Lipstick, Earrings, and Tears

Most of the time, my girly gene is pretty weak. I prefer black to pink, brights to pastels, comfort to couture, and power tools to kitchen utensils. I NEVER rearrange the furniture in my house.

Sometimes, I try to challenge myself to "get my girl on".

For example, Monday was the first day teachers came back to school.  To celebrate, I came in the front door wearing lipstick AND earrings.  (Plus my regular clothes, lest you think I hate my colleagues enough to show up nakkie.)  I even considered wearing a necklace, but couldn't find one in my limited arsenal that seemed to work.

But, now it's Thursday night and today there was no lipstick or earrings.  In fact, within a few minutes of arriving at school, I locked myself in my room and burst into tears.  Such a girl thing to do!

What happened to incite such rare behavior? The same thing that probably plagues most of us at this time of year; unmet expectation.  Who didn't meet my expectations?  ME.

Oh, boy.  That's tough.  It's a whole lot easier to blame someone else.  Sure, I get annoyed at answering the same, darn questions a million times and people who don't even TRY to fix their own problems make me CRAZY, but no one can beat me down like I can.  Anybody relate?

Today, I felt discouraged because I couldn't do what I had planned to do.  Some of the things I wanted to accomplished are still left undone.  My "to do" list doesn't seem to be shrinking. HOW are we going to be ready to start school on Monday?

But, we will be.  We always are.  And, guess what?  There isn't a single thing on my "to do" list that will prevent Monday from being a successful day of education...including the projector bulbs and the darn employee handbook! (It's coming! I promise!)

So, tomorrow is going to be different.  Maybe a little less girl and  little more grown-up woman. I may not be able to solve all the problems, but I will do the best I can. Every teacher will have what she NEEDS to conduct school on Monday, even if it means, once again, I don't have time to get my bulletin board up before the first day.  For the second year in a row, it's going to look like this...