Halloween

I'm much too tired to do the post that I'd planned for today (or even think of a good title for this jumble of words that I'm about to inflict upon you all).

This class is so exhuasting. I'm working with the same group of students what I was with before Half Term (a year two class), since their teacher is still very sick and needs another two weeks of recovery (at least). So back onto autopilot I went this morning, and happily went about my routine without worrying about getting onto the wrong train.

At school, we're not allowed to talk about Halloween or dress up or do anything related to it (meaning no stickers even - although I gave a few out anyway, since nobody actually told me not to), so today was just "the last day of October". Poor kids - the grownups have ruined this holiday with their political correctness and desire to be so inclusive of other cultures that they forget their own rights.

Anyway, before I get carried away with this topic (it's easy for me to do), I'll get to the fun things I was going to write about. I was going to write Top Tens lists, but there is no way I'll get this done by the end of tonight. So here are some that stick most in my mind...


Scariest Things I've Heard a Student Say

"I TOLD you I really needed the toilet!" (A little boy with a wet patch on his jogging pants)

"I'm gonna kill you all" (from an angry kindergartener with a plastic bat)

"No, I don't know where C went after the concert. He was behind me a minute ago." (About a student who disappeared for 30 minutes after a school performance, scaring the crap out of me, his classroom teacher, parents, and 20 other grown ups. He was found safe and sound, waiting outside his classroom door)

"I'm going on a diet. I'm too fat!" (a third-grader who was NOT fat)

"40!" (A JK student trying to guess my age. His friend guessed that I was older than his grandma because I was "smarter")

"Miss, Miss, Miss - T has red spots all over her and she says they itch and really hurt" (This was today by the way. Apparently she's never had chicken pox... neither has half the class. Good times.)


Scary Things That Happened to Me While Traveling

Having a flight take off 45 minutes late from Raleigh, NC on its way to Detroit, where I needed to catch a connecting flight to London, Ont, meaning I'd have 10 minutes to get from one end of the Detroit airport to the other. (this took more speed and talent than I thought I possessed, but I did in the end make it. I'll always remember running at top speed past everybody, lugging a suitcase, carry-on, and laptop. I guess fear of being stranded in the airport was a good motivator.)

Getting Lost on the highway between Portland and Corvallis, Oregon. In the rain. And fog. (did I mention I was by myself and had been traveling for 22 hours? Or that I'd never been in that state before and had only a vague idea about how to get to where I was going?)

The Bathroom Lady in NYC (screeching at the top of her lungs, effectively terrifying a group of 16 year old girls on their first trip to the city)

Thinking I'd left my passport behind at the toll bridge in Sarnia (another first visit to the city), and having to run back to the booths in new shoes and a thunderstorm. Turns out the passport was not lost at all, and I had brutal callouses on my feet for two weeks. This happened right before moving to England, so the passport was kinda important)

Getting on an airplane bound for London, England. (not only is 7 hours in a plane 7 hours too long for me, but I was terrified about what was going to happen once we arrived. Total state of fear.)

Seeing a man jump into a cab and pull a gun in NYC (Okay, so this might not be a completely accurate story, since we were into high drama back in high school, but I remember being scared out of my wits and cramming into a phone booth with 4 other girls as our friend was telling her dad about the "great trip" we were having.)

Seeing a huge brown bear while horsebackriding in the Montana mountains. (this one doesn't really need an explanation, except to say that we're pretty sure it wasn't a grizzly)

Turbulence. (Any airplane turbulence, but particularly on the way home from Florida with Jeremy. As he and his brother slept on either side of me, I sat with tears streaming down my face, convinced we were gonna crash. I still get teased about being such a wuss.)




Things I Was Terrified of When I Was Little

The basement (always ran after turning the lights off)

The Goonies, The Neverending Story, Labyrinth, Gremlins, and Dr. Who (I know, I know, not that scary, but for some reason I couldn't stand any of these movies or the intro music for Dr. Who)

The vaccuum (I refuse to apologize for this one. What kid wouldn't be scared of a really noisy device that sucks up everything in its path?)

Unsolved Mysteries (even though I listed movies and a TV show earlier, this one deserves its own note, since it was the first time I watched something scary (Robert Stack was a scary man with an equally creepy voice) but still enjoyed.)

Rabid foxes. (There was a scare about these in the area where I grew up for a year or so, and I spent many years afterwards scanning darkened woods for the glowing eyes of crazy foxes who could come chasing after me 'any minute'. It eventually translated into being scared of the dark woods, which was inconvenient for a girl spending 4 months of the year living in a camp on a lake.)





I'm sorry these aren't longer, but I need to get some sleep so I can spend a day trying to calm down 30 sugar-filled children.

I leave you all with a picture of me in my Hallowe'en costume (courtesy of Jeremy):



You guessed it - I was a Sleepy Teacher... all I needed to create this costume was 6 hours of sleep, 5.5 hours trying to get 30 excited children to behave, 2.5 hours of travel to and from work, and a looong walk up the road to grab something for dinner because I was too tired to make something. Add comfy red pjs and my favourite blanket (knitted by Jeremy's grandmother for Christmas a couple of years ago), and I was all set.

Happy Halloween everybody!!
(hope yours was more eventful than mine)