Minimum Day Surprise

(If you haven't seen this Monday's post, you probably should. It's here.)

Thursday. After checking in for the day, I headed to the classroom. I happened to look over at a sign with important dates for the month. As it was the 30th of January, all had been marked off except one. 

"Navigation Night, Jan. 30th."

Navigation Night is what they've rebranded Open House as. Since no one attended Open House anymore, they put it earlier in the year and turned it into a time when various classes could show off their offerings to students to entice them to take various electives the next year. 

They do this before the kiddos have to start setting up their schedules for the next school year. 

None of this impacts me as it takes place in the evening. But, Open House always turns that school day into a minimum day. 

Did I walk into a minimum day without being aware of it? Yes, that I did, in fact, do.

It was a nice surprise. Yes, I do get paid for a full day, so I can just enjoy getting out early. 

(Not that I enjoyed the day, particularly. But, that was due to *waves hands at everything*. If you did not see my post earlier in the week, on this day my mother was fading out. She passed away last Friday.) 

Where I Found My Earring

This has been the weirdest year. Not only did I get a chance to attend Back to School Night, I also got to attend Open House. Because I'm doing the long-term assignment. 

I just timed these long-term assignments wrong right, I guess. 

Even though we have students on campus now, Open House was fully virtual. So each department got together to create a presentation. As the sub in the mix, I went along with what the three other eighth grade English teachers wanted to do. (It's not like I knew what to showcase, anyway.) 

The night of, we were all in the same meet, but we were all in different classrooms. I got a call from the teacher who took charge. As we talked, I felt something strange with my earring. When we finished our conversation, I felt for my earring, and the back had fallen off. (With masks, I've been wearing stud earrings exclusively.)

It had to have fallen somewhere... 

The co-teacher was in the same room with me. She looked from one side of the desk, me from the other. I used my flashlight. I got down on my hands and knees. Nothing. 

I put what was left of my earrings in my wallet, and we went on with the Open House presentation. (We had, like, 13 parents show up. Sigh.) 

After, I went straight home. It had been a long day. (There was time for me to go home between the end of the school day and the start of Open House, but it seemed like a waste of time, so I had remained on campus. That made it a 12-hour day.) 

And that's when I texted the co-teacher with one of my stranger texts...

She had said it probably ended up in my bra. The earring back had somehow slipped into a pretty secure location on the inside of my bra, between the lace and the structural support. It was safe there until I found it.

Whew. 

I would have been very upset at losing that. I wear those earrings all the time.