Still looking for that break…

The speech tournament was a success yesterday.  We ended on time which has been our reputation for many years.  It was a long day though.  I had to get to school at 6:30 a.m. and went non-stop until the tournament ended at 8:18 p.m.  Then we went out to eat so I didn’t get home until 10:00.  I had to upload our tournament results and then I fell asleep.  I wanted to sleep in this morning, but I made myself get up and go to the 8:30 service.  Then I headed to Hereford to work.  I had plans to have lunch with Michael so I went to the school and was going to work for about an hour first.  After I texted him, he called me because his car battery was dead.  I went over to see if I could give him a jump but he decided to just get a new battery so I took him to Walmart.  Turns out I couldn’t give the jump anyway because of my car being a hybrid.  Then he didn’t have the tools he needed to get the bolt of the thing that holds the battery in place so we made another trip to Walmart.  Finally he got the job done and his battery changed.  We went to lunch and visited a while.  He told me more about his frustrations and even said something that I took to be complimentary.  He said that he had told the superintendent that he wanted to resign in December but she talked him out of it.  He said that if it weren’t for me, that he would have left during Christmas and probably not come back.  He said that having me to go out with and do things with makes things bearable for him right now and that I’m the bright spot in his life at the moment.  I wish I could ease his frustrations and make things better, but I know this is something that he has to work out on his own. 

I went back to the school to work but felt completely exhausted and couldn’t focus.  I got a couple of things done, but decided to just come back home and nap.  Of course now I probably won’t be able to sleep tonight.  I have a long to-do list that I’m trying to get through, but it seems impossible.  I have to be gone Thurs-Sun this week at the Academic decathlon competition.  So that means planning for a substitute which is always a daunting task.  I have lots of papers to grade that I haven’t gotten to yet.  I just hope that one of these days I’ll catch up on everything.  Perhaps it would help if I stopped procrastinating.  I think I’m just feeling burned out on teaching and my motivation level is really low at the moment.