Walking – A Review

“Thursdays are the worst,” that’s what you told me. And I just nodded along. Thursdays have always been my favorite, not for any reason other than I decided that when I was a kid and convinced myself it’d be that way for the rest of my life.

“No, Sorensen, listen. Thursdays are the worst. You’ll see.”

And I already had. The day after Halloween was a mess and a half. But yesterday? I’m not sure how I managed to get home.

That’s partly because I decided to try and walk the reverse of my morning route when I left school at 5:40. The route was foreign to me because I just followed a friend who teaches at a school one street over. I was a bit too involved in our conversation to adequately make a mental map, despite us only turning a total of four times.

We ended our conversation with me telling her that I wanted to high-five this statue of Jesus. The statue’s arms are outstretched in a sort of “hug-me-brother” way, but one hand has its palm facing outward, in prime and perfect high-five position.

I’ve never actually done it, because several people that walk past do their hail Mary’s and make the sign of the cross. Have I mentioned that this is outside of a funeral home?

I don’t want them to mistake my admiration for the statue’s ability to give a crisp five as disrespect for their beliefs. So, I just talk about doing it.

I had left school after checking with all the other classrooms to see if they needed help. We have finals tomorrow, and the network has a list of requirements for each class that need to be met before we were allowed to leave. Even short a team member, we managed to get done first, held up only by the speed of the Teacher Work Room’s printer.

While I waited on that, I told one of my leads to go home. She had suffered the wrath of Thursday just like I did, and it certainly hit her harder than it hit me. So, I picked up the stuff she didn’t even remember she had to do.

It has been six full work days since I managed to skate by without having to throw out a trash can filled with puke. I’ll repeat that, if I’m not being clear.

A student has puked six school days in a row, and I’ve always been the one to clean up the kid and take them to the nurse.

Granted, two of the kids are serial pukers. I don’t really get it, but there’s something going on with them and they just haven’t gotten a chance to go to the doctors. But the other two who have puked… well, they’re okay now.

I had actually almost made it through the whole day without dealing with any puke. But sure enough, right after History started, I had to pick up a trash can, jump over a chair and slide it next to the student so they didn’t puke on the carpet, or worse, swallow it.

Before that, I actually led a sort of… book club meeting for some of the kids in my homeroom. It went well, thanks for asking.

Before that, I proctored a test and helped kids review for their final. Sounds easy enough, until I end up having to pull three different kids from class for crying.

And well. Just before that my day started. I woke up late, which… happens, I guess. But it led to me running to get onto the train.

But! It just so happened my friend was on the same train, and boy. Does she take a weird path to work.

After all of that, when I was finally cleared to leave, I walked that strange route, and got on the train and headed home. I was feeling really stressed. Stupidly stressed. So, when I got on the train, I decided I’d get off a stop early.

I was going to eat out. I had earned it, I told myself. So, I went to the closest high rated restaurant. A place called Lee’s, it’s right across the street from the White Castle. It’s a cash only Chinese place with color changing Christmas lights and a gold fish tank as the only décor. It was… okay. The main reason I got off here though, was for the walk.

I’ve always been fond of walking to relieve some stress. It seems to generally work for me. But, for whatever reason, my usual route to and from work just doesn’t cut it anymore.

So. By getting off a stop early, I get to enjoy a slightly longer walk, see slightly different things, and finally get that stupid weight off my shoulders.

It feels good to relax.

Happy Friday, everyone! Have as great as a weekend as you can.