So I woke up this morning having one of those days. You know, those days where troubles fall like Dominoes stacked up against you? It was cold here last night, the first truly winter night in weeks. I woke up around 5 am, freezing. The heater had gone out. The house was sitting at 55 degrees, and falling quickly. So I'm up and calling the gas company, and the church that owns our house, trying to figure out a way to heat this bad boy up.
I hop in my car to head to work, already a little bit late. My truck won't crank. The battery froze out in the middle of the night as well. Furthermore, the way our two cars are parked under our two-car awning, my jumper-cable couldn't reach from one battery to the next. So I push and wheel and drag until I can jump off my truck to get to work. My principal is covering my first period class for me.
I arrive at work twenty minutes into first period. My principal leave. Moments later our new assistant principal (you know, the one you know the least, and probably the one you'd really want to impress with a stellar lesson so that his first impression of your teaching is...WOW!), well, he walks in to do an observation on me. There I am, thirty minutes into class, still wearing my coat and trying to get my laptop up and running...to take roll.
That's pretty much the extent of the bad stuff, although I did forget that my truck battery was shot during the course of the day. Dealing with all the hullabaloo of getting the heater back in working order (should be fixed by Thursday), I'd forgotten that little tidbit of the morning. So, it's about 4:15 and I hop in my truck to leave, only to find it dead once again. Luckily, there was one teacher left on my hall and he gratefully jumped me off.
That jump took me to the O'Reilly's in town. Sure enough, bad battery. Along with about five other customers who woke to the same issue.
Then, something that I can only describe as miraculous occurred.
In the auto-parts store, I ran into one of my former students and her son. I'll spare you all the details, but she'd come in with a gift card intended to purchase her a new battery. The shop checked her battery, and told her that she only needed to clean her terminals and the battery should work just fine. And her alternator checked out, too.
So she left me that $80 gift card. Gratis. Said I needed it more than she did. She, at least, had heat tonight.
I'm tempted to cry coincidence. I'm tempted to say "ain't that somethin'!" But two days ago I spoke with my pastor about recognizing God when he shows up in your life. And there was my former student blessing me in a way far beyond anything I'd imagined would happen on this crappiest of days.
I swear I hate teaching sometimes. And sometimes, sitting here on my school-issued laptop, huddling by a portable ceramic heater under layers of blankets, I just can't imagine a better profession.
No comments:
Post a Comment