The "Usual"

For the past year or so, every other Friday or so, I meet a couple of my teacher friends before school for breakfast.  We are the early morning people of the school, the ones who are more productive in the morning than we are in the late afternoon.  I openly admit that I start fading fast after 3 p.m., losing steam and focus.   Even my new found positivity wanes a bit as the day wears on.

We usually coordinate our breakfast days with payday and jeans day, a wonderful way to end a week.  We meet at the same time, sit in the same booth, on the same side, and order the same food every time.  The waitresses know us.  The cooks know us.  They know which of us wants decaf and which wants regular.  They know we like straws for our water.  They know our order by heart and they know we want separate checks.  It's a nice comfortable feeling being a regular.  I half expect them to yell our names out like they did on the old TV show "Cheers" whenever Norm would walk in.  We are, admittedly, creatures of habit.  Our conversations run the gamut, and we don't always talk about "school stuff".   It's a positive way to begin the day.

Today we met for breakfast, a change in plans due to a pancake breakfast being prepared by our principal scheduled for tomorrow morning. The waitress was surprised to see us this morning and almost shocked when we told her we needed a "big" booth as we were expecting two others to join our usual party of three. Our "usual" was suddenly turning unusual.  

If it was the "usual" for breakfast today, it has been anything but that at school this week. Today was no exception.  Even my three cups of coffee were not enough to keep up with the excitement and energy of twenty-two eight and nine year olds two days before a holiday break.  Add to this a rainy day, which means indoor recess and I was pulling out every little ounce of positivity I could muster by day's end. Lucky for me, I've been practicing this whole positivity thing since late August.

Although I'm really looking forward to our break from school to re-energize and spend time with friends and family, I also will be ready when it's time to come back to return to my "usual."

We are, after all, all creatures of habit.