The news has been anything but fun lately, but that was before Ed the Zebra escaped from a pasture southeast of Nashville and took off on a week-long adventure. There were Ed sightings all around the area until he was safely captured with the help of a helicopter and a net. Thanks, Ed, for giving us something fun to distract us from life for a few days!
Well, no one can say we're in a drought anymore.
I had to replace my bright green phone case this week, as the top right corner was so badly damaged by the phone repeatedly being dropped (who did that, anyway?!) that the case wouldn't even stay on. I wanted another one just like the one I had, but the manufacturer no longer offered it in bright green. This presented a problem, since I lose my phone several times a day and am alerted to its location with a combination of the find my phone feature on my Apple watch and the phone's color. It's going to be hard to get used to, but I now have a ridiculously bright PINK phone! Thank you for your service, green phone case!
Our school is part of a program meant to improve interactions between teachers, and each teacher will be assessed through an observation. Our assessments are scheduled for this month, and I volunteered to be first just so I could get it over with. The observer was in my classroom on Wednesday, and I am thankful that this step is completed.
The bad news: it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, awful morning in my classroom, and I went in the bathroom and cried when it was over. The thankful here is for my co-workers, because I took one for the team and set the bar LOW for them!
I'm thankful for those same co-workers who tried to pump me up about my observation and tell me it couldn't have been that bad. Even though they were dead wrong, it was so kind of them to try to make me feel better! I have terrific co-workers!
My dad and I found out this week that putting bananas in the refrigerator stops them from further ripening, and he was able to make two weeks worth of bananas edible for the entire two weeks. I'd heard that was a thing, but since I don't eat bananas, I never tried it (to me, old bananas are just tomorrow's banana bread). Sometimes, internet tips are actually true!
Saturday, I participated in the No Kings protest in Springfield. There were 3,000 peaceful protesters, and the solidarity brought out all the feels in me. I am so thankful I was able to be a part of this nationwide protest. We are stronger together.
Immediately following the No Kings protest was the Springfield Pride parade. Instead of being a spectator, I was actually IN the parade, marching with the American Red Cross. Unlike last week, no rain on THIS parade; just a lot of sunshine and humidity! It was tremendous fun, except later that evening when I discovered I did a terrible job of applying sunscreen to my face, missing an inch strip along my hairline. I'm thankful that's all I missed, and that I ended up with a very mild sunburn there!
This evening, I had dinner with my friend Allison. Life gets in the way a lot, keeping us from getting together very often, but we plan to try harder to make time for each other where we can laugh and talk and eat nachos.
Onward and upward to a new week. What kind of thankfuls await me?