Lie to me

For the past few days I've been battling a crisis that's well known to all teachers: New School = New Germs = New and Terrible Illness -- in my case, a sore throat/fever/aches combo that sent me to bed at 6:30 pm last night.

I've only accrued two sick days, and it's only October, so I didn't want to use them. So I dragged -- and I mean drrrraaaaaagggggedddd -- myself to school this morning.

I hadn't showered. My hair was in a frizzy ponytail. I was wearing no makeup. I looked, and felt, like death.

Then in one of my first grade classes, a little girl skipped up to me, sweetly smiled her toothless smile, and said happily, "Miss Brave, you look beautiful."

Unless you count the fact that a grand total of two of my five classes were forced by their teachers to apologize to me for their behavior...it was the only nice thing anyone said to me all day.