Unemployment: Day One

Thank you for the wonderful and supportive comments. I can't tell you how much I appreciated them. It's amazing to me that anyone still reads this silly thing and it's also amazing that I've made some real friends because of it. So thank you again, one and all.

My first day of freedom was pretty much like a weekend day except the BF had to get up and go to work (sucka!). I was actually fairly productive. I had to get up around nine to move my car. I also had to take the multitudes of school crap out of the car. It took almost half an hour of circling my brownstone neighborhood to find a freaking parking spot, and it was an iffy one. Stupid Brooklyn!

I took out the trash and organized the school crap. I'd been holding on to all my old EL@ posters and charts (a year's worth that I saved and reused), but finally tossed them. I made a couple phone calls. In the afternoon I walked to the school to return a few things. I was nervous about potential awkwardness but successfully avoided running into anyone. I stopped at the grocery store. I made a pile of books to sell or give away (pictures of those coming very soon! it'll be like a garage sale, but on a blog).

Last night I got a phone call from a parent who wanted to schedule a meeting. I had no idea what to say, so I just stammered that I wouldn't be available. Just now I got an IM from a student saying they missed me today and what happened. I was worried about that and I still don't know what to do. I wrote her 'no comment, but i miss you all and i hope you learned something from me this year.'

Awkward and a little heartbreaking. Which pretty much sums up the entire situation.

It's still surreal and hasn't fully sunk in yet. There are thoughts rambling around my brain that I want to organize and process and write out. Perhaps I will do that tomorrow. After all, what else have I got to do?

Here's a random snippet. On Monday I made new sticker charts for my (now ex) students and included a space for them to make two goals for the week, one academic and one personal. We were going to evaluate them and our progress at the end of the week. (I guess they're on their own now. :()I shared mine as an example of small, specific and measurable goals. First was to be done with work by 6pm, and second was to make sure there were no dishes in the sink by the time I went to bed. I tend to be a little lazy and procrastinate with dishes, especially if there are only a couple. But I am proud to say that I have succeeded with this goal! It helped that I had made the goal and told it to others, because at the end of the night, when I wanted to leave a dirty glass or spoon sitting in the sink, I thought to myself that I didn't want to fail at the goal and have to say I couldn't do something so easy. And that pushed me to just wash the damn dish already. So at least there was a tiny success this week among the professional mess.