I agreed to be a long-term substitute for Morgan Marricle when her baby came and she took her maternity leave. It sounded like a good idea at the time; Morgan teaches freshman English. I taught freshman English for about five years before tackling sophomore, junior, and senior English before retiring in 2004. I can do this. So I said yes. Everything was fine. And then the baby took matters into his own hands and decided to come about a week early, which pretty much trashed our game plan to get me on board with topics she wanted covered, materials to use, and to be introduced to the dreaded CSCOPE. I should have known better than to put it off and trust the baby to follow the schedule. So now I had two days of fumbling around and making it up period by period, not having much luck remembering kids’ names, coming up with a test on the vocabulary they had been studying. Or not, as too many of the grades indicated. That was Thursday and Friday, Friday being an early release so everyone could go to the playoff football game in Odessa. And early release days are always a wreck. So over the weekend I graded papers, found some tried and true lesson plans of my own, made some decisions about what direction to take, visited with Morgan as she recovered from her C-section, and in general got organized. I was ready! 
So Monday morning I am up extra early to get to school before the kids to get everything ready, and we awaken to snow! Then I look on gillambadvertising.com to discover school has been cancelled. Well, by this time I am dressed and ready for the day, so the logical thing to do is go on to school and get ready for the next day. Which I do, but there are pictures to be taken first. I am always a sucker for snow pictures, as you know if you have read the blog very long. Mari and I brave the elements and get some really cool pictures in the overcast pre-dawn morning, and then I head out for for a morning of quiet preparation. 
A wise choice, because I now had time to locate workbooks, gather a classroom set of The Education of Little Tree, organize what I plan to use, and in general feel more prepared for the kids when school reconvenes the next day. I am loaded for bear, as my daddy used to say, and am much relieved that I will not experience my worse nightmare-having a class full of kids with nothing for them to do. You know that dream where you are somewhere around a lot of people and you are the only one naked? Well, I have had that dream, only for me it is a film-loop where I keep looking for what I had prepared and can’t find it, over and over and over. And sometimes I am also naked or in questionable clothing as well. Fun, huh. 
So wish me luck. I dug out my old briefcase, filled it with the graded papers, laid out the game plan for the day on my clipboard, and I’m ready. Now if we will just have school… 
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