It's Been A While...

Today, I find myself in a hotel room in Gainesville, Florida the day before I get to teach my first Material Science Camp.

Had I written this post earlier in the week, I'd have mentioned how excited I was to get to camp and how much fun I was planning on having at The University of Florida working with teachers so that they can bring Material Science into their classrooms.

I started teaching Material Science this past year and it's a great class. It focuses on Metals, Crystals, Corrosion, Composites, Ceramics and Polymers. It's just a semester and it's lab intensive.

ASM International funds classes each summer for teachers like me so that they can recruit more high school students to become Material Science engineers...you know, people who make stuff. Making stuff drives the economy and is important and there are a lot of different jobs out there in this field so spreading the word is a good thing.

Anyway...now I'm a fit of nerves. I'm in the hotel room with my husband, son and son's friend. They're all asleep bc we drove through the night after the boys played a baseball game last night at 8:15. I'm wearing the same clothes I wore all day yesterday still. I tried to sleep for the past hour but couldn't seem to drift off completely...kept rousing thinking about the events of the past 24 hours:

• The little one was supposed to come with us
• At 2:00 yesterday U of Florida said she wouldn't be allowed in the lab
• I had been upfront about bringing her since I was assigned this camp and suddenlythey decided she couldn't come yesterday.
• My car was in the shop and wasn't ready till 1:30 yesterday afternoon
• None of our phones worked for some reason for about 5 hours yesterday afternoon
• We scrambled to get my mom to take care of the little one for us while we were gone
• The oldest and his friend are going to Florida State tomorrow for a week long baseball camp - my husband is taking them and flying back home on Monday evening
• While I was in Gainesville, the little one was in my mom's car as it got rear-ended
• I talked to the other two teachers from the ASM camp and they have heard reports of 13, 8 or maybe as few as 3 teachers for us to teach at the camp this week
• I haven't slept for more than 90 minutes in a row in the past 33 hours
• I haven't eaten anything more than a bite of my husband's breakfast sandwich since midnight last night
• I'm about as much of a wreck as I think I've ever been in my life...

I know sleep will help once it comes as will getting through the first couple of days of camp...but until then, I'm a lunatic.