Teaching: What They Say Is True

Teaching is the only job (and I’ve been reminded of it a lot lately) where it can take more work to call in sick than to actually go to work.

It was a long weekend, so I had time to prepare for Tuesday, not that it was an easy task, but it got done. Wednesday morning, I felt mildly better, but knew I should probably still call in sick. But, I couldn’t wrap my mind around getting sub plans done and hence, decided to toughen up and go to work. What a mistake!

Besides the fact I was coughing all day, slowly losing my voice (albeit very slowly), and sweating as well as feeling miserable, I somehow managed to survive the day. The only thing was, I had a funny feeling I was sabotaging my recovery by pushing myself throughout the day. So I did the smart thing, and prepared sub plans throughout the day and finished them after school before coming home.

I really wasn’t sure if I had made myself worse or not, so I simply laid out the sub plans, wrote a few letters to some students that I had to ask questions to and didn’t get the chance, and instructed a student to make sure a couple things got done incase the sub forgot. Everything was in place, just incase. I did not ask for a sub yet, just incase.

Of course, this morning I wake up so tired. I had awoken several times throughout the night coughing up a storm. My throat felt like it had gravel stuck in it and dry as a desert at the same time. At times, I was coughing so hard, tears were running down my face. There was absolutely no way I was going to work and I definitely did damage going to work yesterday.

But the good news was, I didn’t have to worry about sub plans again because they were already done, so I couldn’t talk myself out of going: the looming task was done! And now I’m at home, taking medicines, both natural and over-the-counter, trying to recover and finally kick whatever it is that I have. After waking up this morning (from coughing again) and messaged my VP that I needed a sub, I managed to fall back asleep (fell asleep before saying good-bye to my husband because I was so exhausted) and slept for a few solid hours. I’m tired again already, but I at least don’t have to worry about anything except getting better. Sometimes you just need time to rest and recover.

Crash and Burn

I can remember posting my last blog post. I was so excited that I finally had my computer back. It was like being reunited with an old friend, having access to the world at my fingertips again.

Well, I’m sad to say that feeling was short-lived.

Yes, I had my computer back. Yes, it worked again. But it also decided to take more sleep than it should have. I would literally walk away from the computer, come back, and assume it had gone to sleep mode. But instead of sleeping, two things would happen. It would either not turn on at all (meaning it had crashed), or I could get a nice grey, rectangle message in both English and Chinese telling me I had to hold my power button to shut it off. There was something seriously wrong with that computer.

Needless to say, I didn’t have a computer for awhile again. And it couldn’t have been in any worse of a time than report card time. Ugh…

They managed to find me another computer (work supplied), and somehow, though staying up many, many hours for many days in a row, I caught up with grading and report card comments. This is the Family Day long weekend, and on top of all the stress, I’m sick. I was so looking forward to finally relaxing this weekend, but I guess my sickness caught up to me. Oh boy!

But what really matters, is I’m back with a reliable computer! Wahoo!