SLICE OF LIFE

The radio.
I am a literacy coach.
I don't have my own classroom, instead I move all over the building, all day long.
From time to time, my boss needs me.
And so I carry a radio.
Or at least I am supposed to carry a radio. 
The trouble is, I keep laying it down.
And then I forget where I have left it. 

Take the last week, for instance.
Friday was our school science fair.
The science teacher needed me to cover her class while she helped set up the science fair .
I had no sooner gotten up to her classroom than I realized that I didn't have the radio.
It was in my office in the bookroom, in the basement at the north end of the building.
Her science room is on the second floor at the the south end of the building,
approximately one city block away.
I dispatched one of the eighth graders
who was delighted to make the trek.
OK, maybe not delighted, but he said he would do it, if he could take a friend.

Ten minutes later, he came back, radio in hand.
I laid it down on the table
so I could help one of the eighth graders finish his project
and immediately forgot about it.
About 15 minutes later, the special ed teacher came in.
I heard her say, "What are you doing with that radio?"
Guess whose radio it was?

An hour later, I went downstairs to teach my intervention group.
And then went to get something out of the auditorium.
And realized I didn't have my radio.
A second grader friend found it in the classroom
where I had done my intervention group
and brought it to me.

We had a three day weekend.
On Tuesday, the principal and assistant principal
had to go to a meeting
and I was "administrator in charge."
the first thing I did when I got to school was to put on my radio.
Except it didn't quite work
because I had forgotten to charge it.
I had to borrow one from the office
until the secretary could get mine charged up.

On Wednesday, I went outside to do lunch recess duty.
I'm supposed to always carry my radio outside
because there could be an emergency.
My radio lasted about five minutes
then started to beep.
it wasn't charged.
Again.

Today,
right before lunch
I ran down to my office
to get my radio.
It wasn't on the charger.
After about ten minutes of hunting
I found it on the cart I use when I pass out snacks
for the after school program.
But it had been off the charger all night.
And so once again, it wasn't working.

I'm kind of wondering
if the radio might be
a metaphor for my life right now.