me and my baby face

Not a ton of time here between classes, but I had to share this story! Ha.

I got up early this morning to go do my Teacher Assisting at Northpointe High School (sidenote: at 6am I could already tell it was going to be a crazy day -- I have always known that I struggle when it comes to dressing myself formally, [Haha. Yes, you heard me.] and therefore, I leave an extra hour every morning before work to decide what I'm going to wear and tie my tie. Ridiculous? Yes, I know. But this morning was REAL bad, haha. First, I had just washed all of my button down shirts the night before and had forgotten to iron them. Typical. It wouldn't have been a problem except that I know for a fact that there isn't one single iron on the whole 2 men's floors of Crawford Residence Hall, haha. Oh well. So I gave up that idea and decided to borrow a shirt from Caleb [my roommate]. Then I had to tie my tie. Usually I leave about 20 minutes every morning for this battle, lol. But today I had misplaced my printed tie tying guide from Google, so instead of turning on my computer and waiting and looking it up and all, I decided to go solo. Which worked out ok -- after a few minutes of experimenting, I remembered HOW to tie my tie, but I simply could NOT tie my tie. It was either too long or too short or crooked or the knot was too fat or too skinny -- you get the idea. I used all 20 minutes. And still wasn't satisfied. But it was good enough -- especially after I threw a jacket on over top. I ran out the door and made it just on time.).

Anyway, looking back, that was a foreshadowing of my morning at school this morning. Lots of crazy things happened, but I have to tell this one.

So Mrs. H sent me into the copy room to make 90 copies of 2 different worksheets, and hole punch them and staple them into packets, and glad to have something to work on, I made my way confidently to the office. She had showed me how to use the 2 copy machines last week, so I walked in the empty room and began scanning my original papers. Not 5 seconds after I arrived, however, at least 5 or 6 other teachers walked in the room behind me needing to make copies. The first lady in went straight to the other machine and got to work, but the next one in was a man, and seeing a teacher at the other machine, he immediately turned to me and his eyes widened in horror as he saw me just punching in the amount of copies I needed (I had not even begun to copy anything yet). Immediately he reached over and put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back out of the way and said, "What are you doing in here? You are not allowed to use this room!"

Shocked, I looked at the other teachers looking at me and stammered, "Umm, I'm a TA for Mrs. H and she sent me in here to make copies of these worksheets."

"I don't care," he said, "You are not allowed to use this room without office training. Unfortunately, Mrs. H is going to have to make her own copies, or you can ask someone who knows what they're doing."

Trying to seem as respectful and innocent as possible (while admittedly grinning in my head), I held the papers out to him and said, "Well then would you mind helping me make these copies?" He had a stack of papers in his own hands that needed copying.

Realizing what he had just said, he annoyedly replied, "Uhhh, I don't have time for that. Why don't you go check with the secretary."

So, nodding politely, and with a "Yes, sir. I will. Thank you," I stepped aside. He then stepped in front of me and started to use the machine, but my paper was still in there, so he grunted and said, "Now you've got this all set up the wrong way (aka, the wrong way for what HE needed -- I had done it right)." As he fiddled with it, pressing buttons, it finally froze on him. "See, that's why you can't be in here. Everyone needs copies and now the machine's broken." I just stood there grinning in my head, but managed a serious, "I'm sorry, sir," before I took my things and left.

Anyway, I gave Mrs. H the report, and after several apologies, she rolled her eyes and escorted me back to the room to work things out. All the teachers were gone by then, however. With the copy machine up and working again, she apologized a couple more times and said that she would clarify things with the other faculty as soon as she could, and then had me get back to work. After she left, I snuck out to the office, though, and asked if they had a badge for substitute teachers or student teachers. They did, and I put the badge in my pocket and returned to the copy room. I got through most of the stack, and was in the middle of the last few copies, when an arm from behind me reached around and pushed the "Stop" button on the machine, and a familiar voice said, "Didn't I just tell you that you weren't allowed in here? Come with me."

He turned to go, but I touched his arm, holding up my badge and said, "Sir, I'm sorry, but I'm a student at Cornerstone University. I'm working with Mrs. H. this semester."

He had just opened his mouth to say something, but at that, he snapped it shut and a look of horror passed over him again, and he said, "Oh my goodness, I am SO sorry! I thought you were...I just thought.....I mean, I...I'm very sorry. I thought you were a student! I feel SO awful; here, what can I do for you?"

After that, he was very kind and helpful, and I managed to get everything done just fine. It was all just a misunderstanding, and I got his name after that, and we chatted a bit, and we're pretty much best friends now, but that was the highlight of my morning, haha. Oh man...high school....lol.

I still don't understand how he could have thought that I was a student when I was dressed in a suit and tie and it was pajama day during spirit week today, so all the students were in their PJs...ha. Oh well, I guess that's what I get for having such a cute little baby face... haha. Maybe I do need to bring back the harley biker beard! ;-)