So how was YOUR Friday?

So, it's officially Winter Break as of today. I'm happy to have the next two weeks off, especially considering the fact that I finished grading the mountain of papers and projects on my desk before leaving school yesterday so I won't have to feel guilty about not grading them in all of my free time. Cuz, no matter what, I WON'T grade papers on break. I WON'T! I WON'T! I WON'T!

Normally the second my body leaves official CCSD air space I morph from Respsonsible English Teacher Me into Vacation Mode Me.

V.M.M. likes to wear pajamas for an inordinate amount of time, eat food that makes me fat and queasy, shop for unneccessary items, and forget she has a job.

R.E.T. is dilligent and (appropriately) loves teenagers.

V.M.M. sleeps in and wants to bean teenagers in the head with popcorn at movies.

I know. I know. I'm complex.

Anyway, this year's V.M.M. kickoff just hasn't gone as planned. "Why?" you may ask?

Welllllllll..... It started like this:

I woke up early for the first time in my life. I had a nice morning walk with Austen, got ready and was driving on the freeway to work when I heard the unmistakable flump flump flump of a:



Luckily David was home and is WONDERFUL. He came, picked me up and took me to work and then went back, put the donut on the wheel and got my car back to my apartment. (He's currently my favorite person.) I thought, "I'll get one of my friends to give me a ride home. No problem!" except one thing.

I'd given David my keys that morning so that he could fix the whole tire thing. This included the key to my apartment. Normally, this would not have been a big deal, but my heater's been broken and conditions in my apartment have been a little bit like this:



for the past week. So much so, that I've been considering buying one of these babies:



and I'd finally gotten an appointment with a heating and air conditioning repairman. Of course, I'd set a 2:30 appointment. I wasn't going to be able to meet David at my apartment until 2:45 at the earliest, but I thought, "These guys are never on time. I'll be fine." But NOOOOOOOO! for the first time in the history of repairmen, the guy was on time and because of another job across town could not wait one minute past 2:45. I didn't get home until 2:50, but the guy was nice and stayed.

He was also cute and friendly. I thought that just maybe my day was looking up. He looked at my heater and said, "You're not going to like me very much. I can't fix this. You see, the heat in your apartment is created by hot water that flows through this pipe and then the air blows over it and is heated. You need to call a plumber."



A plumber to fix my heater? Oh silly me, why didn't I think of that? By the way, my heater uses a water pipe to create heat? Whatthe?!?

But, I couldn't think about it right then. I had to go and get my tire fixed. I called Discount Tires and they told me to come right in and they'd have me in and out in about 45 minutes. Good enough.

I went and after spending $250 that I don't have I sat for 2 hours. 2 HOURS spent watching everyone who came in after me leave before me. After the first hour my car hadn't even been touched and I went up to the guy who checked me in and said, "You told me 45 minutes. It's been an hour and three people who came in after me have left already. My car hasn't been touched."

The kid looked at me, clearly bored and said, "I'm sorry." He was sincere. I'm just sure of it.

After that, I'd lost my will to live. So, I'm sitting here in my cold apartment, attempting to will V.M.M. into existence. I'll let you know how it goes.