Just one of those days...

The past few days have had some fairly 'interesting' starts (and ends too I suppose). It all began yesterday morning...
I had been called out to a teaching assignment in Langley. I had never been to this school and so I used my trusty friend, mapquest.com, to navigate my way (generally pretty accurate). As I was driving closer to where mapquest claimed this school would be I got a funny feeling in my stomach. Something was not right. I turned down the street that the school was supposed to be on and BAM, I was in a subdivision with a DEAD END!! Most definitely NOT correct. I always bring the school phone number with me and gave the school a call. The secretary was also 'on call' (go figure) so she tried to give me directions as best as she could. I got back into my car and backed up into a driveway so I could turn around. When I put the car in drive...nothing happened. Ok, that's not entirely true. My wheels were spinning, but my car was certainly not moving. I tried again. And again. No luck. I got out of my car and the woman (whose driveway I was in) poked her head out the window and yelled "I can't help you, I have a herniated disk!". Great. I began wandering the neighbourhood, knocking on doors to see if anyone would help me. I would hear footsteps on the other side of the door but, no one would actually answer it. Perhaps I look really freaky through the peep hole?! After several failed attempts I went back to my car. The woman poked her head out the window again and said "Hold on. I'll drive out of my garage and you can back in so that you'll have a dry patch to start off from". I thanked her profusely before before getting back into my car. A few minutes later, I was on the road again.
Last night was Megan's 23rd birthday bash. It was a really fun night full of laughter, food, games and good times with friends. I left the party at about 11:30 and drove home so that I could catch some sleep before teaching in the morning. At 11:45 my home phone rang. "That's really odd" I thought to myself "who would call here that late?!". I picked up the phone to hear Rysu's broken voice (he was on a cell phone) explaining to me that he had two flat tires and wanted to park his car at my house and needed me to drive him home. "Sure Rysu, that works for me". I drove Rysu home, got home just after 12 and finally went to sleep.
This morning I headed out for another assignment in Langley. The school was located more in the "Aldergrove area" and the snow was falling much thicker and was actually sticking out there. As I was heading up 232, I was met by brake lights. What on earth was going on? I sat and waited for about 10 minutes trying to figure out what was happening. Finally I realized that there was a stalled semi. We all tried to move around the semi (watching out for oncoming traffic). Then, BAM. I was met with ANOTHER stalled semi!! WHAT ON EARTH?! Altogether there were 4 semi trucks with their hazards on, wheels spinning. Because a lot of people had lost momentum, their cars were swerving all over the road. It was like trying to maneuver my car through a maze!! There were stalled cars all over the place!! However, I FINALLY reached the school (after numerous skids through the snow). I signed in and checked my phone messages. The school board had called requesting that I call them back asap. "Hi Maia. I am actually going to switch you to another school this morning" (arg). It was snowing quite heavily and I did not want to face 232 again. I asked the school secretary for an alternate route and headed out into the 'winter wonderland'. As I was driving along Fraser Highway, I felt like I was experiencing deja-vu because I was constantly facing (you guessed it) more break lights!! It took me over half an hour to get to the school I had been re-assigned to. Little did I know that another adventure was awaiting me...
I arrived at the 'new' school and signed in. "Head down the hall, go out the doors, to the left, you're in the portable" (gotta love portables). Because I had arrived late (obviously not my fault...the school started half an hour before the other school I was at AND I had to drive there) another teacher was covering for me until I got there. I walked into the door and was met with chaos. The teacher looked frantically at me and said "Thank goodness you're here! Are you used to teaching Grade 5?!". "Yes", I replied, "I have pretty much taught everything". "Good!" she looked relieved. "I am a secondary teacher and have no clue what is going on here. I don't know how to get them to listen and they're wild" *I had noticed the 'wild' part*. "Did you check her binder for her dayplan?" I asked her. "Oh, no I didn't' *Hmm, I thought*. She pointed to the desk and quickly exited the room. I had to get some 'order' in there and fast! "Ok kids, look up here. I know that today has been a bit hectic thus far but I will be your teacher today and I am going to lay some ground rules here". As I was giving instructions for the day (and trying to read the dayplan at the same time) something caught my eye. A white blurr streaked across the room. "What on earth was...." I began. "OH! That's our class rabbit!! He just runs around and does whatever he wants" called out one of the students. He was right. The rabbit DID do whatever it wanted (including it's 'business' wherever it wanted). It particularly liked sitting on my feet when I was up at the front teaching.
During recess one of the support workers who was in the room looked at me and said "I don't know how you TOC's do it". "Well" I said "you just kinda roll with the punches and hope to come out alive at the end of the day. It's..." I was interrupted by five screaming girls chasing the classroom rabbit who was making an escape for the door...