running: the dawn

Um.  I’m pretty sure I almost died yesterday.  No seriously.  There was a mouse.  In my classroom.

Monday afternoon was the first sighting of the rodent.  It was just as school was ending and I came back into my classroom from being across the hall in the computer lab.  There were students mingling around and I saw a mouse dart out from my room and disappear into the room next to mine.  Um…excuse me?  I don’t remember giving a visitor’s pass to any disease carrying animals.

After all the students left, I was working on worksheets and lesson plans like any good diligent teacher would be.  And when I stood up from my desk to see how my handiwork looked after I printed it.  I froze after two steps.  I felt its eyes on me.  I glanced down and sure enough, the rascal was back, under a table looking at me with its beady little eyes.  Once again it scampered off before I could find where it was coming from.

Fast forward to yesterday right before my calculus class.  Several students had shown up to work on homework and get their questions answered.  In the spirit of full disclosure and wanting to give the heads up for the impending danger, I told everyone that I’d seen a mouse multiple times in the last 24 hours.  Quickly the girls zipped up their bags and moved all their belongings to the tops of the tables.

Not two minutes later, the gray tormentor stalked into the room.  Me, being the responsible adult in the room quickly set the example for appropriate actions by leaping onto my chair and screaming.  Several students followed suit.  However there were a few brave souls that decided to corral the animal and deposit him/her outside.

Finally.  I feel free. Ok, to be honest I do keep looking around…wondering when its going to find its way back in….

In my defense, this is NOT my first traumatizing episode with mice.  There was the summer camp drama of 1999.  And do even get me started about the 13 mice that lost their lives in the great battle of the attic apartment in 2005.