I'm fairly certain that most of you are aware by now, but in case you are not...
I'm now a science teacher.
I've been teaching math for three years, and I had truthfully never seen myself teaching science. That being said, I never pictured myself going to college in Texas, living in Austin, or teaching any subject at all. Ever. So I've come to receive the completely unexpected and unanticipated as the most obvious sign of God's handiwork.
As part of this new science gig, I had to move to a science classroom. This was a thrill because my new room is so much larger than my old room. And has so much storage. It's bittersweet, though, because it also happens to be the former classroom of La Beast before she moved her fantastic self back to Dallas. Other than that, I'm beyond excited.
There was just one little nagging detail, though.
Before La Beast started working at my school, the previous resident of her classroom took it upon herself to grace two of the walls with the following:
Dear Heavens. I know my name is Kelly, but that much Kelly Green is not okay. Especially not in a windowless room filled with fluorescent lighting. I'm surprised no students have suffered seizures as a result of it.
Today another teacher referred to it as "that putrid green."
Fortunately, she only painted two walls that color. The rest are still white and decked with decaying cabinetry:
I feel I remember La Beast commenting that she grew to love the green eventually. I am not that patient. It had to go. I spoke with my administration and found out that I could only paint it a super light color. I was not interested in logging tons of painting hours just to have a beige room, but my Assistant Principal discovered a supply of light blue paint ready for use on our campus and had it delivered to my room. At this point, anything other than burnt orange would be an improvement.
This is the point in this entry where I need you to recall my life as the personification of Murphy's Law. Remember? Okay, good.
A coworker told me I could borrow her ladder if I was willing to haul it from her classroom. It was the world's trickiest ladder, complete with four sections that are connected by locking brackety things. I needed to fold the four sections to remove it from her classroom, but I did not unlock the brackety things in the correct order. I didn't fall off the ladder or from the ladder. I can only describe what happened as me falling between the ladder, though it makes no sense at all. I fell and immediately thought a trip to the hospital was about to take place. I know I exaggerate and am a hypochondriac, but I truly thought I broke both of my forearms. It took a few days for the bruises to show up completely, but here's a muted snapshot of my pain:
I had to suck it up and press on, though, or the room would never be ready in time. Returning to the classroom, I found this little guy waiting for La Beast. He was sorely disappointed to find out that she's moved on without him.
Once the painting began, things ran pretty smoothly until this happened:
Of course. Naturally. I put my smaller trim-bucket of paint at the base of the ladder, a perfect location for me to step right into without thinking.
Once paint started to appear on the walls, I knew I hated the color.
My AP described the color to me as "powder blue." I saw it on the walls and christened it "powder room blue" because it makes the room look like a women's bathroom. Or an infant boy's bedroom.
Yuck. It's definitely an improvement from the green, but it looks ridiculous against the two other white walls in the room and still is far too bright with fluorescent lighting. After about 5 hours of painting (and countless other hours taping off and covering fixtures), I had approximately seven square feet of green left to cover when my AP walked in to take a look. He was also not a fan of the color, and he quickly informed me that I was going to kill him.
"Uhhhhh, why am I going to kill you?"
Turns out, I was in fact now allowed to paint the room my original color choice.
"Look at it this way: you just primed it!" My roommate echoed his remark exactly.
So yesterday morning I woke up early, then went back to sleep for another 3 hours, and finally dragged myself to Home Depot and back to school for a day of painting. It looks much better. See for yourself:
I love it.
It's bold, but not bright. And it's calming... a must-have for a middle school classroom.
Now if only I could figure out what to do with the rest of this.
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