Mama Said There'll Be Days Like This...

I woke up late today and found a shirt out of the dirty clothes (please let's not pretend this only happens once in a blue moon for me). Drove to school, forgot I had a meeting. You know the beginning to this story...like so many days in my life. I got to school and quickly realized that 2 of the butterfly caterpillars had escaped because some whirling dervish had knocked over a container. I also had thrown a mealworm pupa yesterday-I got scared and threw it while screaming like a little girl...but that's a different story. So there were a smattering of loose insects in the room this morning. I offered a reward if anyone found a caterpillar or pupa and sure enough we found all of them and it only cost me three jolly ranchers. So minutes after the first bell all of the insects had been found and we settled into the normal Tuesday morning, you know..."I can't find my library book.", "He said I was a hobo.", "They were looking at me."

At about 9:30, The Nanny (you know Fran Drescher) shouts, "Ms. A. a caterpillar is missing" and it is at this point in my life that I get to explain to 18 7-year olds that being ground into a carpet underneath a dirty sneaker is really quite a quick and painless way to go if you are a caterpillar. That silly caterpillar escaped twice and didn't live to tell about the second getaway attempt.

While this drama is going on another caterpillar has attached itself to the side (not to the top, like they are supposed to!) of the cup and is now swinging precariously. Gabriela, in all of her well-meaningness, showed everyone and in the process detached the chrysalis from the side of the cup so now the poor thing is rolling around in caterpillar chow and little poop balls. I googled what to do in a crisis such as this and the answer was to hot glue, YES HOT GLUE! the chrysalis to a piece of paper and attached it to the top of the enclosure. After looking at several detailed instructions, pictures and even a youtube video I felt confident in my chrysalis gluing skills. I valiantly took out the hot glue gun and girded my loins for a triumph over gravity. I put the glue dot on a post it, waited exactly 15 seconds and then tried to push the tip of the chrysalis (which I learned was the creamster in all of my googling) into the hot glue. As soon as I touched it the chrysalis started to wiggle and I yelped in surprise. I reviewed the pictures and directions and steeled my self for another try. I once again put the dot of glue, counted to 15, and stuck that chrysalis into the glue with confidence. As soon as I did it started to have convulsions so I again freaked out and tried to take it off convinced that I would find some other way using dental floss, double sided tape, spit, and a prayer. Instead of taking it out of the glue which was my intention I pushed it in and it stuck in that glue sideways. In essence, this lifesaving event now looks like a preschool art project. My hope is that it turns out ok and that I don't have to pay for post-traumatic stress therapy for the butterfly or myself!

The next encounter with the physical world that was shocking and unexpected was that a bird flew into the classroom and as you would imagine every child started to shriek like the world was ending. The bird in response flew out of a window...or at least tried to fly out of a window. Instead it hit a closed window and was stunned, then it started flopping around like a seizure patient. At this precise moment in time, all of the first graders came tromping back in and were surprised by a bird in their way. The poor bird finally made it out of the classroom but it was an exciting few minutes before anyone could focus on math again.

At the end of the day, driving home, I was reflecting about my poor luck with living creatures. All day long I had been fussing because my shirt just didn't feel right. I looked down and noticed the my shirt was on backwards. I thought that I had gotten lucky and picked a clean(ish) one out of the dirty laundry but alas no I just had the dirty side in the back. Like the title implies, "There'll be days like this, my mama said."