So about that sickness...

I don't know what the hell it was.
I'm very grateful it didn't make me barf.

But I was pretty sure my entire insides had melted.
I'll leave the rest of the excitement out of this little blurb, I'm sure all of you have been there.

I started getting sick on Friday evening and spent the entire weekend mostly lying down, punctuated by jumping up and running to the bathroom when there wasn't already someone in there. Having one bathroom is sometimes inconvenient, but mostly manageable.

But Bob was here (Eric and Lyssa took him to the airport this morning) and there were four of us in the house. In addition, Matt and Amy were here on Friday night.

I contemplated trying a trash can or bucket... ended up not needing to.

I thought I was doing better until I got up Monday morning.
Now that was truly horrifying. I took two extra strength Imodium. I was sort of afraid that I wouldn't be able to drive all the way to work without, um, more issues. But I made it. I had already contacted my assistant to let her know I was sick and asked if she could come in early in case I had to run to the bathroom. My manager was out of town this weekend.

So I called for my manager to come replace me at work as soon as she could and came home. I called the doctor's office as soon as they opened and made an appointment to get in to see Dr. Dirtball.

No way could I work in the afternoon.
Tuesday morning I stayed home, too. My doctor told me it was probably viral... unless it continues for more than five days, then we start running tests.
I'm happy to say that we're not going to have to do any tests.

I went to work on Tuesday afternoon, having gone the requisite 24 hours without symptoms, but I really didn't feel up to it. It felt like I'd been punched in the stomach about 800 times.

I only went because we're (always) short staffed. One of my coworkers had surgery this morning, one of my coworkers is quitting, and we just don't have the people we need to keep everything running.

In addition, I don't like someone running my site who isn't me. When it's unavoidable, well, it happens. But if I can be there, I want to.

My manager was there on Tuesday morning with my regular assistant.
Apparently the children were doing their usual stuff.. they decide what they want to do, ask me for supplies/support and then they go do it. At five minutes before dismissal time, I tell them it's time to clean up. They are very good about it, managing to get everything in the proper place and be ready to leave when the bell rings.

But my manager decided that some of them 'were not engaged'. The idea of the kids separating into groups on their own and pursuing their interests is foreign to her.

She is more of the top-down educational type. So she made them do a couple projects, then, a full fifteen minutes before school started, made them clean up, get a book, and sit and read before dismissal.

I'm up for my performance review. We're going to have to agree on definitions of engaged and learning before we can proceed, I think.
Hmph.

And things were going along so well.