Oops.

Rosy here. Thank you Charlotte for that wonderful introduction. And Charlotte, I hope you don't mind the changes I made to the layout. The old one hurt my eyes.

Today I had one of my most feared moments in the subbing experience: I woke up nice and late at the hour of 6:30 (slept in an hour!), got ready at a reasonable pace, drove the 40 minutes or so it takes me to get to most schools that I cover, made some wrong turns as per usual (my GPS, Tiffany, tries to help all she can but I give her so little navigational skill to work with sometimes), and arrived right at my scheduled minute of 8:30 to a new school (for me), we'll call it "Happy Grounds Elementary." After the usual chaos of locating a sign-in book and having no one staffing the office to send me in the right direction, I was finally introduced to my fellow 1st-grade teacher (and a rando whose hand I shook out of awkwardness because he was standing there) and sent along my merry way to my classroom. Several little first-grade darlings sat camped outside the door ("YESSS! A sub!"). I opened it to be greeted by the expected darkness but also--music and a lavender scented humidifier? What was this? I stood blinking in the haze and spotted a woman in the corner near the teacher's desk.

"I'm here to sub? I think? For Mrs. Gretsky?"
"Oh that's me! Didn't I put the right date?" said a pleasant, older woman in a patriotically-themed shawl. "I called yesterday but I was sure I put in for tomorrow." I double-checked my confirmation email. May 6.

Oops.

Bless her, she tried to make the best of it, and gave me a few pointers (one of the first being, "Don't be afraid to be mean to them!" At least I know what to expect now...tomorrow) and showed me around, but honestly nothing could stave the awkwardness and embarrassment I felt at my unprofessional overlooking of the date posted for this assignment.

So I was sent on my merry way home, without a job, and with any drop of professional pride dissolved. It will be fun to explain Ms. Rosy's irresponsible mishap to the no doubt adorable Happy Grounds students' interrogations tomorrow.

In Which We Answer Some Exciting Questions!

How long have you been subbing? Charlotte has been subbing for about eight months, Rosy for about six.

What did you do before that? Well, we both have Bachelor's Degrees in absolutely nothing related to child-care and (bonus for Charlotte) - she has a Master's degree in nothing related to child-care OR to her Bachelor's Degree!

That is insanity! That is not a question. Also, it is true.

Why did you start subbing? At first (for Charlotte) it was the economy, stupid! But then once she did it, she actually really enjoyed it. And then, unbelievably, so did Rosy. Crazy, no?

What do you guys like doing for fun? Well, Rosy is an excellent artiste. And Charlotte loves writing poetry, fiction, and (geek that she is) fanfiction. Both gals are musical and (aww...) were in their high school marching band together. Charlotte also loves vegetarian cooking/baking and Rosy is her official taste-tester. They also enjoy going out on the town for dancing, drinks, the usual. Also, they do have other friends, they swear. Like maybe one or two. And a half.

You guys sound amazing. Are you taken? Stop it! You'll make us blush. :) But yes, we're taken.

By each other? No. We each have a charming, handsome young man in our lives.

I still get the sense that you have inappropriate girl-crushes on each other. We will go so far as to say that you're not entirely wrong, and you may even be a little bit right.