Ouch

Today I attended the first day of a 2-day Math Conference. I decided to go because I'm going to be teaching a math mini-unit in my class and I know I need some serious growth in the subject.

This morning I excitedly woke up early enough to eat a nutritious, thinking woman's breakfast(can you say leggo my eggo?). I exercised, showered, packed some water and snacks in my handy dandy backpack, printed off the directions someone emailed to me and headed out the door.

Unfortunately my upbeat, optimistic outlook started to deteriorate when I realized (after driving 20 minutes to Nampa) that the directions sent to me didn't have any street names on them. I took another 20 minutes to randomly drive following these ridiculous instructions until I finally asked someone for directions. Thank goodness for kind people....NOT. That's right, this lady gave me the wrong directions, I'm guessing she forgot about the "extra" lighted intersection before the one I was supposed to turn at.

I finally found the high school (pure luck, seriously), put on my backpack, grabbed my purse and headed in. Luckily there were still registration people there, so I got my name badge and went to the keynote address which was in a dark auditorium. Afterward, we all got up to head to our different classes. This is when I discovered I was the only nerd wearing a backpack. I might as well have had on a fanny pack and a pocket protector. I went to my first class and we had to solve a somewhat simple story problem. While we are working them out, the instructor goes around and puts dots on a few of our papers. I was dotted....scary. The dotties had to write their strategy on the whiteboard in front of everyone and then explain why they solved it that way. I really didn't want to go up, but the dot made me. So, I go to the front of the class and explain it in a very complicated manner (because that is really how I think). Then this guy raises his hand and explains what I did in a much more transparent manner....I think I heard everyone say "oh" in unison...so embarrassing.

So, after that class was lunch and then off to this algaebraic methods class. Halfway through that class I realized "I'm an idiot". Someone get the dunce cap out and put me in the corner. Everyone is nodding their head in agreement while I'm slouching down in my seat and trying to avoid the instructors gaze. I zipped out of that class like a spider was on my tail.

The final class was taught by the wife of the principal of my elementary school. We had to introduce ourselves and when I did she talked to me quite awhile about her husband and asked me questions. I was very smiley and upbeat because I felt like my brain cells had started to come back to life. At the end of the day, I got in my car and put on some lipgloss in the mirror. It was then I realized I had a big black something in between my two front teeth. Great...dumb and Halloweenish all at the same time. So, here I sit....my brain literally hurts and I have to do it all over again tomorrow. One thing's for sure...I'm not bringing a backpack!