Melting and firming

This is not a post about how hot it is here. (In fact, it was a dry day today--about 114, mind you, but not humid.)

This is a post about meltdowns, literal and figurative.

This is a post about how on the day before the first day of school, after a week of prepping and classroom beautifying and team-building with my new colleagues, I tried to make two overhead copies of my seating charts. One came out perfectly. The other melted in the machine. Onto the copier drum. Do you know what happens when plastic melts on a copier drum? 1) the copier becomes useless, 2) the drum must be serviced, if not replaced and 3) it is really easy to freak out and go to one's principal, not quite crying and not quite hyperventilating at the same time. Not to mention 4) the whole school is down a copy machine the day before school starts.

You can imagine how the day could have ended for me. Fortunately, it did not.

• K was fantastic after receiving my initial panicked text and prevented me from dramatically sending an all-school email taking responsibility for the screw up and throwing myself at the mercy of all. She also stuck by me until I stopped shaking.
• The principal reacted with zen-like calm (as I was mentally blowing into a paper bag, I was also mentally taking notes for when I find my way back to being a zen master of letting go)--he put an "Out of Order" sign on the copy machine, pointed out that the school has three more and suggested that getting a copier repairman to come in was not even that serious.
• Two of my colleagues (Aussie and Generous J) were also fantastic. Generous J even told me to shake it off immediately because how was I supposed to know (true) and at least I didn't plug a 110-volt laptop into a 220-volt outlet like her friend did and fry a $3,000 piece of equipment. (This would not be the time to mention how much copier drums cost, if you happen to know...)

By the time I left campus, I had shaken off most of the urge to throw myself off the Sushi Building and/or insist that all copy repairs from now until the end of the semester be taken out of my personal salary. I felt the warm glow of support from K, the principal and my colleagues. I felt on firm ground in a place I've only been in a very short time. Not a bad place to be in for the first day of school.