Okay, so I have weird and stressful dreams at night. In fact, if I blogged about my dreams this blog would probably be a whole lot more interesting than it is right now. I’ll have to keep that in mind if I ever feel like I need to write about something besides cooking, clothes, shopping, etc.
So a lot of my dreams are about school. As Belle can attest, when you are a principal your to-do list is never-ending. And while there are days when you make progress and can mark several things off at the end of the day, there are other days where nothing is marked off and there are 5 new tasks added to the list. It is truly a balancing act between time spent in the office taking care of business, time spent in the classrooms and with teachers ensuring that our students are getting the best educational opportunities that we can offer them, and the everyday unexpected situations of running a school. Being the Type-A person that I am, I sometimes struggle with this balancing act and the to-do list often runs through my mind long after I have left the building for the day. As a result, I often dream about school. It’s very frustrating sometimes because I would like to let go of things, at least for the 6-8 hours that I attempt to sleep at night.
This week, I have actually let go of things a little bit. I had a couple of days last week where I went into school and worked when no one else was there. Lots and lots of things were crossed off the good ole list. I worked some this week also, both in the building and here at home. I feel like I have gotten many things squared away. I haven’t worried about that student, this teacher, that concerned parent. It’s been nice. Until I go to sleep. Then the dreams have come. I think that my mind is so used to worrying about school that it couldn't "turn off" this week. I actually dreamed one night that it was the morning of our Fall Festival and I hadn’t done anything to prepare for it-hadn’t contacted donors for the festival and auction, hadn’t ordered the concessions and prizes, hadn't worked with the teachers on booths and games, hadn't worked with my PTA at all. It was a very stressful dream to say the least, and I woke up several times during the night. One of the times that I woke up, it sounded like something had tapped on the bedroom window. I dismissed it, figured it was part of my dream, and went back to sleep. However, last night I slept well-a wonderful, deep, almost dreamless sleep. Until the unmistakable sound of something tapping on the window startled me and woke me up. I laid there with my heart pounding, listening for the sound again, but it never came. I finally drifted off to sleep, but I didn’t sleep well.
When I got up this morning, I thought about it and realized it was the same sound that I had heard the night before. I even went over to the window, tapped on it, and realized that was the sound I heard. I mentioned it to Mr. P (who sleeps through everything), and at first he dismissed it, having heard one too many of my crazy dreams. But as the day wore on, he and I have both tried to figure out what could be making that noise. Not the dog-she was curled up at the foot of the stairs in her usual spot. There are no tree branches near the window because it looks out to the deck. I’m more than a little creeped out by it, and I’m just hoping that it is the product of my crazy dreams and that I won’t hear it again.
Have I mentioned that our house backs up to a wooded area? One that is beautiful and Iovely-except when you are worried about strange noises in the night? Let’s just say that this morning around 2 a.m. I was longing to live in a crowded suburb of a big city.
I’ll keep you posted on the things that go bump, err tap, in the night…
