It Started with a Cold...

So last week I was super sick...like so sick I don't even know why I went to work. I had a cold or something and was coughing/sneezing/blowing my nose/trying to breathe for a week straight. My throat was killing me, my head felt like it was in a vice, and I was in a fog. Basically, I was living off Dayquil, Nyquil, and Advil.

As I'm sure you can imagine, everything about teaching was inconvenient. Kids' voices were grating, standing for 50 minutes each class was more than a small feat, and sneezing at the whiteboard meant an embarrassing walk cupping my nose to get a tissue from my desk. Ughh. Enter solution: a fanny pack!

I had been thinking about getting a fanny pack for a while, even before I was sick. It's so bothersome to have to walk back to my desk every time I need a pen, pencil, tissue, bathroom pass, eraser, sticker, stamp...you name it. I would constantly set my things down, then forget where I had put them. And unfortunately, one student had stolen my pretty whiteboard markers a few weeks before (yes, the ones David got me for Christmas - *tear*) ...So I had to keep those at my desk too, except when in use. But getting sick really sealed the deal. I began to daydream about having all of my essentials right at my fingertips. And then last weekend, I made the dream a reality.

Now, it's a funny thing, fanny pack shopping. Where does one go to actually purchase one? I walked into Target and asked myself that very question. I stood there at the door thinking about what section I should head to first. I decided to go to the accessories department, you know...with purses and all that. No luck. I was under a time constraint, so I had to leave without it. :( The next day, Lee and I went to do a little shopping and I asked if we could go to GoodWill. If any place had fanny packs, it was sure to be a second-hand shop, right? Nope. We left with some Chicken Soup books (for my students) and Dr. Seuss stories (for our future children), but no fanny pack. We went back to Target...surely they had to have them! I called Rachel, who knows just about everything there is to know about shopping for anything, and she suggested the travel section. Of course! Why didn't I think of that?! And there we found it...a beautiful, black fanny pack. (Apparently they're now called hip belts? Like that makes it better?) It looked something like this...

On Monday, I introduced it to each class: "Hey guys, you know how I told you I was thinking of getting a fanny pack? Well... [reach behind my desk to grab and put it on] I GOT ONE!!!" they all sounded like a bunch of dying-hyena-cows...kind of a laughing/moaning sound. I got a lot of comments like "NO, MISS!" and "Miss, you seriously can't wear that!" (They're so concerned with my image.) I think I saw the 5 stages of grief happen right in front of me that week. About halfway through, they were like, "You're still wearing that thing?" Uh DUH. Finally, by Friday, I had convinced one class to bring fanny packs back into style with me. Another class suggested that if I was going to keep it, I should at least "bedazzle" it or call it something cooler than a fanny pack.

Well ok then.

Guess what my project was that weekend... I borrowed my 6 year-old cousin's GeMagic kit and set out to bedazzle... Here is the final product, along with a pic of the contents on any given day. And yes, I've been wearing it ever since.


I have since been told that "swagg" should have 2 g's but oh well. It's my own type of swag. I like being the corny teacher, and I think the fanny pack may just be "my" thing for the rest of my teaching career. We'll see how that goes, but for now... I'm in love.

~Hooks