I spent lots of time in my classroom over the holiday weekend, and it's all ready.

Ready, ready, ready.

I should sleep well - it's that ready!

(see a theme here?)

I have to keep telling myself that I'm ready, because even though it's physically set - all copies are done and on my desk, lesson plans done for the first week, etc - I still won't sleep well tonight.

I'll lie in bed saying something like this in my head, "You need to sleep.  You have to wake up by 5:00, you know.  Go to sleep.  Don't worry.  You're ready.  Everything is copied and ready to go.  You won't forget your lunch or to put the apples on their desks. You'll be fine.  Don't worry about the new shoes, or the outfit, or the steamy temperatures.  You're ready.  It'll be fine."

This is the conversation that swirls in my head for hours and hours.  I finally nod off around 1 a.m. only to wake up at 2:30, thinking that my alarm clock didn't go off.

That reminds me.  I bought new batteries for my alarm clock, so I wouldn't worry that on this most inopportune day, the batteries would die.

I'm ready.

Yes, I am.

Really.