Arrive at work around 6:30ish - hit the ground running. Office not decorated - and I have no thoughts about that at the time. It was OK. Thought 'well, I'll probably just delete my blog post 'cuz obviously, I was wrong. There's no plan....'. Moved on. Too much to do to give it another thought...and I truly didn't. I'm turning 50 next week regardless and I knew we would be 'celebrating' at some point - 'cuz we've had many milestone birthdays in our district this year and they are always celebrated appropriately.
Worked away.
Just before 9:30AM, my phone rang. And it was J. A conversation that starts with 'are you sitting down?' is usually not a good thing - though I did have a thought that perhaps we HAD finally won the lottery the night before. But no. H. was in trouble. I won't detail too much here in this post (more later) but I had to call the assistant principal. At 9:35AM, I closed my office door, called the AP, listened to the events and agreed that I would be leaving immediately to pick up H. at school. He was not allowed to stay for the remainder of the day (and 4 subsequent days....more on that later...maybe. Possibly not.)
At 9:40AM, I called my boss and let his assistant know that I had a personal emergency and was leaving my office and would return as soon as possible. She was concerned and said 'of course' and agreed to relay the message to my boss who was in a meeting. I grabbed my purse and went into our work area and said 'I have an emergency to take care of and I am leaving - not sure when I will be back'.
I pick up H. and take him home. Confiscate his cell phone and car keys. Give him a piece of my mind. Supervise him getting something to eat and send him to his room for the day where he is to remain. Call J. Ask him to come home because I feel H. shouldn't be unsupervised and I can't stay home all day.
I am upset. Teetering on the edge. I had actually had a good cry the night before - something I rarely do - but apparently needed. But the 'on the verge of tears' feeling was back. So I took a bit of time to compose myself. Got on my laptop and answered work emails. One was from my assistant - who inquired 'are you OK'? I write back 'I am but I'm not'. I explained what happened with H., let her know that I needed a bit of time to compose myself but I would be back. Said 'I need to eat something'.
A few minutes later, she writes back 'we were thinking we'd go out to eat when you got back - to get away from the office for a bit'.
I say 'well, that's nice - but I'm really not in the mood to be social today and I'm super swamped and now am even more behind having interrupted my day to retrieve my errant son from school. But thanks and if ya'll decide to go out and can bring me back something, I would really appreciate it'.
Next email is 'C. [HR Director] has been in here a couple times looking for you and I think it's kind of important'. I say 'OK' and ask her to have C. call me at home. In the mean time, I call C.'s office phone and our bosses assistant answers - I say I'm looking for C. and she says 'she must have stepped out to the restroom'. I ask her to let C. know I called and I'll be back in my office in about 30 minutes.
Another email from my assistant which says 'C. says she needs to talk to you in person so she'll wait until you get back'.
And I reply 'Ok, I'll be back in around 7 minutes - leaving momentarily'. I grabbed H.'s phone, keys, a package of Pop tarts ('cuz I really did need to eat and it was the quickest thing to grab), my purse and iced tea (homemade) and head back.
I proceed immediately to the Administration building where C.'s office is - and it's locked with a sign on it that says 'We are closed for an hour. If you need immediate assistance, please see Business Services next door'.
So I go back to my building. And walk in. And find myself being surprised by a party for the first time EVER. And what a party. They had a tea party for me - complete with china cups and saucers; scones; shortbread; little sandwiches, mini-cupcakes; cookies; lemon curd.....everything you think of when you think of a tea party. It was so awesome!! I was absolutely stunned because I never, ever imagined in a million years they would do all this - but they did. It was fantastic. My office was decked out with 30 red and purple balloons; red hat scarves had been used to make a valance over my office window. A red and purple kazoo hung from the window. There was a hat, a red feather boa and a t-shirt on my chair. Red and purple hat garlands everywhere. It was so great!!! Truly awesome. I was so stunned. I said 'everyone knows that today's not really my birthday, right? 'Cuz someone else emailed me a few minutes ago to wish me happy birthday - and it's NOT today. Ya'll know that, right? Oh, and thanks so much 'cuz now I don't need to eat POP TARTS for lunch!'
It was a great time. Truly a party/celebration I will never, ever forget and definitely made my 50th very memorable.
It was a great day.....
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