It's a rain out

Well, it's official - school was canceled today due to high water. At 4 a.m., the principal got a call from one of the custodians, who said, "You better get down here. NOW."

So he did. Standing water in the main office, 15 classrooms (not mine, thankfully), and two hallways.

Heavy rains last night, combined with a school under construction, an old building, and a broken drainpipe combined to create what I'm sure students are calling "The Perfect Storm" - so perfect they got the day off.

About 2:30 this morning, I woke up to lightning, thunder and hail hitting the windows.

I didn't get a phone call while I was getting ready for school, so I didn't know until I got to school and observed the mysteriously empty student parking lot. I saw one of the APs standing out there, talking to someone in a car.

"That's weird," I said to myself.

Then, as I was schlepping in my purse, lunch bag, and school bag, one of the other teachers called out - "No school today!"

I thought he was kidding. Seriously.

Obviously everyone else got the call, because they were all dressed in shorts and T-shirts, meanwhile I showed up in my "grown-up clothes." Oh well. Minor irritant in an otherwise glorious day.

Don't get me wrong - it wasn't glorious because of the lack of students - it was glorious because we got to use it as a teacher-design work day. That means I could work on whatever I needed to, and the timing couldn't have been better. I got caught up on stuff since I was out of town for three days last week. Entered some grades, organized my work area, and worked on my sub plan for tomorrow.

The best part of the whole day was that the math department teachers and I got to go out to lunch. Thankfully, my math friends invited me along since I am basically my own department and I don't have co-teaching cronies to hang out with. We went to Jalapeno's, a cool little Mexican restaurant in Stanley.

It might not seem like a big deal to most, but having a day that we can actually spend more than 20 minutes on lunch is a real treat for teacher types.