"Some days it just don't pay to get up"--but sometimes those are the days you REALLY should!

I should have seen it coming.

Everyone trembles at the thought of Friday the 13th. I've learned through the years to become wary of Thursday the 12th.

Unfortunately, I didn't learn well enough.

This has been a quirky week in the first place. Tuesday I went to our local fast-food restaurant (can we say McDonald's on this thing?) and ordered two Big Mac meals for the guys and a salad for myself--a Caesar with French dressing. (OK, I'm different.) When I drove up to the pick-up window, the worker asked, "What's with the salad dressing, anyway?" After retrieving my bearings, I said, "She asked me what kind of dressing I wanted, so I asked for French." She said, "I was wondering why you had Caesar and French in the bag." OK. Someone made a boo-boo, but I had the bag and the drinks, so I left.

I arrived home and the boys got their hamburgers, etc. Then I went to the bag. No salad. Not so much as a lettuce leaf. Only a packet of French and a packet of Caesar dressing.

By that time, Brian had gotten home, so I asked him what he wanted. He placed his order with me and I went back to get my salad. When I walked into the place, the previously-mentioned worker met me at the counter. "I tried to get you when you left! Did they know they charged you for a salad?"

????

My response? "I ordered a salad. I didn't GET the salad. That's part of the reason I'm here."

"Oh. Well, then, that's it over there." She pointed toward the counter. I got my salad. Gee.

Fast-forward to today.

I met my partner-in-crime (our lab manager) at the door and she was already going a blue streak at 7:20 AM. "Mr. Howard's computer is down."

Our manager isn't on the clock at this time, so she gets really irritated when she gets this type of call at this time. Not good when you share a room with her. Eva dashed out the door to fix a the *^&! computer while I prepared for student Bible study. (Ironic combination there.)

Before 8:30, I was dragged into computer crises, as well.

By 8:20, one teacher who had not checked her equipment was in the midst of a crisis at the beginning of class. Her laptop had no CD drive port. I took a new laptop to her, but then we faced another issue: it had no ports for the Proxima projector. I thought that wouldn't be a problem if I could only find an S-Video cable. Laugh. S-Video cables are at a premium in our building. After much rooting, we found a VGA cable and our STC and I thought it would be worth a shot. Laugh again. Thank God for kids. After about 10 minutes back in Meredith's room, one of the students pops a door on the computer and--lo and behold--there are the ports we were looking for in the first place. (What's really frustrating is that I knew about this; I had just forgotten about it.) We hooked it up, anxiously anticipating a beautiful picture; instead we got an error message. I called my partner-in-crime and left as soon as I saw she was making her way up the hall.

In the meantime, the teacher who had started Eva's day off so brightly notified me that he needed a Proxima projector in the library second block. Since those are only a little less rare in our building than are S-Video cables, I was on the hunt again. (This guy has his own, and I believe he had it in his room--but, oh, well.) I got the STC to let me borrow one, and sometime during all this mess with Meredith, she sent it to the library. That's great, except I didn't know that she'd sent it to the library. So when I met Tony the English Teacher coming up the hall with a Proxima projector, and he said that someone had returned mine to the library, I didn't think a thing of it.

Then I got to the library on yet another mission (a teacher, somewhere during this mess, had asked me to take a worksheet to the copy room for her), and my aides said, "Mrs. Greene sent the Proxima up for Mr. Howard to use in the library."

AARGH!

So off to Tony the English Teacher's room I go. I arrived. I glowered. He cowered. I left with a Proxima projector. I then ran across the hall to see about Meredith. The computer that I had given her was locking up after about 5 frames; she had to keep rebooting, so she was getting nowhere still with her presentation.

This time she called Eva.

I returned to the library and set up the Proxima in the appropriate corner. I tried to send one of the boys down to a classroom that had our only portable projector screen (yet another premium item) only to realize that my brother was subbing in there and he had no key to the room. (He had been sadistically watching this soon-to-be Olympic event from a front-row seat.) After I confirmed that I couldn't open the door, either, I set off in search of a custodian who opened the door; then I sent one of my burly student aides to get the screen while I went back to finish the set-up, which included finding a cart since, I soon discovered, mine had been absconded. Tony the English Teacher--the one who had done the absconding--offered his AV cart; I gratefully accepted and sent another of my aides (this one not so burly) down the hall to retrieve the cart.

Once the cart was in the library, I completed my set-up and breathed a relieved sigh.

Oh, how foolish of me. It was only 9:50. I still had more than five hours to go in this place!

The bell rang for second block. I answered the phone. I checked out books. I made sure everything was set up as it should be.

The tardy bell rang. I waited for Mr. Howard's arrival.

In walks Ms. Wainscott.

I only took a moment to realize that I had neglected to write her on my schedule earlier in the week and, as a result, I had her class and Mr. Howard's class both scheduled at the same time. My first thought: we can do this. All I have to do is break the screen and the Proxima down and take it to...to...

To where?

I grabbed the phone, frantically dialing--looking for an empty room with about 20 computers. (A premium location in our school.) As I'm dialing my second number, I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye.

Mr. Howard has arrived; he blanches. All of his dreams for uninterrupted library time have gone by way of his fish from a few years ago--down the toidy.

As I stood there trying to decide who else to call, the two of them took matters in hand and Ms. Wainscott stayed. Both were gracious; Mr. Howard got a free lunch--literally--and I felt like crawling into a hole.

I ran down to Meredith's room again and she told me she had decided to hook the Proxima up to her regular computer. I unhooked the laptops and started hooking up her desktop computer. Once I started moving her things around, she informed me that she would take care of it herself.

I headed back to the library.

I arrived to find peace--or rather, the proverbial calm before the storm. I checked my schedule, put Ms. Wainscott in the library for the next period, and took care of some e-mails, etc., that were waiting for my attention.

Eva was still running crazy. Other computers had had some issues, as well, but, before the end of the period, she was back in her chair reading a book--a well-deserved break. I didn't dare pick up a book, so I kept working on e-mails.

About ten minutes before this period ended, Eva's phone rang. Another computer had taken a dive--much like Mr. Howard's had early in the morning. As Eva ran out of the room, all I could think was, "Here we go again."

Third period started with the return of Ms.Wainscott. Her kids settled in at computers and logged on. Since she had an early lunch and would be leaving in a moment, I left, grabbed my lunch and brought it back to the library in hopes of some quiet. By the time I arrived back on the scene, one teacher's overhead had blown a bulb. I grabbed a couple different bulbs--sure one would work--and went down the hall. Of course, neither of them worked. Thankfully, the teacher had gotten another projector to use for the block, so I went back to my lunch.

I had just really dug in when another English teacher--Mrs. Moreland--showed up to use the computers. Since I thought Ms. Wainscott had occupied only half of the computers, I put Mrs. Moreland's small class on the ones that I could reasonably assume were empty.

I had forgotten that nothing was reasonable today.

Ms. Wainscott's class showed up about fifteen minutes later--during which time I had probably gotten to eat maybe three bites of my salad--and looked pretty much like Mr. Howard had looked when he walked in second block. After another discussion--this time not a negotiation, but more like a "the librarian's lost it" conversation--Mrs. Moreland packed up her class and headed back. That's when I realized that she was supposed to have gone to another room altogether; instead she just gave up. I, on the other hand, gave up on lunch and went to complete the changing of the bulbs.

Then Tony the English Teacher called. "When can we come down to check books out?"

"Tomorrow and Monday?"

"No. Today and tomorrow."

I'd missed him, too.

After all was said and done, the school was still standing, I proved once again that I am far from perfect, we checked out books to Tony the English Teacher's classes, and I still have a job and some shred of respect amongst the establishment.

In the midst of all this, though, I had a reminder of God's greatness--and from a non-Christian, at that. I told Mr. Howard that, since God had promised never to forsake me, I supposed He was giving me a test--and a BIG one, at that, and I wasn't doing so well.

He replied, "I think you will make an A- or better. God always grades on the curve."

Truer words were never spoken! THANK GOD FOR GRACE!