Joke's on me

I get a lot of email.  No really.  A lot.  I get all the ones from every company I ever considered buying something from in my entire life.  I unsubscribe.  They find their way back.  I have all the ones that are to other Thelmas in the world.  You would be surprised how many that is.  I have aaaaaalllll the work emails.  There are the ones from enthusiastic people trying to get me to buy their substitute plans (no prep!) and the ones from the district.  There are ones from the teachers union and the ones from the PTA.  There are ones from other teachers--Anyone have sidewalk chalk?  Anyone have a scale I can use?  Magnifying glass?  There are the ones from the administration and the HOPE squad and the student council.  

It's a lot.

And I am a skimmer.

I quickly click my way through email, seeing what I need to see and ignoring the rest.  This is not a perfect system, because I miss stuff.  A lot.

Still.

My email inbox deadens my soul.

Last week there were signs posted in the hall for Monday:  beach day.

I borrowed a Hawaiian shirt from Emma.  I wore linen cropped pants.  I wore sandals.

A student told me I looked "ready for the beach."  I said, "Well, it's beach day."

Another student said incredulously: We're going to the beach?!?

I said no.

They wondered what tomorrow was.  I said, "Career Day." (Again, there was a sign in the hall to that effect.)

The same student who wondered if it was beach day (and for the record, he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer) asked: Tomorrow is the last day of school?!?

I said no.

Another student said: You should dress as a zookeeper and we will be your animals.

It is exactly exchanges like this that leave me with no energy to read my inbox carefully.

It is Teacher Appreciation Week and the PTA takes over our classes for 30 minutes to give us an extended full hour of lunch.  Janelle and Miriam and I went to Kneaders and had a lovely lunch.  While we were walking out the door, I mentioned something about Beach Day.  Janelle said, "Isn't that next week?  I think I read an email that it was next week."

?!?

We were walking by the office and I saw Kristie, our principal.  She said, "Oh, it's next week.  I don't know why they put up the signs a week early."

(Maybe to sort out the people who read their email carefully from the people who don't.)

Then Kristie added, "But you look adorable!"

So there's that.