I chose...

... suck it up. Went in. Going in today. Sometimes it's easier to just work than not because teachers have to do the planning anyhow. You have to have a blow-by-blow for the sub, and god help you if you have specials or something else going on that the poor sub has to deal with if you're not there. Seriously, it's just easier to die slowly on your feet, in class, than to try to get better at home. I'm not exaggerating. Ask a teacher.

Yesterday we had a 9/11 flag ceremony. Now, I've mentioned these flag ceremonies already; they zap my will to live. For this one though many classes got together to make a paper chain with one link each for the people who died that day. It took a long while to link all the chains together and the kids waiting were getting antsy. As the paper chain got longer and longer and longer one of my kids said: "Wow, that's cool! Look how long it is! I wonder if it would go all around the school?" I said "Thank goodness it doesn't." "Why?" "Because every single link in that chain represents someone who died on 9/11/01." There was silence for a moment, then one little girl said: "It's like everyone in America died that day."

Exactly.