A Typical Day…
Last Thursday started out as a typical day. I was supervising my Athletics Leadership group as they ran their first lunch-time 3-on-3 basketball games… the event went well with participants and spectators from all grades. Right at the warning bell for the end of lunch, another teacher came to me and, with a serious look, said, “Didn’t you hear the announcement there is an important meeting for all teachers in the staff room. So as the leadership kids cleaned up, I headed over to the staff room. On the way I saw a couple teachers going to their room, rather than to the staff room. Then as we headed towards the staff room I saw my wife, Ann, and youngest child in the office.
2 Things to Know
My wife is also a teacher at our school, but she has Thursdays off… and the last time something like this happened, I found out my grandfather had died. So at this point my heart is pounding and I rush into the office to hear the bad news.
It’s All Good!
I’ve been told, “You should have seen the look on your face.” The fact is Ann did see it and said to me right away, “It’s all good,” as she gently tapped me on my forearm to calm me down. I wasn’t convinced. Next she asked me where my bag and jacket were, and told me we were leaving the school… this did nothing to calm my nerves. We headed back to the office after I picked up everything and I could now see that the office staff were excited about something that I didn’t know, so I finally realized that all was good.
Clueless
But what about my class? “…Taken care of.” But I have an appointment after school! “…Not anymore.” A quick stop home and an e-mail to my basketball co-coach about the practice I was already scheduled to miss (for the appointment I no longer had), then my wife instructed me to drive to my cousin’s house. We had one of our kids in the back with us, and the other was at school. I knew we 
would have to go back to get her from daycare before 5pm and since my cousin’s house is a good 40 min. away, I knew this would be a short surprise… I was wrong. Did my sister come for a visit?- I was wrong. Someone else is visiting (my cousin lives close to the airport so I kept guessing who came to visit us)- I was wrong. Ann asked me to bring a coat and then mentioned it was a nice day so I guessed, “We are doing something outside”-wrong again. A lot of the trip was quiet with my wife not wanting to give anything away. We arrived at my cousin’s place and went in. “So what are we doing?” My cousin shrugs, then I notice something by the door… his suite case. “Where are we going?”
Viva Las Vegas
On the short drive to the airport I finally find out that I am on my way to Las Vegas. My class has been planned for Friday, my leave of absence has been taken care of, Monday has been planned (my kids had minor surgery- it went well)… everyone on staff but me knew that I was going. “Here is some US money, here is your travel insurance, have a wonderful trip!” Happy 40th Birthday… nine months early! Before I knew it I was sitting in a limo, compliments of my cousin, on my way to the Mirage Hotel on the strip. While checking in we see my sister and her husband, with my two nieces and nephew , (they live in California). By the end of the night I am reunited with two other cousins and my other brother-in-law, all coming from Toronto.
3 nights and 7 days
Who needs sleep! I was there until Sunday night, but it felt like a full week. Wonderful company, great meals, a show with my nieces (Le Reve), and more Texas Hold’em poker than I have played in the last 2-3 years. One of my cousins helped my game a lot, and in the process of playing with him, I really got to know him. When I left Toronto for Vancouver he was just a kid and so this is the longest we spent together as adults. As an interesting aside, he told me that I had a very profound influence on a major life decision, when we had a chat on one of my visits home to Toronto. I also had an enlightening conversation with my nephew who taught me a bit about the social cliques in his high school, and he suggested that I don’t use the term ‘hook-up’ to mean ‘meet with’ friends since that is the old-school meaning. There was enough time to do everything I wanted except sleep. I think I spent less than 12 hours in my hotel room.
Icing on the Cake
I came home with more money than I left with. All-in-all only about $70 more, but with all the meals, and gifts for Ann and my girls, this was a wonderful bonus. I’m sure the trip cost enough without me going there and spending a large sum of money so it was icing on the cake not to do so. After my abrupt departure at school my TOC (replacement teacher) casually mentioned to my students that I had been kidnapped. On returning yesterday it was great to see that my students were very excited for me. Their first two questions were invariably, “How was your trip”, and “Did you win?” It was a little weird, I actually felt a little uncomfortable telling them that I won. I found myself taking advantage of this moment to talk about gambling as a form of entertainment, “When you go to the movies, you know you are going to spend a certain amount of money for your entertainment… tickets, popcorn, a drink, maybe some video games afterwards. The same should be true for going to a casino, you have a budget for what the entertainment is going to cost you, because more often than not you will lose. The secret is to stop when you reach your entertainment budget for that trip… and the absolute worst thing you can do is spend more money trying to win back what you lost.” Then as I looked out at my grade 8′s, who are years away from getting into a casino, I wondered if such a lecture (short as it was) was necessary when these kids are years away from gambling age? I repeated this with my second class, oh well, I just can’t help myself sometimes.
Thank You!
To my wife, you are truly wonderful. I certainly didn’t make this easy for her, first I had an appointment booked on the Friday to get my braces off, then I told her I wanted to go to a Student Leadership Conference in Seattle on the same Friday. Little did I know of the headaches I was creating for her as I went about planning activities for the same day as my surprise get-away. Thanks again for your efforts Ann, I will cherish the fond memories of this trip for a while. I can’t wait until our next holiday!
Thank Teachers!
This trip was above and beyond anything I needed, but it was such a wonderful break. I am refreshed, (after sleeping 11 hours on Monday night), and ready to teach! To all the administrators reading this… teachers could use a break… it’s the end of February, this is the longest stretch before a break for teachers… go to Starbucks or Tim Hortons and buy some coffee, hot chocolate and treats… go to each room pushing your treats on a trolley and serve your teachers in their rooms… tell them you appreciate them, tell their students how lucky they are… spend less than 5 min. in each class and totally make their day! Or write a card and add a $5 coffee card, or bring treats to your next staff meeting… recharge your teachers’ batteries and make them smile. They don’t need to be kidnapped to know that they are appreciated.
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New voices: Following Miguel and Kelly, I will seek out 7 new voices in my next 7 posts. I found Patrick Higgins, Jr.’s ‘Chalkdust’ blog through his interest in our book club. Some of Patrick’s posts, such as Creativity, with reason will keep me reading!
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Photos: Ghosts and Figures by kodama (on the road), Airplane (2006.06.04) by Bruno D Rodrigues, Volcano Erupts at The Mirage – Las Vegas by Old Shoe Woman, [pocket 10's] July 7 2005 by Peter Kovacs, and Coffee Love (F1-20473) by javaturtle
Originally posted: February 28th, 2007
Reflection upon re-reading and re-posting:
I’m becoming a huge advocate of year-round schooling and longer breaks. We had Easter weekend added to our March Break this year so we came back to school on a Wednesday… it would have done a world of good for both teachers and students to be given that second week completely off. I’d much rather a few longer breaks than one long summer.
This holiday was both exhausting and rejuvenating. It was a wonderful surprise.
Recently I’ve added a few voices to my (seldom-read-while-I-do-all-this-reflecting-and-reposting) Feed Reader… but they are far from new! They are mostly people I’ve ‘met’ through Twitter. Connected people bring me what I need to read.
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