Friday Fragments: Episode #247

Welcome! Feeling fragmented? Disjointed? Jumbly in the head?
Then you've come to the right place to get yourself together, defrag, relax, and enjoy.
[To learn more about Friday Fragments, please click on the tab above.]

***How do you like my new button?! The idea came as a little gift to me from Cyndy, of Putting the Fun in Dysfunctional! (Thanks, Cyndy!) I was ready for a change. Lisleman, too, appreciated the change and even shared the meaning behind the "Keep Calm" phrase in his fragments this week.

***If you're local, you might be interested in my review of SALT (a restaurant) on Trip Advisor. (My name there is CBean63.) If you like my review and/or find it helpful, I'd appreciate a "Helpful" vote. Thanks :)

***Steve and Milo are learning the boundaries of our new PetStop invisible dog fencing system. They're also recovering from "the big snip." I am thrilled on both accounts. The dogs? Not so much, I'm guessing.

***We've entered the final stretch at school, and it's been rough at times. I actually had a panic attack last week, on an especially-rough day when job stress, menopause hormones, and chronic neck pain collided. Who knew the three couldn't coexist peacefully?!  I'm doing fine, though. I'm sharing this because I'm just a transparent person and want you to know that if you've experienced these things, you're not alone; even seemingly-normal people lose their minds now and then, and (like me) you will come through.

***Thanks to blogging, I was able to research just now and find that the other panic attack I experienced happened to me in 2009, in the midst of a dental procedure.  Yes, I've been to the dentist a number of times since then; it was just one of those things, I guess.

***Right? Normal people do have a panic attack or two in their lifetimes? Do I want to know? Hm. Guess I'll be doing a little Googling tonight.

***It's been two months since an angry, irrational student "body-checked" me from behind, injuring my neck. He is on the autism spectrum and didn't mean to hurt me.  He wasn't even mad at me; he was just frustrated and didn't know what to do with his emotions. Still, I'm feeling resentful about the chronic pain. I've always been willing to sacrifice for my students. I've given up a lot for them. My health was not something I volunteered to sacrifice.

***Fortunately, my life has balance. An amazing thing that happened today, for example, was a plan that came together for someone to pay for a student at our school to attend summer camp for a week. While I'm not the one paying, my birthday wish played a role in making it happen, and that  makes my heart happy. I wrote about another awesome thing (that happened with a student) yesterday. I also accomplished a monumental task today (long story), thanks to a very competant, compassionate, retired teacher who agreed to sub in my classroom (for the second time this year) so I could take care of that task.

Life is good.