i had a complete meltdown last thursday.

i get to work early. like, really early - almost an hour before we are required to be at school. i hate getting up when it's dark-ish outside, but have realized i can get an awful lot done in 45 minutes of child and colleague-free time in my classroom before the day truly begins. i'm usually the first one at school, save the custodial and cafeteria staff, who are already humming along as i arrive, travel mug of motivation glued to my hand.

imagine my surprise when my principal rolls into my room just a few minutes after my arrival. the main office isn't usually even open when i get there. she sits down in front of my desk and without much fanfare announces that in the decision has been made that i will be the reading teacher who will have to be transferred next year.

yeah, that's the sound of the ax dropping, on my leopard-lanyard-wearing neck.

i've come a helluva long way in a week. i cried so fucking much that day. which was terrible for obvious reasons but also especially terrible because who wants to cry in a building of 347 impressionable little munchkins they love? i so resent the timing - i don't know what kind of good management style is represented by the early bird news delivery. i resent the timing even more, of my principal returning to my room a mere hour after the bomb-dropping to ask me to come to the office to meet with the principal of the new school, the one i'd listed as my if-i-have-to choice on my intent form back in january when this mess was announced. now i don't know about you, but puffy-faced and tear-stained with no advance notice is not how i'd choose to make a first impression on potential employers.

i guess he saw the potential for something under my sniffling, bewildered exterior, because he did, in fact, offer me a job at the end of the meeting. and so in the span of an hour and a half i lost one job and gained another.

i'm trying to focus on the positive - a brand-spanking-new school that i will help open, hopefully the ability to outfit a classroom from scratch with generous financial means, state-of-the-art technology in every single classroom, administration i will seemingly like and -gasp!- respect . . . there is a lot to look forward to.

we all know how well i deal with change, right?