Our only teacher supply store in the county opened for its last day, today. So sad! I will miss being able to rush over there in a panic trying to find that last minute something, I desperately need for tomorrow’s class. In the mean time though, I’m now well stocked on bulliten board border, posters, pocket charts, stickers, chubby pencils, cute pre-cut accents, and resource books. On this, their last day, a flat fee got you all you could carry out the door in one trip. And you might be surprised how much a chubby, out of shape, middle-aged, preschool teacher can carry. I was.
I came with a plan, my sturdiest backpack, and 5 tote bags. After an hour and a half of cramming every nook and cranny of my bags full, I heaved on the back pack, jammed two rolls of big paper into an already bulging tote, clamped a poster storage box under one arm, took hold of 3 tote bags in one hand, two in the other, and with tremendous effort raised them an inch or so off the floor and tottered toward the door. I may, possibly have paused to rest a couple times on my way to the exit, but I persevered. the harder part turned out to be actually getting it all through the physical width of the door. When you consider that I need most of that width to get me through the door. Suffice it to say there was some side-stepping and maneuvering that took place. When I managed to get outside with all my loot, the door guard look pretty impressed, and my heart glowed with pride and the thrill of success. That is, until I looked down what had become a tremendously long block to my parked car.
I struggled along, huffing and puffing, until I was about halfway there, and beginning to think that dragging my cloth tote bag along the wet pavement might not damage the contents noticeably.
At that point I paused, for a photoshoot, of course. Wishing I had thought to ask the door guard to capture the moment on film, I settled for piling my things under the shelter of an awning and stepping back out into the drizzle to photograph them. It was right about the moment when I realized that somehow, I had shattered my cell phone’s camera lens (When had that happened? It must have been one of the half-dozen times I dropped my phone since yesterday, after I took the, totally posed (because somehow I didn’t remember to take authentic ones at any point in this school year), book buddy photos for the yearbook. When a lanky guy, wearing many warm layers, meandered up and asked if i could spare a buck (I’m not saying that he said it was for a joint). Not sure how to reply (yes, I actually happened to have a dollar in my purse, just one lonely, last dollar, but I try, as a general rule, to avoid supporting drug habits), and irked with my perpetual clumsiness (you know, I managed to not back the car into the trash can this week, but instead banged my head into the corner of the fire extinguisher box, after dropping a case of canned tomatoes). So instead of answering him directly I choose to switch to selfie mode and focus on photographing my treasures.
The result is this very odd picture of he, and I, and my purchases.
The remainder of the treck to the car was considerably easier, with this young man’s assistance, and he may have gotten that buck he was after.
I’d like to weigh the items, to get an exact number, but my estimate is that there was about 40 lb. in each hand and 40 lb. on my back too. I will miss the teacher store, but it sure was a great sale!
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