I called in sick today. It’s a mental illness sick day–I need to not be in the classroom.

As I already wrote about, I received a pink slip on Tuesday.

Then, one of my students was put into handcuffs in the middle of my classroom, in the middle of my lesson on “Main Idea and Supporting Details”, in the middle of a student participating in discussion. This was uncomfortable for all of us, to say the least. Particularly because she is a classroom favorite–always participating, always smiling, always getting her work in on time. In short, she is ideal in the classroom. Apparently, she is less than ideal outside of the classroom. I have no idea what she was arrested for, and I have no idea why the vice principal decided that it would be appropriate to arrest her in the middle of my lesson, without even letting me know ahead of time, but let’s just say that it shook me up. Luckily, my classroom is full of pros, and my students continued on with the lesson as they led her out, continuing to raise their hands to contribute to our lesson. They blew my mind with how cool they were. And, at the end of the day, I received a letter from the student, apologizing for getting in trouble and getting arrested in the middle of my class. I certainly didn’t receive an apology from the two adults who participated in this disruptive scene. Grrr.

So, I’m mentally ill today. I will stay home today and begin what I think will be a readathon weekend.

The goal is to finish The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss this weekend. This is a 1000-page book, and I’m only at page 700, and I’ve been reading for 3 weeks now! Something must be done! I want to start reading The Forsyte Saga and The Waste Lands next week, so it has to be finished by Sunday.

Usually, when a book takes me this long, it can be assumed that I’m just not really into it. Let me be clear, this is a VERY GOOD BOOK! If the next 300 pages are consistent with previous 700, I will write a glowing review of this fantasy novel next week. Plot is excellent and fast-paced, the characters are very well-developed, lots of good themes going on, and I am just really enjoying it! But, for some reason, it is taking me forever to read! Maybe it’s because I keep falling asleep when I read it–not because it’s boring, but because I am exhausted!

So, I think I will do a readathon this weekend. Starting today! I will probably do updates on my progress and reflections on my reading throughout the days too. I need to go to Jiffy Lube, take a nap, and go to the gym tonight, but I should be able to read quite a bit throughout the day. Tomorrow should be wide open too.

If any of you have free time this weekend, maybe you’d be interested in readathoning with me? I always love company on these sorts of endeavors. Will you at least consider it? Either way, I hope you have a wonderful weekend! I will be updating here later on, throughout the day!

Reading Update #1:

I just finished getting an oil change at Jiffy Lube…whoo! 230 bucks with a few of the extras thrown in. I don’t know anything about cars, so I just space out when they talk about what needs to be changed or fixed and simply nod my head “yes”. A few of the suggestions I said ”no” to, just to add in variety to the conversation. I really don’t know what the hell is going on! Ah well. I’m sure it was all necessary.

Meanwhile, I read 30 pages while sitting in the waiting room. Not much, but it’s pretty much par for the course with this book. I wonder what the word count is on this book. Am I just savoring every word, or am I just tired? All I know is my reading speed goes dowwwwwn when I read Rothfuss (I was pretty slow at reading The Name of the Wind as well, but that definitely had some less than thrilling parts).

The reading is good. Kvothe just took a journey to Stormwal, and is now seeing the Adem life for the first time (a stoic type of people who are trained in a sort of martial art and live as mercenaries). Pretty interesting…

I think I’m going to be asleep in the next two hours. Didn’t get much sleep last night. Will probably check in again in the afternoon!

Reading Update #2

Woke up about two hours ago from a good 2+ hour nap. Before falling asleep, I read another 20 pages of The Wise Man’s Fear, putting me at page 752. Not as far as I’d like, but I’ll have less to do tomorrow, so I should probably get more reading done.

In the meantime, I’ve really enjoyed the conversations that I’ve been having here on the blog today! Thanks so much for your comments and support! It’s really been a good recuperative day thanks to the reading and all of you!

I don’t know how much more reading that I’ll get in today, as I am going to the gym in an hour, and then I’ll have to make something to eat when I get home, and, after that, apparently my husband and I are going out to drink and dance to Britpop at a local bar. All in the name of consoling a grieving friend who just lost her father. I do enjoy dancing though, so hopefully it will be a good time. However, I have a tendency to almost get in a fight at this bar with hipsters. Usually over something stupid, but this bar puts me in such a pugilistic state that I seriously think about using my fists on someone with cute bangs or a handlebar mustache. And I’ve never been in a fight (well, except the one in 6th grade, with a boy whom I beat in arm wrestling. But, that was more shoving and kicking. And I didn’t want to fight, but he wouldn’t let it go. It didn’t help that my sister Erika was egging us on.)! So, who knows how this night will go. With the luck I’ve had this week, I could be writing a post on Sunday about how I spent the night in jail after breaking a bottle of Jack Daniels over the head of some chick who snickered at my chucks (“that is so 2002.”).

I’ll be back to reading tomorrow if I’m not in jail! Have a good night!

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