An Unexpected Weekend

My principal was sitting in his normal spot in the main office lobby greeting students when I arrived at work Friday morning.  He waved me over as soon as he saw me.  "What are you thinking about the speech meet this weekend?" he asked.

I threw my hands up.  "I don't know," I said, exasperated.  "I can't get a clear weather forecast."

"The transportation department is worried," he said.

We discussed what I knew, what he knew, what various weather reports are saying.  The meet was in Eagle, about 30 minutes past Vail, which meant driving over mountain passes no matter which route we took.  Snow was in the forecast, but not a lot of it (1-3 inches, by most reports).

During first period, my principal came to find me.  "They've got chain laws in place for both routes," he said.  "I say we call it."

I agreed, and the announcement soon went out.  The kids were disappointed, but I could barely contain my glee - I didn't have to work for the next 38 hours!  I got a weekend!

It felt a bit weird driving home Friday afternoon.  The sky was blue, the roads were dry - hardly conditions that supported a cancelled meet.

By Saturday afternoon, however, I knew that we had made the right call.  Snow fell all day Saturday, and I slipped and slid my way home from the store in the afternoon picturing all too well what a mess the roads further up the mountains must be like.  The speech team and I spent six hours on the bus trying to home from this very same meet last year in a blizzard, and I was so glad not to be repeating the experience.

Instead, I got to sleep in, work out, go to the eye doctor to update my prescriptions and order new contacts and glasses, catch up on laundry and dishes for the first time in months, and even clean out my closet to pull things for Goodwill.

This morning I skipped my ward to go to Rachel's to see Jack perform in his first Primary Program.  He waved his tie in the air like a lighter during most of the songs, spent one number closing his eyes with his hands ("pretending that I'm blind" he later explained), and only occasionally sang along.  Your typical four-year-old.  However, he also delivered a short talk he had written himself and memorized a few months ago that his teachers asked him to reprise for the program.  It put the older kids' mumbled short scripted sentences in the dust.  Four years old and speaking fluently in public?  The kid's got talent.

Not that I'm biased.

All in all, it was an unexpected lovely weekend, and a wonderful chance to rest up before musical auditions this week.