Reasons to Love Mo Willems

Gerald is careful.  Piggie is not.

Piggie cannot help smiling.  Gerald can.

Gerald worries so that piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.

I love it!  I think I need someone to worry for me so I don't have to anymore.

The last week or so of my life has been so incredibly beyond ridiculous.  I don't even know what to say about it!  I figure I should type out a test run of my Weekend In Review since I'm sure I'll be telling it to everyone I see over Christmas. (Is anyone else as frustrated by those repetitive conversations as I am?  "How's school?" "How much longer do you have left?" "And you're studying what, again?" "And have you found that special someone?" Ugh!)

So, Friday was supposed to be my last day of student teaching.  Thursday as I left school I decided to move home only half the instruments I'd dragged into school, so I left my bassoon and Houghton's oboe to take home on Friday.  I would have taken my bassoon home first but I wanted to do some Christmas shopping on my way home and didn't want to leave the one instrument I actually cared about in the car while I putzed around Borders.  This, I suppose, was mistake number one of the weekend.  

So Friday morning I wake up to cries of excitement coming from our living room.  "Snow day!!"  Rebekah was thrilled because she'd never had a snow day before (silly homeschoolers!) and while we all were a little disappointed to not be going in for our last day, everyone else was at least comfortable leaving everything they had left at school there for the rest of break.  I couldn't, however, go home without my bassoon.  Mistake number two of the weekend was deciding to wait until Monday to try to get into school to get my bassoon.  I figured surely they would have school on Monday as the last I'd heard was that the weather would be clearing up.    So, rather than leaving on Sunday like I'd originally wanted, I decided to wait until Monday morning to leave so I could get to school.

Well, of course there was a snow day Monday as well.  Of course!  But I couldn't stay in my apartment another day--our lease was up!--and I didn't want to spend the night at Sarah's (mistake number 3!) so I decided to try to get into school and get my bassoon.  The janitor was out snow blowing so he let me in, and I figured that would be the greatest obstacle of my day.  

So, naturally, just about 20 miles from the PA/Ohio border--where I've heard the roads magically became crystal clear--the snow and wind picked up like crazy and I couldn't see and I slid into not one but two cars that were on the side of the road.  I sort of bounced off the first and stopped when I hit the second.  Conveniently, both the folks I hit--who were in fact mother and son--were very friendly, as was the random stranger who pulled over to help, and the police officer.  And no one was hurt and I think my car got the worst of it, but it still left me stranded and in western PA for the night.  Ugh.  

So I puttered to a hotel just off the interstate and got a room for the night and called home to figure out what to do.   My car might have made it home but certainly not through the snow and I didn't want to risk it.  We decided it would be best for me to fly homeand thankfully my family found remarkably cheap plane tickets out of Erie, through Philadelphia... at 6 in the morning, which was less than ideal, but they were cheap!  Unfortunately, that meant I had to do something with all of the stuff in my car.  So, just a few short hours after having dragged it all down the stairs and into my car--through the snow!--I again found myself lugging half my life's possessions (the other half are at Sarah's for break) through the snow by myself.  My family thought the best plan would be to mail everything home, but in my one (and only) good choice yesterday I realized that Jenna lives somewhere nearby and I called her.  She agreed to come get my things and house them until after break, but not until after I'd already moved everything from my car into the hotel. (Again. In the snow. And the dark. By myself.)  But, thankfully, Jenna came and brought me Christmas cookies and spent the night with me and made me feel so very, very much better about my life.  But not before--oh yes, it does indeed get worse--I lost my cell phone moving my things from my car to the hotel.  Though, of course, after Jenna showed up I helped her stuff my things into her car... bringing the total number of times I've moved half my life's possessions in the dark and in the snow to three.  Ugh.  

So, to review:

• Locked my bassoon at school over a 4-day weekend thanks to two snow days
• moved all my things by myself in the snow
• Crashed my car
• moved all my things by myself in the snow...again.  And cut my finger on a box and couldn't find a bandaid anywhere at the hotel. (I forgot to mention that part earlier)
• Lost my cell phone
• moved all my things in the snow...but with Jenna's help!

But, in all fairness, things I'm still happy about:

• I'm fine (ok... a little sore. But uninjured!)
• The other drivers are fine
• I had a place to stay
• Jenna came and brought me cookies and saved my stuff and calmed me down and in general was wonderful
• I still have a way home

My life is ridiculous!