Feeling Swamped

I'm not feeling like it but I go through the motions and get myself in the car, making an emergency detour to the Granite Benchtop Company. I need to make sure they don't cut the Avocatus slab before Anjie and I finalise the kitchen island section. Anthony is relaxed and good humoured considering how many trips I've made. I call in at the house. It's easier to unlock for some tradies and necessary right now because of the entry tiling. Gideon is already on his hands and knees meticulously placing the small and tiny Winckelmen. He's cheerful and, like so many Phillipino immigrants, humble. Their kids also are good humoured and so easy to teach, even if they don't do a lot of work. They are never a behaviour problem. 

At school I feel like I've been smacked between the eyes with a four by two. I'm there but not there. My brain is awol and, as I've been drinking every night for the last ten days, I feel hungover, fuzzy and out of sorts. "My bad," as the kids would say. I have two Year 10 classes to shepherd to the end of the year. The easier is being taken by a young, very efficient student teacher, Courtney. The other, whom I have a good working relationship with, is all mine. We're going to do a film study of Stand By Me, a film about 11 year old going on a rite of passage hike to find a dead body. It's based on a Stephen King novella, The Body. So far so good, but I can't get the projector to connect to the computer. I need this like a hole in the head and try another room. No good. I fall back on resources in the cupboard.

I'm free to go to the house after period 3. I ignore the writing test which has to be marked for both classes before I even start end of year reports. Rene is busy with a blow torch. God knows what he's doing. He explains but my brain is out of focus. I return to tutor a Year 11 student for an external. Her mother sent me a badly timed rant the day Lionel died. The girl herself is pleasant but has been vacant since day one. We get to work, at last. Meanwhile Kahu is texting about his cv, and an overdue application for Fine Arts School which Anjie is going to help him with. Except she's marking art folios and he can't find her. I feel like I'm watching a car crash in slow motion but decide to leave him to it. 

I'm overwhelmed but keep putting one foot in front of the other. I go into manic mode and dash down to Radcliffe for some electrical bits and when I return Rene tells me he'll give me a day to sort myself and go to Nicki's tomorrow. Good idea. I pick up Anjie and we drive to the Granite Benchtop Company to finalise the cut for the slab. She tells me the HOD of Art, Mark, another good friend, is helping Kahu finish his application then driving me to UC to submit his application. It's working out.

The slab is waiting. Anjie snaps a pic then manipulates the image and send me a couple of pics to forward to Anthony. Best we can do. Should work. On the way to drop Anjie we do a U-turn to pick up Kahu at Riccarton Mall then he and I drive out to the beach. Stress levels fade as I submerge in salt water. I can't do anything else today and I don't need to.