Gremlins

It started with a a rumbly in my tumbly. I woke up Sunday morning with the feeling that something wasn't quite right in my upper abdomen.  The feeling came and went all day, progressing from vague pressure, to fist-clenching spasms, to a fairly certain speculation that gremlins had taken up residence inside my stomach, to the distinct feeling of sharpened spikes piercing and protruding through the the lining of my digestive tract from the inside out. Maybe the gremlins were swinging their maces.

That night the shit hit the fan. Or shall we say, the bowl.

And yet, the next day, Monday, was one of those days in teaching that it would've been way harder to miss, and subsequently make up, than it was to drag myself out of bed, put on my proverbial Big-Girl Panties, take some Big Girl Immodium, and drift through the day in a hazy, semi-conscious state, subsisting on saltine crackers, tea, and the will to make it to the 2:30 bell.

The gremlins were also very likely behind the Internet in my apartment going down for two days. I think they like to mess around with electrical cords and things that have flashing lights and buttons. (Thankfully, Nicole rescued me by explaining my predicament to the TVCable people, who were able to re-set it.)

 I'm confident that gremlins were also behind the day at school this week where I spent almost the entire day re-doing work I had already done. I had to enter my report card comments 3 times because of a lack of clarity about the format that was expected, and once I had made my schedule for Parent Teacher conferences, I had to re-make the entire thing and change appointment times to accommodate a support teacher whose schedule I didn't receive until it was already too late. Not to mention the gremlins' handiwork of making me totally misunderstand what I was supposed to do with some of the assessment data we were given earlier in the year and consequently completely miss a deadline, not by a little...

The gremlins definitely stole the final project of one of my students that I definitely had sitting right on my desk, and hid it away from me in some extremely remote corner of my classroom.

I also think it's safe to say that gremlins were responsible for Alancito losing track of his passport somewhere between LaGuardia and Houston, and for him becoming trapped in Texas for an unspecified amount of time on his way to Chile (and indirectly, on his way to me!)

Finally, though, I am pleased to report that the gremlins have moved on, because my parent teacher conferences went off without a hitch, Alan was able to get his passport replaced in a single business day, and my appetite has returned with a vengeance.

Gremlins, good riddance!