Today, I can tell I was actually massively stressed, because I didn’t eat much of anything after breakfast. However, despite being furious at lunchtime as the college counselors discussed how absurdly wealthy the school is and how much money they are able just to hand out to departments for events etc. that weren’t already in the departments’ budgets (because, recall that I am paid by the day, and my total salary will be 53% of what I would have been paid this year if they had officially hired me), I actually had a good day. I enjoyed my time with students in classes today, even the class that is normally a huge hassle – granted, a third of them were gone, including two of the girls who cause big annoyances in class, but there were still some troublemakers and annoyances today, and they just rolled with it all so much better today, it seemed. I worked out and listened to a new audiobook that is totally not my style, but I am rolling with it and it seems to be interesting and okay enough (I don’t do scary stuff, and this one is borderline scary fantasy.). And, instead of grading, because I knew I needed to do something healing for myself, while I waited after school for the parent-teacher conferences this evening – also, super grateful to the parent who rescheduled her 8:00pm appointment to 3:45pm with me, so I could go home after my 6:30pm appointment; yippee! – I moved a shelf in the classroom in order to help with overall flow and ease in the room, and then, upon discovering a few sets of French Scrabble inside it, I organized out all of the tiles.
The boxes were different weights, you see, but were all matching boxes. So, I knew something was off. Though I had all that grading waiting for me, I just could tell doing the Scrabble organizing was better for me right now. Before I had even thought it through fully, my subconscious was already taking action with my body, and sitting down to the boxes.
I started by counting how many tiles each had, just to compare. One had roughly 98, another 135, and a third 110. Across the four boxes, none had the right number of tiles it should have had. So, I got to work.
I looked up online – since it wasn’t anywhere in the instructions etc. – how many tiles total and how many of each specific tile was supposed to be in a single box. It’s 102, in case you were wondering. A hundred letters and two blanks.
I went in order (long way the first time, but the shorter way for the other three boxes): tiles of 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 15.
And then I also matched tile shades for each box…
Because, you know… it just looks nicer. And they were supposed to be together that way in the first place – it was how they were made!
At least, that’s how my brain sees it. 😛
Don’t those dark ones look great together like that??? To me they do. Way better than the original odd mixture. 🙂 😛
In the end, it was exactly what I had needed. As silly An activity as it was, it was so soothing for me, and it gave me such a sense of accomplishment, I went home at seven o’clock after my meetings, and I was both in a good mood and something energetic. And both of those have been rare for me the past week+. So, that was really cool.
Thank you, God, for the positive meetings tonight, the early finish, the clean house to which to return, and the soothing, healing time organizing things. Thank you. Amen.
P.S. I also went home with free Oreos and icing. I don’t like chocolate, but I somehow love Oreos, so that was a delightful score. 😀
P.P.S. My husband didn’t mind either. 😛
Post-a-day 2024
hannah ananas 