I just had the craziest dream. I was back at Jacksonville High School, or rather an amalgamation of JHS and Mayflower High, both Arkansas schools where I used to teach. It was the beginning of a new school year. I was expecting about 20 students for my first period Chemistry class, which would have been no big deal. Instead, I kept finding additional students of mine in adjacent classrooms, and lab rooms, all with me for first period, but with some taking Chemistry, some Physical Science, some for Principles of Technology (whatever that is), some Biology (in which I’m not even certified), and who knows what else. I was up to about 80 students, and I was just trying to get everyone’s name so I could take attendance for the first day, but they kept moving around, and some of them were giving me fake names. The lab rooms were a mess, with dangerous equipment and chemicals strewn about. One thing I remember distinctly was several small mountains of blue powdered cupric sulfate, out where students could get to them, with no container in sight.

Worse, most of the students I recognized, as students who’d had me before, and had given me a rough time with misbehavior. I woke up at one point, realized I’d been dreaming, and went back to sleep. Big mistake, for I re-entered the same dream, and it got even worse, spiraling completely out of control. I just woke up again, with a splitting headache, and now I’m drinking coffee, to treat the headache, and keep me from falling asleep again.

I hate dreams like that!