Easily Pleased and Other Flaws

I work for an extremely generous organization.  They offered me two days off to work on National Boards.  I took them.  I usually don't take the offered days off because I would seriously rather be in my classroom, but I am finishing up on my last two entries and I needed this day. 

One of my co-workers told me to go to a coffee shop to do the work, but I wasn't that tempted to do laundry or clean the floors or go outside and weed.  I just want to finish this thing and upload it and forget about it until December, when they tell me the scores. I'm at the point that every time I re-read my entries, I find something I can do better, and I just have to finish it.  I have been doing every end-of-the-year checkout thing they send me right away and turning right back to National Boards.  (Except, well, I haven't graded the 75 essays - though I have been hounding the kids who didn't turn them in). I did spend 7 hours in intense concentration, finishing the penultimate entry.

But now I am distracted! At this moment, my son is pole vaulting at the State Finals.  I wish I were there.  I wish, at least, my daughter was there so she could text me.  I have no patience - I just want to know if he got a PR.  I would be happy with a PR - and so would he, which is more important. It won't get him even in the top six, but it would be cool. 

So, I am sitting here, distracted, needing to hoʻomau and just get through this last stupid entry.  Thinking about my son.  Thinking about (everything else that needs to get done). 

I am also thinking that the sound a chicken makes after laying an egg is awesome.  It's like trumpets announcing a present when you have old hens who are sporadic layers.  Yay! An Egg! 

I am easily pleased.  I admit it. I am easily pleased; I forgive at the drop of the hat if someone is even remotely kind; I have the sense of humor of a 15 year old.  I consider all these things both flaws and blessings - blessings because I am pretty happy a lot of the time, and flaws because I look foolish a lot of the time, too. I mean, who has chickens for years and still gets ridiculously excited when she hears that egg-laying cackle? 

Okay, time to get back to work.  I really want to not have to do this tomorrow.  I want, on the contrary, to go to work tomorrow and scan my entries on the nice copier and upload the entries on their nice internet and then finish writing my final exams, grading papers, and studying for the test portion of National Boards.  Tests I like better than watch videotapes of me teaching over and over and over and over again and then writing about what I see.  Ugh.  I guessed I am not so easily pleased when it comes to myself.