Sallyacious

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October 06, 2006

I Overslept Today

Which is not surprising, given the hours I've been keeping and the schedule I've been maintaining. If I'm going to insist on going to bed after midnight (or 1am) and getting up at 7am and spending my out-of-bed hours running from one activity to the next, there is going to come a day when I pay no attention to the alarm and wake up an hour later, like I did this morning.

Normally, that wouldn't be such a big deal on a Friday. It's my day off. No classes, no office hours, and this week, no rehearsal. I cleaned the house (more or less) yesterday, and did laundry on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so even that doesn't need doing. But today, I needed to be in DeSmet, which is about 35 miles/50 minutes from Moscow at 10am to work with the kids at the Tribal School.

It's an offshoot of the Native Voices program I was involved with last year. This year, they're separate from the Autrey and they're only working three days with the kids. And today was my only day free, since I teach four classes on Thursday and had stuff going on Wednesday this week. I've tried to maintain some contact and connection with the school because I want those kids to know that they matter to me, and that I am invested in their success.

So when I woke up at 8am and realized that I needed to be at the Tribal School in two hours and that I had to put gas in the car before then (the gas station is on the furthest end of town both from where I live and the highway north), I knew it would take a miracle to get me there on time.

I did my best, but by the time I got on the road, it was 25 til ten and I knew, I knew , I was going to let the kids down and be late, and that just sucks. I hate doing that. I was going to walk in and be an interruption and a delay and that's just not fair. But it was a gorgeous morning, true Idaho fall, finally, with some mist and the leaves really starting to turn and the fields all gold and yellow stubble or black where they'd already been burned. I saw several deer. It was a gorgeous drive.

I got there 15 minutes late, delayed in part by the fact that one of the gates to the parking lot was locked. I assumed it was because there had been trouble or maybe they lock them during the day. Whatever. I went in the parking lot the back way, saw what I thought was the workshop leader's truck and the minivan for the actors. I didn't see the other mentor from Moscow's car, and thought, "Wow. I hope she's not later than I am."

I walked into the school, which seemed strangely dark and quiet, and discovered that kids were out because of the In-service workshops going on in Lewiston. I thought that was kind of cool, the idea of scheduling the workshop over a period of days that wouldn't interfere with their regular schoolwork. Good thinking on someone's part. Only, when I asked about where the group was meeting, none of the staff there knew anything about it. They knew it was supposed to happen, but they hadn't seen any of the leaders. And everyone kept repeating, "There aren't any kids here today."

I called the guy in charge of the workshop. Left a message on his cell phone, asking where I needed to meet them. Then I had a brainstorm, "Check my email." Because I hadn't done that this morning, trying to save time, and someone might have sent me a message re: the workshop location. So I asked if I could get internet access somewhere. They let me into the computer lab, and I logged in and found the most recent email from the workshop coordinators.

No indications that the workshops were going to be anywhere other than the Tribal School. Nothing. In fact, it was clear that the coordinators planned to hold the workshops at the school. With the kids. And the teacher. Beginning October 10.

Wait a minute...

What was that date?

October 10. Wednesday.

And the date today is? October 6. I'm not supposed to be here until next Friday.

Reputation saved. I wasn't 15 minutes late. I was a week early. Talk about being on time.

Posted by sally at October 6, 2006 11:11 AM

Comments

Posted by: tiffany at October 7, 2006 06:21 PM

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