Computer Overload.

I'm one of those people who truly enjoys everything about Facebook. I love responding to my friends posts. I have had days when I've spent hours praying over some of my fb friends who are struggling (most of those fellow POTSies). I get a kick out of U-tube posts, checking out new pics and the funny status reports. I treasure the comments others post on my status reports, and enjoy letting others know they're heard. I'm amused at the Frontierville's often controversial posts. I love to play FV even if I feel like a lab rat running through a maze for an insignificant prize at the end. Some of my favorite bazaar prizes was a monolith sized sun dial, a stars and stripes barrel and my all time favorite.....a Trojan rabbit. What would the 18th century frontier be without a trojan rabbit?

Last week I had a computer overload. Work was exhausting, my students were more challenging than usual. Though "under the table boy" only had three difficult days out of five. I believe his mother should be considered for saint status. She is one of the most amazing woman I've come across. Last week I needed to work on report cards. I had planned on working on six or seven a day so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed. I started on Monday and when I returned on Tuesday my report cards were cyber breeding and had doubled. The computer tech guy had already left for the day, so Tuesday was a wash. The tech guy was able to fix my problem quickly on Wednesday and I was able to complete a dozen report cards that afternoon. Now to top things off, some suit at the district office decided this week would be a perfect week to do benchmark testing! I know you'll be shocked to hear that kindergartners are not able to bubble in scan tron sheets, so guess who gets to manually put in 32 benchmark test sheets into the system? That would be me! They were due on Thursday, so I needed to get them in on Wednesday afternoon. To start things off, I couldn't get into the system, thank God the tech guy was still in and walking down the hall when I needed him! He gets me me into the system, thanks Colin! I begin entering my student's scores. I push the tab butten too many times on the tenth students score sheet, so I backspace and lose all scores I've input so far. My body begins to feel the fatigue and my hands and feet are in pain from the pooling of blood in my extremities. I decide to put my feet on the computer desk with both feet on the outside edges of the keyboard. It sounds uncomfortable, but I'm very flexible. I start over, and lose the scores a second time half way through the process. Now some of you might be thinking, "Why don't you save the scores you input every so often?". The answer is, the computers are very slow and it takes forever to save the scores, it's almost faster to lose the scores and start over. I kept thinking I wouldn't make the same mistake, but my fingers are so use to responding to things a certain way that the habit was hard to break. Well, the custodian (who happened to be a sub) walked in my room to do his job, he gave me a quizzical look. I'm sure my position looked a bit odd to him. He begins vacuuming, and I continued to enter my students scores for the third time. I lost the scores again! I begin screaming "NO,NO, NOT AGAIN!" over and over. The custodian stopped vacuuming and gave me a "Are you insane?" look. He shook his head, I apologized and he quickly finished cleaning my room and left. I'm surprised the men in the white coats didn't make a visit to my room. I finally smartened up and entered all the correct scores globally (enter the first student's score, push a global button, and all the students have the same score), then I saved those scores and had a salty snack, came back with a little more sanity, and finally changed the students scores that were wrong, and I was done!

When I got home that night, I had no desire to touch my computer. My friend Lisa who works on a computer all day has told me she has no desire to get on the computer once she gets home from work. I never understood her reasoning until this week. I was surprised that I didn't want to check on my friends, I didn't want to watch funny u-tube videos and I didn't want to complete missions on Frontierville. I just wanted to veg out. Finally on Saturday I started playing Frontierville, but I still avoided social contacts and had no desire to even write my blog (which I usually find fun and stimulating). Thank goodness I feel more like my old self today. I'm looking forward to checking out my friends statuses, praying, laughing, watching u-tube videos and playing Frontierville.

I have a week off from teaching, and time to enjoy Thanksgiving. POTS has given me a reason to be thankful daily for the things I can do, and the blessings God has given me. Having an attitude of gratitude does change your perspective. Wishing all of you a joyful time of family, friends and health.

Blessings,
Michele