Tuesday was a fairly normal day at school. The principal gave us time to work on our report cards rather than attend a staff meeting. This was despite the fact that the principal, on the advice of the admin team, had already decided that due to the timing of report cards and spring conferences (spring conferences are Thursday and Friday of next week and report cards go home the following Monday) we don't need to write comments on our report cards for this term.
I used the time to prepare to run my regional teacher meeting, which happened to be on the same afternoon. The regional meeting went well. The teachers in my region brought friends who may be interested in joining the program next year, and were full of great ideas for the requested "big idea" list. I even remembered to locate the code so that those who attended could claim a clock hour for their time. I was feeling pretty good. It's not every day I get to offer other teachers credit for spending their time listening to me talk.
I came home intending to score all the late work that had been submitted that day and the one additional assignment that had been turned in... after all, it is report card week. But when I got home I felt more tired than expected. I created my slides for the following day and decided it wouldn't hurt to put off the grading for one night.
I woke myself up in the middle of the night, coughing. I tossed and turned, looking for a comfortable position that wouldn't allow my nasal drip to end up on the pillow nor aggravate my sore throat or developing headache. Gradually I became aware that I should not attempt to go into work on Wednesday with that many symptoms keeping me awake.
I roused myself and made my way downstairs where I took an antigen test. Negative. I still put in for a sub and spent over an hour writing a document to go with my slideshow and locating digital versions of everything that would need to be copied. I sent an email to my principal and the school secretary after 2:00am telling them about my symptoms, negative antigen test, that I was planning to try to sleep it off the next day, and expressing hope of seeing them on Thursday. Working on sub plans while sick in the middle of the night is absolutely no fun. But I'd rather there be some possibility of my students' learning staying on track without me than none at all.
I woke up when my husband's first meeting of the morning started. He still works from home thanks to the pandemic. His first meeting started at 8:00. I got up and showered, thinking I'd tackle the papers I had neglected the night before. However, when I made my way into his office, across the hall from our bedroom, the twin bed in there suddenly looked like the most comfortable spot on the planet. I was on my way back to sleep when another meeting started and his boss' voice jarred me awake again. I found my way downstairs, and made myself some tea and toast. Then I fell asleep on the couch until my husband came downstairs to make lunch. After eating soup for lunch I slept some more.
About 2:30 in the afternoon I called my school. When the secretary answered, I said, "Hi, this is Natalie." She said "Uh-oh! It doesn't sound like you slept it off!" Another day off. Although it was easier to create sub plans at two in the afternoon than at two in the morning, working on sub plans while exhausted and in desperate need of a nap (even though napping is all I had done all day) meant the task took about two hours, maybe longer. But it was for a good cause - I could sleep again all the next day.
Only on Wednesday I could not sleep at all. The neighbors had four trees removed beginning at 8:00am. There were loud mechanical noises - engines, chainsaws, I don't know what - until about 3:00pm. It was loud enough to rattle my windows. About 2:00pm the secretary called me to find out how I was doing. I was dizzy with lack of sleep. We decided that if not being able to nap made me dizzy, I shouldn't try to push through the crud to spend the day in my classroom on Friday. It took another two hours to create sub plans. How much was due to dizziness and how much due to the heavy machinery running on my cul-de-sac, who can say?
So here we are. Friday. I haven't been in my room since Tuesday. I napped less today than Wednesday and had enough energy to type this up. But I'm still coughing, still napped after waking up late, and still overly-tired. Maybe the first antigen test was wrong?
It feels weird to have missed three days. I can't say that I haven't been sick since the pandemic started. I have taken at least a handful of COVID tests, not including at least two when I had to drive somewhere to have medical staff perform them. And since at-home antigen tests have been available, I've kept a stash in my house for any time I've felt a little tickle in my throat or had a headache. I'm a hypochondriac that way. Every one of them has come back negative. But since the start of the pandemic, this is the first time I had to opt myself out of my regularly scheduled life to just sleep.
My amazing teacher friends have made copies for me and one even brought me all the work students have turned in this week... even though I live 10 miles north of the school, in the heavy traffic direction. Since it's report card week and conference prep week, I feel like it's important to try to catch up on grading this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to stay awake long enough to get the work done.
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