Glitter Day

It didn’t occur to me until I was home this afternoon, after Stan reached out to touch my neck and told me I had glitter on me, that I, Martha Miles, known in certain circles as The Anti-Craft, was in the presence of glitter today and I did not break out in hives! I know, it’s difficult to believe, but it’s true! Ask Phylis, my more-than-capable and downright crafty, co-teacher (no, she is not my assistant, she is an equal). While I was working with a student on a project at one table, she was behind me at another table, with the entire rest of the class, sprinkling glitter all over the place! All over the place! With glue! And I remained calm, cool and collected the entire time. Nary a ruffle in my feathers and the glitter was a mere two feet away the whole time! Now those of you who know my aversion to all things sparkly and sticky are probably sitting stunned, speechless and unbelieving, but it is true.

I think the breakthrough can be directly attributed to an act of God and I can tell you the moment it occurred. A friend turned me on to a new store in the area, Mardels. I went there on my lunch break a day or so ago and although I perused the entire store, I felt myself inexplicable drawn to the craft supplies and, more particularly, the books. I found myself slipping into my basket a book entitled “I Made it Myself!” a craft idea book for preschoolers. Me. Buying a book on crafts. For Preschoolers! Who ever would have thought I could have come this far in such a short amount of time. Not even two months ago I sat in my director’s office sobbing, telling her I had made a terrible mistake and that “the two’s were not the place for me.” Begged her to find a new placement for me next year. Promised that I would change every diaper in the toddler department for the entire school year if she would just please, please not place me in the two’s again next year. I just don’t understand them, I told her. Why would a person, in the middle of fingerpainting, suddenly stuff both their index fingers up their nose? What is so much fun about dumping every single puzzle onto the floor and then walking all over the pieces? It has never once occurred to me to take every book off the bookshelf, stack them up and then sit on them. And then cry when I fall off. How, I wailed, is it even possible to take a dump in one’s pants while sitting at the lunch table, talking to one’s neighbors?!?!? I just don’t understand them.

But today dawned a new era in my life. I survived in the same classroom with 10 two-year olds, covered in glitter, and didn’t even notice what had happened until I got home and my adoring husband flicked a piece of glitter off me. Glitter. On my person. Amazing. Only God knows what He has in store for me next! I’m excited and a little nervous.