Human Voices Wake Us

My satellite is out.  So last night I had to catch shows I normally DVR in “real time.”  It killed me.  I had to sit through every commercial.  I tried to find things to do: I grabbed a book, I found a crossword puzzle.  As I was agonizing waiting for the deodorant/car/coffee ad (pick one- I didn’t pay attention) to be over, I was upset at how I was a slave to the timeslot.  I couldn’t choose when to watch these shows.  What if I’d rather be on the computer or playing with my kid? (The former being more likely.)  Then I realized it wasn’t too long ago (before DVR) that I scheduled around the TV shows I liked to watch.  I made sure I was in front of the TV at 8:00 on Thursdays to catch ER.  I thought about what a waste that was to be a slave to a TV timeslot and not have the ability to pick when to watch – when was convenient for me. 

The only thing that’s really scheduled in my life has to so with school-related activities or sports: football, soccer, PTA meetings, etc.  Oh, and church (it’s reliably always on Sunday mornings.)  I’m even in online classes where I get to pick when to work on the assignments, with a deadline, of course.  Everything’s on my time, when I want to do it.

Interestingly enough, I’m also reading a great book, The Year of Living Biblically, about a man who tries to obey every Biblical law.  Talk about being a slave to time.  He has to do certain things in the morning, certain things the first of every month, etc. 

Then I realized that maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all to have something that requires your attention at a certain time, especially God-related things. I choose when to pray, for example, but maybe I should have a dedicated time slot each day to do so – a time I choose not to let my selfish desires take over, a time I give up on my plans and do something scheduled, something important.  Other things in life could fall in this category: play time with my kids, date night with my husband, bubble baths (which could actually fall in both previous categories).

Maybe in this unstructured, free-for-all world we live in we need timeslots.  I love my freedom, but sometimes I need to be reminded that it’s not all about me.

There are some days when I want to be in my office and some days when I can’t wait to get out.  What makes the difference? Honestly, I have no idea.

Take today for example.  I had absolutely no desire to go do walkthroughs.  Granted, I had to organize 504 folders, deal with cheaters, read the new Scholastic books I bought for my son that just came in, talk to teachers about PDAS, eat, etc.  But the few minutes I did have were wasted cleaning out my email and well, nothing else, really. 

I worry that I might fall into the trap of many administrators of holing up in my office and only coming out for assigned duties.  Maybe these kind of days are like the ones I had as a teacher when I just wanted the students to sit quietly and work on assignment.  I guess that’s okay as long as it doesn’t become the usual.

So, if I’m not in the mood to get out of my office, how do I get myself in the mood?  Where do I find the motivation? 

Maybe I’ll develop an award system for myself, such as: 30 minutes of walkthroughs = 1 game of solitaire, or 1 hour of walkthroughs = ???? ( I’m really not sure what would be reward enough for spending 1 hour in walkthroughs (other than, of course, the knowledge that I’m doing the right thing for instruction.))  Yeah…..

In the past 6 weeks, I’ve been spit on approximately 4 times – all from boys.  Why is it that spitting is a reaction to things not going right?  Is it just a male thing?  I have never thought about spitting as a way to express my displeasure.  I do believe that to spit on someone is to show extreme disrespect.  Do boys spit on people because they know that or because they just like to spit?  Is this learned behavior? 

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