Evidence that I'm becoming an "old person"

Actually, since writing the title of this posting, I took a trip to the kitchen and a second event happened that supported my theory that I am becoming one of those "old people" I used to wonder about.

When I first started my teaching career, it was back at Lawrenceville when I was 25 years old. My, can it already be my ninth year of teaching? Oh my. But I digress. Back then, I would be in my department office and I would listen to the veteran teachers complain about this and that and wonder to myself, "COME ON, CHILL out, who cares if the theater department needs to use the room for a performance, we'll just move our lecture to this room....", you get the drill. Something out of the ordinary happened and things needed to be rearranged and so no big deal.

Well that was the 1995-96 version of Ernie Chen. So, what happened today that the 90's Chen would have told the modern Chen to chill out? The long and the short of it is the chorus and bands are leaving at lunch on Thursday for their big trip of the year. I scheduled a test for one section of one of my classes for Thursday and they meet after lunch. I threw a hissy (have I been throwing a lot of those lately, eh) in my department office in front of my colleagues about how I have to rearrange things and teach an extra period on Tuesday for those seven students who will be missing class on Thursday. Ok, hissy might be the wrong word, how about I grumbled loudly. It's just interesting that my first reaction is no longer, "how cool for those kids to have the opportunity to take this trip to perform" and is now essentially, "damnit it, that sucks that I have to change things in my life" or more succinctly, "what about MEEEEEE???" Yeah, yeah, maybe it's not a growing old thing but there has to be something different. The real lesson in all this is that events that throw the ordinary out of whack IS the ordinary.

Oh and the second thing. I went to refill my water and got REALLY EXCITED that I had some cut up cantaloupe and honeydew. Hello 9PM snack!