Australia sounds good

One of my favorite childhood books was "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". After a day like today, I couldn't help but think of his wisdom in escaping all the problems and moving to Australia.

Here are some of today's "highlights":

-Double-booked morning with a staff meeting presentation and a meeting with a parent.

-Watch the student's mom whack him in the back of the head during the middle of the meeting. There is nothing more sickening than to watch a child cower in pain (physical and emotional) like that.

-Fistfight in the middle of class between two of my students. When the kids get back from the principal's office I thought there would be some remorse. Instead, I just hear "My momma told me I gots to defend myself. I aint gonna be nobody's punchin' bag!".

-"Girl fight" during P.E. between one of my students and a student from the other 3rd grade class.

-Find out that all the girls in my class are planning to use their recess time to jump the girl who hit my student during P.E.

(It's only 9:00 a.m. by this point)

-One student throws up all over his desk, then goes over to the garbage and continues to vomit, and vomit, and vomit.

-All of this is only in addition to the usual cries of "yo' mama", "Ms. Childz, she's cussin' at me!", "Ms. Childz, he just threw his [eraser, crayon, pencil, paper, chair] at me!". "Ooh. He better watch it cuz I'm gonna be scrappin' with him after school!".

I guess I didn't get to escape to Australia, but this evening I did get to go to my first show and buffet since I have lived here in Las Vegas. My roommate picked me up from school and we met up with her sister and brother-in-law downtown.

The best part of the whole day was that my car was still in the school parking lot and in one piece when I picked it up tonight.