Sunday afternoon: I trundle off merrily to the staff retreat, where I check in, meet other teachers and walk around the grounds.
Sunday night: After dinner in a positively refrigerated restaurant and a 2-hour staff meeting in a mildly less refrigerated conference room, I start having uncontrollable tremors.  Stumble into bed and pray for relief in the morning, but sort of intuit that this will not be the case.
Monday morning: Wake up wondering if I can get out of bed.  Stagger to breakfast thinking that eating something might help.  Principal suggests that I go back to bed or return home; glutton for punishment shrugs it off and wants to try participating anyway.  (Plus I'm fairly sure I can't drive the two hours.)  Quickly find that sitting up is exhausting, give up, and go back to bed.
Monday: Sleep on and off through most of the day.
Monday evening: Begin losing bodily fluids and everything I've eaten for the past 24-36 hours.
Tuesday morning: Stitch together my guts with 2 Pepto-Bismol for the drive home.  The subsequent drive is sparsely irrigated to avoid having to stop and heed nature's call.  Headache when I reach home will not be described here.
Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, Thursday: Recovering fluids and sanity.

The moral of the story?  Expect the unexpected.  My original plan was to pack and prepare lessons when I got back from the retreat, but now I'll have to go down to my campus apartment tomorrow, throw everything in boxes and deal with it when I unpack next week.  I'm mentally preparing myself for all sorts of things to break down or just be difficult when I move so I can lean with it a little better and not freak out.  I have a fairly solid plan for the first week of school already, so I need to focus on getting adjusted and feeling comfortable with myself so I can project confidence that first day.  It's kind of funny to picture myself a year ago, wide-eyed and terrified as I heard 180 fourteen-year-olds thundering up the stairs of my middle school placement, but I know this year will bring its own challenges.  The thought of being the only one front and center is exciting and terrifying at the same time, though it hasn't really sunk in yet (probably a good thing).

This is probably my last post for a little while...not sure when I'll next have Internet.  Until then, keep learning!