Work week recap

A winter storm is headed this way, bringing with it the chance of ice late tonight and early tomorrow morning. As much as I long for a good snow, ice is a different matter altogether. Ice is beautiful, but so dangerous. Thank goodness it's a holiday weekend (Martin Luther King Jr. Day is Monday) and I have no real need to leave the house before Tuesday. Following on the heels of this storm is another weather system that the long-range forecast says might bring us some snow next weekend. Fingers crossed for that! I'm anxious to see the "new" house and neighborhood with a blanket of white.

I've continued to feel a bit under the weather for the last couple of days. Although I got a negative result on my rapid Covid test, I remain unconvinced that I don't have a (very, very) mild case. Yesterday my throat felt kind of weird and sore, and I've been a bit short of breath for a few days now, off and on. That sounds bad, but it's not that unusual for me. I have mild asthma that can be triggered by allergies, a cold, or even just a drastic change in temperature.  A puff or two on an inhaler and I'm totally fine. So who knows?

I'd go to one of the DHEC testing sites for a more accurate PCR test, but they've all been so overwhelmed that it's taking up to a week to get results back (and that's when we're not having a state holiday and a winter storm) so I don't think I'll bother. I feel almost 100% back to normal today, anyway. If it is Covid, thank goodness for vaccines and boosters! I was careful at work yesterday to keep my N-95 mask on and to avoid other people as much as possible, just in case. 

Speaking of work, I meant to tell you about something nice that happened to me at the beginning of the week. My little buddy Clarence (the boy who kept coming to my desk for Christmas candy in exchange for not getting in trouble last month) stopped by my desk to see me on Monday. (Since I was already feeling a little weird, I gave him a fist bump instead of a hug). He said, "Mrs. Barlow, I'm going to bring you a present tomorrow!  I told my mama I wanted to get my favorite teacher a present!" I told him that that was a sweet thing to say, but that his good behavior and good attitude was all the present I needed. Of course, I forgot about it immediately. Well. The next day he showed up at my desk and presented me with this:

"Viva Las Vegas Night" perfume! :)  

Clarence was so proud of himself when he gave it to me. He said, "It smells REAL good!" (It smells about like you expect). What a sweet, kind thing for that little boy to do! I wrote  him a nice thank you note on some of my personalized office stationery. I showed the gift to the basketball coach, who happens to be one of the behavior interventionists, and he quipped, "I hope that's not missing off his mama's dresser!" Haha! We both got a good laugh at that. All joking aside, though, this little bottle of dollar store perfume made me cry a little bit. 

I'll sign off today with a few pictures of the aquariums at work, taken by some of our Art students who are studying photography at the moment. Aquariums are notoriously hard to photograph, but the teacher sent me four of what she judged to be the best ones. The first two are from the goldfish tank in the lobby, and the last are from the planted community tank in the library.