whole book finished and submitted before I left to enjoy my spring break, so I am a little disappointed that it is going to take a few more days before I can proclaim the book completed (and trust me, when that finally happens, there will be a heck of a lot of proclaiming going on) . Much of that disappointment stems from the fact that I had been saving my last Wunderbar (my favorite Canadian candy bar that my NY brother and his wife drove across international boarders to acquire for me as the second best birthday present ever...my Obama mug and Sirius Black shirt being tied for first). I have been saving the last bar for my own personal "I survived my first year as Yearbook Advisor!" celebration. Now I guess I will have to pack it up with the rest of my Spring Break gear so that I can enjoy it Monday when the index finally stops mocking me.

And I should probably count my blessings. Of all the naked, empty, white things that could be mocking me over spring break, I could do a lot worse than index pages.

Viva La Spring Break!