Working after hours found to be potentially hazardous to one's health and well-being

No, there's no new study out. This one comes from personal experience! First, a little background. I'm sick--ugh! I've had this weird cold/allergy thing going for a couple of weeks now (nothing new--seems like everyone is suffering with seasonal allergies these days) but it got worse this weekend. Fever, general ickiness, etc. I would have called in sick today and spent the day trying to rest, but I didn't have a recent sub list at home and I didn't have the energy to come up with the plans for the sub. So I drug myself out of bed and on down to school...such a lovely day! bleh! Early on I decided not to try and repeat today's wonderful experience.

A sick day. ahhhh, I never take sick days. Those of you who are teachers know why teachers hate taking sick days but for those of you who don't share in our lovely profession, I'll explain. One sick day = twice as much work. First, you have to prepare lessons that the kids can do independently...while you're feeling awful. And then after that blessed yet brief respite--when you're still weak and lacking in patience--you get to come back. Showered with multitudes of questions along with alot of whining about how awful the sub was, you return to your desk--now covered with all of the busy work you created to keep them busy before you left! And even if the busy work is legitimate, it still takes the rest of the quarter to wade through it all. Boo, sick days...but I digress.

So I decided that tomorrow was definitely a sick day. Amazingly enough, I found a sub who was excited to sub! She's a soon-to-graduate education major who just interviewed with our principal that morning at UL's teacher job fair. She seemed friendly and competent which made me feel better about leaving (hopefully the whining won't be too bad when I come back...and they all knew why I would be missing if I weren't there tomorrow. I made it abundantly clear that I was NOT feeling well and would not be putting up with their crap! They were actually somewhat subdued.) So, now that the sub was in place, I had to write up my lesson plans. A test for Church History (gee, I hope it make sense! I was a little loopy when I was working!), a unit review for English, and a few other assignments that of course took twice as long as they normally would because I couldn't think straight! I'd hoped to have finished up by around 6pm...but nearly two hours and a near death experience with our copier later (That copier was about to meet his maker!!), I was done.

Ok, this is where life gets interesting. Our building is a fair walk away from the parking lot--maybe 25 or 30 yards. It was dark and my car was the only one in the (rather poorly lit) parking lot. I was about 1/4 of the way to my car when I see a man running full-steam across the parking lot...and he was heading in MY direction! Several thoughts ran through my mind when the image finally registered. Is this a joke? Is he trying to freak me out? What is he gonna do when he gets over here? Well, about the time that last thought was registering another thought quickly came--I don't want to know!!! So I ran back to the building, fought with the dag-gum stiff lock, and finally got inside the door. When I looked back from behind the protection of that lovely locked door, he'd made it up to the sidewalk about 10 yards away from the building, but he had slowed to a kinda strut before he turned off and started walking toward one of the other buildings. I didn't stay at the door to watch him!

I went back to my classroom to calm down and after having the dumb thought that I'd just wait a few minutes for him to leave, I had the much brighter idea that I should call the sheriff's office and ask them to escort me to my car! So that's what I did. And here I am now, a couple of hours later, heartily promising to NEVER stay at school after dark again!! Watch it folks! Staying late at work could potentially be hazardous to your health!