I posted last December about a teaching position that I interviewed for and didn't get. I talked about how it lit a fire for me that I needed. Then in February there was another incident that pushed sprayed gasoline all over that little fire and made it blow up. In the course of one bad day and one cathartic evening, I vowed to kick my teaching pursuit into high gear.
I also bargained for a puppy. I had my stick. This was my carrot.
I read. I highlighted. I made notes. I studied. I quizzed myself. I bought practice tests. I did practice tests. I worried. I got excited. I took dry runs to the testing facility.
I took two exams and worried that I'd fail one, but aced them both. I visited www.k12jobspot.com several times a day. I decided to sign up to be a sub, so I could get my foot in the door. I applied for positions and kept tweaking my cover letter and resume with every application.
I also wrote off a real position for the 2015-16 school year. But I must be a Clevelander now: There's always next year.
Funny thing, though. At the very last minute there was a posting for a school in the area that needed a math teacher. I threw my hat in the ring and was surprised to get a phone call from the education department chair from the school where I did my teaching program: Did you see the listing? Did you apply? Yes? Good! They called me and asked for a recommendation and I told them that you were the one they wanted.
And they did want me.
It's Catholic and wonderful. In the interview the principal said "We want you to love our children." and I do. I got hired 41 hours before new teacher orientation, and I feel like I haven't stopped since. I sleep great these days: activity fills every minute of my day.
Every day I wake up and feel blessed. Every night I put my head on my pillow, close my eyes and tell God thank you for bringing me to this place.
But there's the unfinished business about the puppy. It needed to be a mini-dachshund. I've wanted one since about 2006. This was fairly non-negotiable. I've been surfing petfinder.com for months, but they're hard to find and always too far away and too expensive to earnestly consider.
This morning I got up early for a Saturday, because I had to go take a class for school. As I hobbled into the bathroom, phone in hand, I saw a posting from the local Buy-Sell-Trade Facebook community I belong to. Someone needed to find a good home for one male and one female miniature dachshund. They weren't asking an arm and a leg, and they were about a half hour from where my class was being held. I sent the lady a PM and hopped in the shower and hoped for a response. Naturally, FB filtered my email into her "other" box. But hey! That's nothing a $1 can't fix! (Thanks Facebook! That's quite a racket you've got there!) The lady got 107 likes and 93 responses...but yay me! I was one of the first! I made an appointment to go see the puppies and had
Do you ever find signs? Like something is meant to happen? Of course it's semi-ridiculous, but they're there.
As I walked up to the house to see the puppies, there was a big dog out front barking. As I approached, a woman poked her head out the front door and said "You hush, Teddy!" I have a kid named Teddy. Hmmm. When I walked in the front door, they handed me an adorable, tiny little puppy, and told me that I was free to name him whatever I wanted, but they'd been calling him Charlie Brown. "That's funny. Lucy and Linus have been on my short list for dog names for forever."
It doesn't matter. The signs were minuscule, but I was a goner the second she handed him to me.
Meet Weston.
He's 8 weeks old. He's had an exciting day, and he's pretty well pooped. We hope he likes it here.
