The Absent-Minded Professor

Yep, you guessed it... that's me. Particularly when I haven't been sleeping terribly well.

I had a stack of marking that I was planning to do last night which I THOUGHT I had in one of my school bags. I went to organize my binders and my notes and take out this ugly stack of marking when I realized that it wasn't in either of my bags. I looked in the spare room (a.k.a. my office) and didn't see it. I then got really frustrated and thought that I left it all at school.

I then showed up at school this morning and realized that, WAIT! It wasn't here either! I checked my work station in our staff prep room, and there was nothing. I then checked my classrooms and again... nothing. So I start to freak out. Here I am, pursuing my career and trying to prove to my occupational peers that I'm a reasonably responsible adult who has his crap together and knows how important things like student unit tests should NEVER be lost. Oh, what a facade I'm carrying on! Needless to say, I could feel an influx of stomach acid rising in my gut, so much so that while looking for this big pile of marking, I'm also trying to locate my industrial-sized container of Tums.

Finally after having no luck, I call home. K's my saviour, since she's always the one who receives those frantic 8:15am calls about the fact that I lost something or misplaced something or forgot something. Sure enough, within 15 seconds of calling her and listening to me swearing like a sailor about how much of a dumbass I am, she found the stack sitting (I'm not even lying) right on my office desk. I had taken it home two nights ago and neglected to bring it back yesterday, even though I thought I had everything when I left for school.

Another brief story to reinforce the fact that I'm a little thick (in the head more than the waist) took place in my social class... I told the class about a current events assignment that I wanted them to do when I was in the class last week. This week, I anticipated there would be some questions so I made sure I had a freshly typed-up assignment ready to go for them in case they were a little confused of my explanation last week. So yesterday, before class, I look around for this awesomely fun sheet (it was called The Barn Burnin' Current Events Smackdown... I was a little proud of it!) to hand out. Could I find it? If you answered yes, you're obviously skimming a little too much of this rant! So, in my haste to get to class on time, I quickly type up a terrible remake of the assignment to hand out. No big deal.

However, as I was organizing my notes/binders last night, what did I come across? You probably guessed it... my Barn Burnin' Current Events Smackdown sheet. Yes, I'm thick. It was right in the middle of my Current Events section of my teaching binder. I mentioned Jeff Foxworthy a week or two ago. He would've handed me my "Stupid" sign and the crowd would've laughed heartily.

- T