And Knowing Is Half The Battle!

Thank you Ms. Rowell for finally kicking off posts on the New Year! I am quite tired and need to be in CT tomorrow for work at the ass crack of dawn but I want to tell you all my story. It was Tuesday morning. The sun remained hidden behind the world not yet coming to say good morning but I needed to beat the rush hour traffic to the Maritime Aquarium for I had 4 pre-school classes to teach between 830am and 1230pm. I was unaware at the time that this school is in the bronx until I saw the phone number the morning of. And, seeing as this is my first travel program on my own, I was unaware of location nor calling ahead of time for parking information. After calling the school at 720 for an address and then, after mapping it out on google, i saw that it is about 45 minutes away on 95 and i needed to move quickly! As fast as i could, i netted animals, got them in the cooler, got the cooler in the car, plugged in the address, and took off for the school.

According to Ken (my Australian TomTom), I had arrived but could not find a school sign nor legal parking areas so I pulled over and put on the hazards. I took the cooler and bucket of extra water out and put it on the cart and began my search. The bucket, although covered, continued to fall off the cart slowing me down but after about 10 minutes, a nice woman was able to inform me of the location of the school. I entered the school, signed in and asked about parking. They told me to pull it around and double park until 10am, then I'd have to move it to alternate side so I dont get a ticket. Awkward but needed to be done so I ran back to my car only to find that I had already gotten nailed with a $45 parking fine. Unfortunate.

Then, in the middle of my second class I needed to run out again at 10am to move it over, leaving the chaperone and teacher behind to control the children who I directed to divide them into 4 groups and rotate them at each of the four tables to look more closely at different marine animals. I beat the officer standing next to my car by near seconds from a second ticket. She was unwilling to listen to my refute of the first ticket. So, I returned to see the teacher bringing 1 group at a time to the adjoining room until all the groups had gone and then she left with a quick good bye. I was confused, a 45 minute class had run 20 minutes short.

Finally, all 4 classes had ended. Two evaluations of my classes were finished and returned and everything seemed to look pretty good on paper. I was proud of myself! (although, i continued to think about the ticket the school and aquarium are both unwilling to pay). Before leaving I emptied out the extra water - less to carry - and brought up the cooler a flight of stairs. As I went down the short, steep, ramp with my cooler/cart, the cart spun out and of course, the cooler came off spilling animals onto the sidewalk. The most crucial being the small horseshoe crab, an educator's favorite animal for any class. I quickly picked up all animals; snails, crabs, sponge, etc. and put them in the cooler and go to the car as fast as possible. This is going to have to be a very fast trip back to the aquarium. For us, itd be like trying to breath at the top of everest. I made good time getting back and luckily all animals survived!!! I continued working the rest of the day, a solid 12 HOURS!

I should start writing books. I hope I didnt bore you too much! HAPPY NEW YEAR AND KEEP POSTING!!! Gnite!