The Effects of Turquoise

I'm Such an Idiom!

Today I returned to work after taking a day off for snow, and two more to care for Sophia. I was giddy with anticipation as I drove to work this morning. I couldn't wait to see my Wednesday students!  I had to start the day off in a meeting. The meeting went off without a hitch, but I was chomping at the bit to work with my students.  The meeting dragged on for just shy of an hour, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.  When it finally ended, I was raring to go. I set off for another building to work with a newcomer. This particular student is willing to go the extra mile to learn, so teaching him is a blast. At the end of our session, he wanted me to beef up the lesson, but I told him to hold his horses because we would have to save the rest for next time.  Time ran out, so I pulled the plug on the lesson and sent him packing. There was a little time to kill before my next session, so I saw a few friends, had some good laughs, and even found a bit of time to shoot the breeze with my favorite WC principal.

When it was time to move to the next building, I still had a little pizazz in my step. "I'm back in the saddle again..." I sang to myself as I tipped my hat, mounted my noble steed, and headed toward the sun.   It felt invigorating to return to my element and keep my mind challenged with my busy schedule.

A few hours later I started to feel swamped by my workload, so I took a break to wolf down a snack, wet my whistle, and check over my schedule. That's when I noticed, lo and behold, I had worked the wrong day. It wasn't Wednesday, it was Thursday!  My time off had thrown me for a loop!  I quickly regrouped and put my mind to working on a way to make up the half of a day I missed. I shot out a few emails owning up to my slip up, and did my best to make up for lost time.  I skated through the rest of the day. It was a piece of cake!

Now it's the end of the day, and I'm beat. Don't get me wrong!  I'm glad to be back at work, but I'm of two minds on the subject. I love teaching, but chilling at the crib allowed me to take time and smell the roses. Tomorrow it's back to the daily grind once again.  I'm going to run my Friday schedule. Hopefully I don't blow it.

How many idioms can you find in the recap of my day?  I tried to put at least one in every sentence. Isn't it fascinating how a seemingly simple passage can actually be filled with incredibly complex language?  Most of us don't even realize how many idioms and figures of speech we use in our speaking and writing because we have heard these used a million times and they just make sense to us.  Now imagine you are learning English as another language. What are some phrases in this passage that would make your head spin and boggle your mind?  Give it a whirl!  Really fling yourself into it.  Don't want to split hairs?  Just give me a ballpark figure.

Oh, man.  I did it again!  I'm such an idiom!