Friday, August 25, 2006

stolen wallets & defunct showers

I don't know what it is about the start of a new quarter that seems to cause me such anxiety. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'll have a bunch of new faces staring at me that may think I'm more of a jackass than funny. Which is so not true, I'm hilarious. But, as a friend of mine once said about me, "either you love her or you hate her". I think she meant it as a compliment.

It's always nice to have a familiar face in the class that knows what to expect from me and that I can joke with on the first day to sort of break the ice. It doesn't always happen that way—especially when the classes are lower level classes and it's Fall Quarter when all the new students are starting. As a result, the night before each new quarter this odd sense of anxiety seems to fall upon me.

This quarter was no exception.

The new quarter started Wednesday and Tuesday night I slept horribly. When I did sleep, I had really weird dreams (which are intensified due to the little human growing inside of me). The first dream I had included my purse being stolen and someone charging up huge amounts of money on my credit card—$100 for gas, $500 for something else, $$ for a hotel room, etc. That was a nightmare. It woke me up and left me stewing about what I would have to do if that really happened. It also made me want to clean out my wallet. If that wasn't bad enough, it was the second dream I had that really exemplified my anxiety about the new quarter.

In the dream I had woken up at 11:40 a.m. My class started at 12:05 p.m., I live 20 minutes away from the school and I needed to take a shower. Shit. I'm never going to be there on time and it's the first day. I go and get into the shower and the tub is full up to my calfs with dirty bath water and not draining. Crap. Gross. Gotta press on. I've got shampoo in my hair and I can't get the damn shower to work. No matter how hard I try, the water is just trickling out of the faucet, inches from the dirty bath water and will not come out of the shower head no.matter.what. Damn. Now what?

Then I woke up. Thankfully, I actually got up at 8:45 Wednesday morning, the shower worked fine, the tub was clean, and the day went off with a bang. My first class was huge and they laughed at my jokes and didn't roll their eyes at me. They liked me, they really, really liked me.

But, I can almost guarantee that in 12 weeks, when the Winter quarter starts, I'll sleep horribly the night before and have some sort of crappy school related dream. It never fails.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

You sound like the kind of lecturer I would like :)

Dana Fredsti said...

Hmmm...I left a comment before and it didn't keep it! Anyway, here via He Who Connects The World, Mr. Fabulous. Congrats on being his new renter!

And those were two nasty old anxiety dreams. Mine usually involve coming home and finding everything stolen, or are about trying to rescue multiple kittens...

Rebecca said...

Hey! Mr. Fabulous gave you a "shout out" so I thought I'd say hello! Congrats on having your first child... I'm a mom to two. Trust me when I tell you, you won't remember what life was like before the little person came and took over your life. But in the best way possible....

Enjoy!

Mel said...

I have those kinds of dreams often. Glad you had a good first day!

Cupcake Blonde said...

I used to have those dreams of anxiety before the start of each school year...but of course I was a student, not the teacher!

cerberus70 said...

I used to have the worst dreams when I was waiting tables in college. I would dream that no matter how hard I tried I just could not get to my tables. Or my boss would make me pick up tables at a place down the street. Waiting tables i stressful.

Meira{FB} said...

Congrats on the pregnancy! Good luck teaching. I thought it was bad being a nurse, I think you teachers have it worse!

Irish Church Lady :) said...

Dropped by from Fab's. Congrats on the wee one and good luck with the next term!

BionicBuddha said...

I can't believe the winter quarter is approaching!



www.bionicbuddha.com

Janet said...

I can very much relate to this post. I dont know what you teach, but I teach third grade and in less than two weeks, I'll be doing the "getting to know you" stuff all over again. In a few months I'll be comfortable and wonder how I made it through, but for now, the waiting is the hardest part.

Here through Mr. Fab today!:)

Anonymous said...

here from mr.fab's page. i like your page i'll return. happy weekend. poet

Rees said...

Aren't the pregnancy dreams the worst? I spent like the entire third trimester dreaming every night about horrible accidents (all caused by my negligence, natch) befalling my DOG.

They're so vivid. As if you don't have enough trouble feeling rested.

Lynda said...

I hate dreaming about work. Especially on weekends. I mean, you don't get paid for it.

In 12 weeks, you might end up having baby dreams instead. ;)