Thank God it's Friday

The saying "Thank God it's Friday" is almost irrelevant to me because since I have been home for winter break on December 18th, every day has been Friday because I have not worked. But this week has brought me a healthy combination between relaxing, going out and working. But there was some frustration throughout the week when it came to working, but everything panned out just fine.
In late November, I signed up to be a substitute teacher for Beverly Public Schools. The program that I signed up for is called the LAUNCH program which it is for Autistic students between ages 18-22 and my job is to teach them life skills. It is a good way to earn a few extra bucks before I go back to school. It would also provide me some more understanding of Austism, something that has provided me great interest since watching "Rain Man" starring Dustin Hoffman who portrayed an autistic man several years ago. When I signed up, I talked the substitute teacher coordinator, Corie McKenzie, that I was leaving UNH on December 18th. Sure enough, McKenzie called me that day and I was not available.
When school came back in session on January 4th, I did not get called from Monday-Wednesday and I was getting extremely frustrated. The next week, school was in session for three days and neither day I was called in. School had a winter vacation from December 24th-January 3rd.
On Wednesday, I was fed up with the waiting process. I decided to call Sherry Zide, coordinator of the LAUNCH program, who I worked with when I was a camp counselor this past summer. She pitched me the idea of working with the LAUNCH program and it lured me in to it. When I called Zide, I asked her whether anyone has called out. She told me that no one did and suggested the idea to become a general substitute. I called McKenzie and told her that I haven't gotten any calls and that it was time to change to a general substitute, but I still wanted to be integrated into the LAUNCH program. Sure enough, at 7:30 p.m., the substitute coordinator called me and assigned me to the Beverly High School, where I graduated in 2006. I was assigned to be a sub for a special education teacher. It was bad timing because that night I was going to go to Boston for my friend Kelly's birthday party. I knew that I was going to be home late, but I knew the consequences.
We went to this bar called the Tap. It is located in Union st. near Faneuil Hall. I was told that Wednesdays and Thursdays were the biggest party nights of the week in Boston and its reputation did not disappoint. I went out with about ten friends and it was quite a blast. There was a performer whose name is Bruce Jacques that comes every Wednesday night. He did a lot of things between singing, playing the guitar, dressing up in ridiculous costumes and provided jokes. My two goals for Kelly's night were theses, getting her drunk and make sure she had a fun time. Those goals were easily achieved. We left at about 1 a.m., an hour before the bar closed because some people had to work early in the morning. Getting home was a major challenge. We knew that Kelly has a rough night when it came to drinking and were utterly surprised that she hadn't hurled yet. But on the way home, Kelly puked three times. The first time she did, a patrol officer pulled up behind us and made sure everyone was not intoxicated other than Kelly. That procedure did not last more than five minutes and we were on our way. I walked in my house at 2:15 a.m. and did not go to sleep until 2:45 a.m. I woke up at 6:45 a.m. and then had to report to the high school at 8:00 a.m.
It was almost surreal to be back with a role at the high school. I saw a lot of my teachers that I had during my tenure there and they were excited that I was substituting. It was weird for me to call other teachers by their first name because I was inferior to them when I was a teenager. All I did was sit them and made sure that the students were semi quite and they did not kill each other. I always thought that special ed. students were fascinating because there is always something new to learn about a particular disorder or disability. The day flew considering that I did nothing. Fortunately, no one killed each other and I made a deal before each class that if they have nothing to do, don't leave the classroom for thirty minutes or not cause havoc. It worked. Soon enough, 2:33 p.m. arrived and school was out. It was good to get some experience because next time that I get called in, I won't have to be nervous or anxious. Even though I don't work 30-40 hours a week, I am glad it is Friday because my friends will not be working this weekend and that gives us an excuse to see each other without any strings attached.