A good day

Today was my first day back at work. My first official day back will be on Monday, but teachers and other 190 day staff (like me) had the option to work today and/or tomorrow to help with registration and to accrue some "comp time". I volunteered to work both days; since personal and sick days can only be used in half or whole day increments, it's handy to have a bank of hours to draw from if you just need an hour or two off here and there. 

I'm really glad I decided to go in today. I was reminded again of how lucky I am when I got there this morning and saw so many friendly faces--I genuinely like most of the teachers and staff and it was a pleasure seeing everyone again.** When I saw the new principal I congratulated him on his promotion (he was the 8th grade assistant principal last year) and told him how glad I was for him. He thanked me, hugged me, and said, "Mrs. Barlow, I think we're going to have a really good year!" The staff thinks so, too. Everyone was happy when we got the news that he had been offered the job; he's universally liked and respected. I enjoyed chatting and catching up with some of my especial friends among the staff this morning, and I have an easy job these two days: sitting at a table selling t-shirts with school logos to the students getting registered for classes. Easy, easy. The volleyball coach and the music teacher sat at my table most of the day today and we all talked in between selling shirts. It didn't feel like a work day at all, really.

I did see lots of returning students, now 8th graders, who astonished me with how much they had grown and matured over the summer. At my age, 10 weeks or so feels like nothing, gone in the blink of an eye. I had forgotten how much you can change over the course of a summer when you're around 13 years old. It was all interesting and the time went by quickly.

Tomorrow will be the same thing, selling t-shirts and hanging out, and then I'll have a three day weekend to close out my summer. I'm trying to think of something fun to do this weekend to mark the end of my vacation. And after that, it's on to another new (school) year!

** One of the best parts of seeing everyone again after so many weeks was how many of them noticed my weight loss! I don't think it's all that noticeable if you see me every day, because I've been losing at a slow (albeit steady) rate. I asked Gregg early on if he could see a difference and he admitted he couldn't, and I've not asked him again. It felt so good to have person after person say, "You look great! Have you.....?" One of the career counselors, who has been working on losing a lot of weight herself this year, approached me with a big smile and her arms out for a hug, saying "Look at you! Look at you!"  I still have a good bit of weight left to lose, but today was a huge morale boost!