A Much Anticipated Milestone

I spent today at school getting my new room ready with my roomate. The most exciting part of the day was setting up my new chair. It's kind of silly but I have been looking forward to this chair for a long time, and last June I thought I might never have it.

I left my first teaching job for another school closer to home. Two years of my career were invested in that school and I had some awesome colleagues, but the commute was wearing on me. The new school had some advantages such as better pay, better student behavior, and what basically amounts to a Staples in the basement. However, I had to give up my classroom. I had a very large classroom at the old school, it even had its own bathroom! At the new school I had to travel from room to room on a cart...what a pain! Then I had a hand me down chair, which was fine the first semester of my first year. Then I began to notice as I sat in it that it would suddently drop, and then drop again a few minutes later, until finally I was practically on the floor! This was really annoying but I didn't sit in my chair a whole lot so I figure I could deal with it.

Mmmm...yeah it just kept getting more an more annoying but I didn't want to spend money on a good chair if I might not get to be there permanently(my job was in jeopardy the first year because of staffing issues, and then again the third year because of budget issues). So I set this somewhat silly goal for myself: When I have tenure I will buy myself a nice chair.

Aftter be RIF'ed this June I never thought I would get my chair, but luckily summer vacation brought along better news with its arrival. There was a surprise retirement which led to me getting my job back! This meant I could get my tenure chair. Last night I went to Sam's, knowing I would be setting up my room today, so I splurged and got my chair. It felt very good to sit in it today :) Even better I didn't have to put it together because the summer maintenance crew came along and were bored so they did it for me.

As the school year approaches I have been trying to keep busy with friends. Yesterday I got to spend time with my friend (who happened to work at the old school) and we treated ourselves to a spa day. It was so nice and relaxing! Today my roommate and I spent the day together setting up the room. We put up a huge map of the world (think 10 feet tall by 15 feet long at least). What was truly wonderful about spending times with these ladies is that they talked with me candidly about the miscarriage, without ever experiencing one themselves. My roommate was so upset by it she talked to her sister who had infertility issues and her OB at her visit about me because she wanted to understand why this happened. I am so comforted by their compassion towards me. They both spoke words of encouragement, saying this would happen for me. I want to believe it, but even more I want to see it come true.