breaking and exiting

Have you ever reached that point where you are determined to finish all your work at school--no matter how long it takes!--because you just can't stand the idea of lugging home a bag filled with papers whose weight makes your spine curve? The other day I was remembering the time I reached that point during my second year of teaching. I went in one Sunday before report cards were due to finish all of my grading. After parking in the front lot, accessible only through the main building, I was let into school by the computer teacher, who evidently also had lots of work to catch up on. She unlocked the upper elementary building for me, and said that she would page me on the intercom when she was ready to head out, as I would not be able to leave once the main building was locked for the day. For almost four hours, I graded away in peace, until it suddenly occured to me that I had been at work for quite a while...such a while, in fact, that it was getting dark outside. I decided to wrap things up and pack up my remaining work to finish at home. When I paged my colleague to ask if she could let me out, I realized that she had already left, locking the door in the process! Getting locked in at school on the weekend...how sad, right? I mean, is that the depths of nerd-dom or what? After a quick meltdown, followed by a scan of the area, I realized that the only way to get out was to crawl under the bus gate (the top of the gate was wrapped in some mean-looking razor wire). Luckily, the gap between the gate and the ground is pretty big, but still! As I was wriggling under the gate, nearing freedom and feeling like things were finally on the upswing, I heard a small student voice calling to me. Sigh. Of course.

Student: Hi, Miss!

Me: Oh, hi, Babs! Hi, Babs's family! Are you all having a good weekend?

Student: Yesss...what are you doing down there?

Me: Um. I'm just checking the gate to see that it's working for when the buses arrive tomorrow morning. What are you up to?

Student's Sister: We're walking to the Family Dollar. Were you working out in the school gym? You're really sweaty.

Me: Not exactly...

Thankfully, neither Babs nor any of her family members mentioned the incident again. As for me, schlepping papers back and forth doesn't seem so bad anymore...