Some of my lovely students conned me into playing on their ultimate frisbee team for a recess tournament. They did this in a classic way.

"Hey, Ms. W.," they said sweetly, "will you play on our team?" 

"Oh, I don't know," I said, shaking my head.

"Please!" they persisted.  "It'll be us three, Ms. F. [my good pal], and you."

"Ms. F. already AGREED to play?" I clarified.

"Yes!" they said, encouragingly.

"Fine," I said.

Is it ANY surprise to ANYONE that they totally LIED to me?

So now, I've been playing ultimate stupid frisbee during my free recesses.  It's ridiculous.  We're in the losers' bracket, where we belong.

For the second week in a row, I'm working on Saturday.  It's fine and all, but it's two Saturdays in a row.  This time, I'm headed to the World Savvy Challenge Day, where two teams from my class will compete.  It's fine and all, but it's another Saturday. 

Plusses:

• My students are fun.
• My teaching partners are fun.
• I will probably live tweet the event

There you go.

About a month in at my new school in 2011, another teacher smiled and asked me, "So, are you feeling the CRUSH?"

Um, yeah.  I'm feelin' it. The place is insane, and the expectations for teachers are crazy high.  Because of that, it's also awesome; and people are hitting the ball out of the park every single day.  Basically, you're guaranteed to be inspired.

The flip side is the CRUSH, and I often feel like I'm just racing around nonstop.  The latest force to compound this has nothing to do with school, and everything to do with not looking like a leper.

Yes!  It's time to discuss psoriasis!

To get to the light booth, I have to sprint out of my room before lunch, even before the last students have left.

"Gotta go!" I offer, waving my car keys over my shoulder.  Then, I literally run to the parking lot, drive 10 minutes to the clinic, run from the parking ramp to the elevator, curse the slow elevators, race people to the check-in desk, say NO I don't have a co-pay, and sit down to take a couple of deep breaths.  Then, the gal comes out to get me.  I fast-walk to the dressing room, whip off all my clothes, curse the confusing hospital gown, and skedaddle to the booth.

"Everything go okay last time?" the nurse wonders.

Yeah, yeah, I say.  Just turn on the lights.

I breath deeply for the 1.5 minutes in the booth, then sprint back the same way I came, remembering of course, to put my clothes back on.

Yesterday, I then sprinted to Mac's violin ensemble, sprinted to my desk to eat a little, taught a couple of classes, picked out new furniture for next year, and then raced to a faculty meeting to discuss really important work around racial equity.

CRUSH.  And, 13 more days.

Self Portrait of Mac for Mothers' Day

As you may recall, I've been working with a homeopath, Michele, to try to find some balance with my psoriasis.  As far as I can tell, homeopathy is a little like therapy, in that the practitioner needs to know all about your physical and emotional history and status in order to choose the right remedies.  My first appointment was two hours long because I was providing an entire life story.  This week, it was time for my follow-up, as it's been about four weeks since I saw Michele last.

When Michele emailed to schedule it, she said, "Dear Kate" in the salutation.  This is a common error.  Kathleens can be Kates. So,  I ignored it, signed my reply "Kathleen," and moved on.  I had told Michele that I'm also KC, so she was probably confused.

Then, later, when she called to confirm my appointment, she left a message saying, "Kate, it's Michele."  Oh dear.

I worried about what to do.  Should I just be Kate with Michele?  Kate's a nice name.  I like it!  And, I wouldn't have to tell her that after hearing all of the ups and downs of my entire existence, she didn't get my name right.

Yes, I decided.  I'll just be Kate.  Kate West. Very distinguished.

But, the problem is, that's kind of silly.  Just try out a new name with one person?  And, also Michele does this Reconnective Therapy where she has to find your energy body in the universe (I know. Shut up.), and what if not knowing my actual name makes it harder for her to find me out there?!

"You're going to just have to tell Michele," I realized.  I waited until the end of my appointment, and I told her, Hey.  I thought about just not telling you this, but I'm actually not Kate.  I like Kate, but it's not my name.  She laughed really hard about my indecision about what to do and assured me that there's more to finding my energy body than just knowing my name.  But, still, she was glad I told the truth.

Poor Mac has never really been able to watch normal children's programming. His brother, Shef, is four and a half years older than he is, so out of necessity (aka parental sanity), he's grown up watching inappropriate stuff like Harry Potter and Happy Gilmore. Oops!

But, lately, he's discovered he loves this show called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood that he found on Netflix. Remember the puppet Daniel Tiger from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood? It's the same Daniel, but he's animated. The show is a great riff on Mr. R., and Mac watches it every morning.

Shef doesn't care for the show. He says it's babyish.

I don't care, I say. Mac gets to choose.

UGH! says Shef.

Shhhh! I retort.

And so it goes every morning.

This morning, Shef looked at me with pitch-perfect tween exasperation.

"Stop," I said.

"But, MOM," he hissed. "This episode is CALLED, 'Prince Wednesday goes to the POTTY.'"

Fair enough, but tough. We're watching it.

I'm not flipping done with my Summit presentation. I have to be done by tomorrow afternoon when I meet with my co-presenter. I can do it! I'm pretty sure I can do it. I don't want to do it at all.

Why do I draw this stuff out? Who's ever heard of such a dumb plan?!

I'm having a really hard time getting going on the Summit Presentation.

Omg, just START it. That's what I'm saying to myself right now.

In these types of situations, there's only one solution, and that's to set the timer. 15 minutes. Think about that presentation for FIFTEEN MINUTES.

OMG, just DO it!