Not a great first impression

THE BACKGROUND 
(If you're not interested in the background skip down to the story)

So, as many of you know, I got a new job.  I have been subbing for the past year in Brentwood School District but the school year was going to end June 10th and I needed a job for the summer.  Plus, subbing pays 1/2 of what I was making as a teacher so I was also looking at jobs for next school year.  I'd given up on finding a teaching job with a school district because last year I sent out 20 different applications (we're talking 25 page packet applications) and I didn't hear a peep from one person.  I figured it wasn't worth it to go through all that again.  So I've been looking on craigslist for a job as a nanny, daycare provider, summer camp counselor, waitress, etc.  Anything that would pay decent money and that would hire me.  I couldn't find anything that would pay enough and I wasn't excited to do any of those jobs any way.  Then one day I got an email from the IU which is government run and provides specialized services to all the schools in the county such as ESL teachers, Sp Ed, and Head Start programs.  They are starting a new program in Pittsburgh for Early Head Start which is for kids from low income families ages 6 weeks to 3 years.  They were only hiring two teachers and after two interviews they offered me the job!  It's salary and I'll be getting benefits, paid vacations, and lots of professional development opportunities.  Yay! I'm really excited!  The classroom will be in Carnegie which is about 10-15 minutes from my house.  We will be doing training and setting up the classroom over the next couple of months and then school starts August 2nd.  It will be very interesting.  I have a lot of experience teaching Preschool though 5th grade.  But how do I teach a 6 week old?  There will be 8 kids and two teachers so it should be really fun. After subbing for a whole year I'm excited to have my own classroom and to be able to bond with my kids.


THE STORY
For the training the next couple of months we are meeting at the IU in the waterfront which is about 30-40 minutes away.  My first day of work was today.  Last night I dreamed that I kept forgetting about meetings I had to go to in my new job and I was always late for everything. It's ironic because this morning I tried to leave pretty early to make sure I wasn't late on my first day.  I got out to my car, turned the key in the ignition, and....nothing.  I tried again.  Nothing.  MY BATTERY WAS DEAD!  Yesterday I gave my car its annual cleanup and while I was polishing the steering wheel I must have turned the headlights on.  I was even looking at my battery yesterday while I was checking all the fluids thinking, "That's a pretty crusty looking battery.  I'm glad it has never died on me!"

Well I ran to my neighbor's door (neighbors we never talk to) and started knocking (at 7:30am).  Finally they answered but said they didn't have jumper cables.  We own jumper cables but of course they are in Danny's car and he had already left.  I called Libby who lives two houses down from me but she didn't have any jumper cables either.  She did offer to drive me all the way over there though with her 3 children, bless her heart.  (She's had to do it before when I left my keys in Danny's car.)  Then I called the Betteridges who also just live a couple houses down from me.  Luckily Justin was just walking out the door and he did have jumper cables! He drove on over and after a few tries we got the car to start!!!  My hero!  It took a couple calls but I finally got a hold of my Director and told her what happened and that I would be late.  I got there about 8:15am and they had to wait for me to get started.  Not a great first impression!

The day went really well though.  We had fun getting to know each other and learning more about the program.  They bought us lunch from Panera and let us go home 2 hours early (with lots of homework to do).  They also gave us laptops with a Sprint 3G wifi air card so we can connect to the internet anywhere Sprint gets coverage. I love my new job!