YYZ: Every Day is Hallowe'en

Note: I wrote this post last night, in an attempt to save time on this very busy day. 

Then I ended up with everything I own on the floor of our room this morning because my plan from last night did not work and the outfit was all wrong.

So I ended up having to rewrite the whole thing. That'll teach me to plan ahead.

Which, come to think of it, could be the theme of my whole day today....

A nod to the band, more than the song, in the title of today's post.

Why?

Because, today we are being 

INSPECTED 

by the 

MINISTRY. 

Yep, Ontario is sending out its finest bureaucrat to torture my colleagues and I.  

(Well, really she's been torturing to us for months, what with all the build-up to this day.)

Things have been in a frenzy for weeks leading up to this. 

For some, the frenzy is one of JOY at the prospect of meaningless Ministry-speak and volumes upon volumes of dry, opaque "prose" outlining course expectations, each one with its own special coded designation. Oh, the thrill of it all! Rubrics! Expectations! Achievement charts! Exemplars! An intoxicating whirl of bureaucracy, created by people who have never seen an actual teenager in person. What a thrill!

For others, the frenzy is one of anxiety and stress as they are required to jump through arbitrary hoops while simultaneously going about the real-world job of actually teaching. Even BMad is in a tizzy about it, anxious and frantic in ways he is seldom seen to be in reality. 

Anyway, to get back to the point: today's outfit.

I have been wondering what, exactly to wear on this BIG DAY. On which it is VERY IMPORTANT to be VERY IMPRESSIVE. (Oddly, the inspection has nothing to do with actual teaching or what we do in the classroom-- it is about the documents we write that SAY what we do and about the instruments we use to assess student progress. To be fair, that last one is pretty important.)

You see, the date is May 6th, so the weather could be chilly, warm, wet, dry or some combo of all of the above.

Add to the pressure of conjuring up weather-appropriate gear, I also had to dream up something 

IMPRESSIVE

and 

PROFESSIONAL.

Not to mention

IMPRESSIVELY PROFESSIONAL.

In my book, that calls for very high heels and maybe a pair of glasses.

But my glasses are scratched (sniff!), so the heels would have to suffice today.

Thus, I planned on this:

Blouse & belt: (it shames me to admit it, but) Costa Blanca. Ahem.

Trousers: Theory

Shoes: Jessica Simpson 

Earrings: Gift from LHR

(sort of apt, given the source of the blouse, non?)

But then, the above just looked like crap. 

I tried again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

Our bedroom looks like a bomb made of my cheap, crappy clothes that do not work together in any way went off in there.

So, I ended up in this:

Blouse: Anthropologie

Lace-trimmed cami: Smart Set

Trousers: Theory

Shoes: 9 West

Bracelet: Gift from my mother

(How did the INSPECTION go? 

Awful. I was sooo well-prepared but she did not know her stuff and cared 

only about the numbers on the expectations-- we'd been assured we did not need to have them-- and she expected me to be able to cite them.

Am going out for dinner, where I will drink copiously-- though not so copiously as to affect my meeting in the morning with a parent.)