Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Playing Hookie

Bueller, Bueller... Bueller.  Has anyone seen Ferris Bueller?
He's out playing hookie.
As part of my new "taking care of my star player" campaign, I decided it was time to take a mental health day this week.  Okay, I decided to play hookie.  When you get a stomach ache Sunday night just by thinking about going to work Monday morning, it's time for a day off.  As my Monday was wall to wall meetings, I took Tuesday off instead.

When I was a kid, playing hookie involved faking sick (looking pale, sticking a thermometer under a lamp, coughing, sniffling, sneezing, and other NyQuil symptoms) in order to convince my mother to stay home, make me grilled cheese sandwiches and chicken noodle soup, and let me watch Wonder Woman re-runs all day.
Ahh, the late 70's and early 80's -
 a time when we were just happy to have a female superhero.

Nowadays, playing hookie is different.  At other adult jobs, the work just waits for your return.  As a teacher, that doesn't happen for me.  The children will be there at 9 am regardless of whether I am there or not.  We don't send them home and tell them to come back when the teacher returns.  Being absent from work involves lining up a substitute teacher to cover my class, writing sub plans, and coming back the next day to clean up the mess and hear about how awful my kids were for the sub.  It almost isn't worth being out because of all the prep work beforehand and the clean-up afterwards.  But, I haven't missed a day of work since November and it's almost March now.    It's time for a little break, preferably one that doesn't involve a bone.

I almost never take off work.  I haven't missed a day of work this year where I didn't have a fever of 102 degrees Fahrenheit or a broken bone.  I broke my ankle at 11am and worked the rest of the day before seeking medical attention.  Hey, the bone wasn't poking out so I figured I was good.  I got the flu and suppressed the fever with drugs just to come into work and give the kids a math benchmark. 

Picture it:  You have to picture it because clip art of a sick teacher doesn't exist. I looked.  The kids working on the test up front.  Miss Insert Last Name Here sitting at the back table, reading a test to a child while wrapped in a blanket because she got the shivers from her returning fever.  Boy, was that a mistake!


What a teacher actually thinks about before taking a day off from work
Now, I'm at home playing hookie and all I can think about is that it's 10:30 which means math class is starting.  Granted, I'm thinking about it while blogging, but the worry is still there in the back of my mind.  I'm going to try and see if I can refrain from texting my co-workers all day to ask how my class is doing.  We'll see how it goes. 

I have a Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich to read, six loads of laundry to do (the laundry pile is spreading towards the bedroom door in an attempt to escape), grocery shopping to get done to fill my empty cupboards and fridge, and a mountain of papers to grade. 

Is it really a day off work if you're doing work from home?  I don't know, but I'm about to find out.

10 comments:

  1. Love it, you deserve a break, I wish I would have caught this before lunch Maria and I just went to Fuji and I would have had you join. What's the qui thing for comments, can you email it to me? I need to fix my comments section and make it fun and splashy like yours. :)

    Enjoy your ME day!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have a fun and splashy comment section? I had no idea. I think you're referring to disqus which I don't have yet. Mr. Mynd has it. I think if you go to his blog and click on the disqus logo down in the comment section you can get it for your blog.

      Delete
  2. Gotta get away... I know that feeling!

    Disqus is pretty easy to set up. I can say it, since it will be a while before he checks, but Jay got it set up without any super computer dude help... LOL (he'll obviously have something wise to say to that)

    WG
    http://itsmynd.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you calling me out, WilyGuy? That is low and uncalled for. But I did get Disqus to work in about ten minutes or so.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the help with Disqus. I was too lazy to look it up myself. It's quite helpful.

      Cheers!

      Delete
  3. I hope your day off was beneficial. No, I hope it was some much better than that.

    Have you noticed how fun 'sick' days were when your a kid, and how 'meh' they are now? How is that even possible. A day off of work should be a good thing, not a stress thing... Right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a very nice day off of work and I didn't even get upset when I heard about the three kids who got sent to the office while I was gone. Apparently, my mere presence prevents all kinds of calamity on a daily basis. :)

      Holy crap! I have a follower who isn't a member of the friendamily, an actual stranger! Does that mean my writing is good or that my graphics of Wonder Woman and Baby dancing have brought me a new demographic?

      Delete
    2. If I had to guess, I'd go with a combo of your awesome writing and the picture of Lynda Carter. Soon you'll have too many followers to qualify for the Liebster Blog Award...

      Delete
    3. Am I the stranger you are referring to?

      I joined cause I am relatively new to blogging too, and I liked your writing.

      So it seemed like the right thing to do.

      Delete