As I lay in my bed listening to the chorus of crickets outside, I wonder will I have the night of sleep I dream about? Will I put in my ear plugs and not be awakened by my neighbors at all hours? You may be wondering what has brought on this contemplative mood and I would be happy to enlighten you.
Last night after a huge late lunch/early dinner of (I think) an impressive approximation of eggplant Parmesan, I sat down to reply to some letters (Elaine, Heather and orange Sarah, get pumped!). I wrote, until I was so tired that my eyes just wouldn't stay open, my hand was cramping, George had lost interest in attacking my pen and the candle was down to a nub. I decided it was time for bed. I had saved my bucket bath for just before bed, because while going to bed with a wet head is a definite no-no in colder climes, here it just makes you sleep easier.
I felt refreshed and cool and ready for some light reading - first mistake. I've been reading House of Mirth by Edith Wharton and although it's very well written and I feel like I'm exercising my brain muscles, it is definitely ironically titled. If you read it, your belly will not shake like a bowl full of jelly, because there will be no mirth. I finished that book and no longer felt ready for bed. I hopped on facebook for a bit to recover my spirits and then picked out another book. Forty pages in, I was again happily bleary eyed. I turned off my headlamp, rolled over and got comfortable.
I was just getting to sleep, when it started. The screaming and the yelling followed by babies crying and more screaming and yelling. Some of my neighbors having a fight. The only thing that I understood was about someone leaving and someone staying. I don't really think that's any commentary on my French; hysterical people are hard to understand in any language. This looked like it was going to go on for a while, so back on went the light and out came the book.
They settled down. I settled down. I turned out the light. I was really, really tired at this point, so sleep came easily. I was in that really deep sleep, where it's all dark and quiet and empty.
THEN THE RATS STARTING PARTYING IN THE ATTIC!!!!!!!!
See how startling all those capital letters are? They definitely get your attention. You're confused. You're a little alarmed. You have no idea what is going on!
I fumble for the light. There's no power, Beth! I fumble for my headlamp. It's plugged in, because it ran out of juice from all that reading. I fumble for my phone - lost...who knows? I turn on my computer, the only thing within reach that makes light. In my confusion, I was convinced that the rats were on my headboard. Imagine being pulled out of that deep, dark, happy place by the adrenaline-inducing idea that there are rats on your headboard and maybe even in your bed.
Somehow, I managed to get back to sleep, only to be woken up two more times by those rat raves in the attic.
And then my neighbor started beating a pot or a bucket every two to three seconds for at least fifteen minutes starting before 6am.
You might think that with a beginning like that that the day could only get worse. It actually didn't!
Today was my first day teaching and knowing myself as well as I do after almost a quarter century of friendship, I knew that I had to take a chill pill before going to school and making a horrendous first impression on my students, who I would then be stuck with for an entire year, knowing exactly which buttons to press. I took my time this morning. I made myself some breakfast, pet and played with George, read my book, tidied up and generally did some mental housekeeping.
I was late to school (look at how well I'm integrating! lol), but my students were great! True, I only had 18 of a class that has somewhere between 80 and 120 students and 4 of a class of at least 40, but I think that because I've set the ground rules with these ones, that the others will follow them by example. If you disagree, please hold your tongue and let me hold onto that shred of optimism through the weekend, until the bubble bursts at 7:25 Monday morning, when school apparently really starts.
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