Everything's Rosy

The bell rang, the students had left, and I was sitting at my desk staring at the wall deciding which of the 129378129387 tasks I had procrastinated on to tackle next.  Someone knocked on my door, and I geared up to find out what child had left their jacket, or their homework, or their mind in my classroom.  Instead, our lovely parent volunteer coordinator, Roseanne, walked in and took a seat.  "Are you busy?" she asked.

Am I busy?  Asking a teacher (or probably most people) this question is like asking if Saved By the Bell was the best Saturday morning show ever.  YES, I AM busy. But hey, I will do just about anything to avoid the things I actually need to do, so I replied with a simple "No, I'm good."

A little background on Roseanne.  She works a "part time" gig at our school as a parent volunteer coordinator.  Finding parents to volunteer their time at our school is sometimes kind of like putting Adam Sandler in a "serious" movie.  A lot of hard work and high hopes go into it, but the end result is not always quite right.  Anyways, Roseanne does a really good job of reeling as many parents as she can into the good old 'bello. She hosts morning coffee meetings for parents, makes countless phone calls, and gives you an "I'll take care of it"when a teacher runs into her room all out of breath and desperate for copies that she forgot to make...not that I know what that's like or anything....  She even coaches the girls basketball team (and managed to be the only coach not yelling at me when I had to referee).  All of this annnnnnd she does not have any kids that attend our school, she just does it because she loves helping others.

So back to my story....Roseanne walks in my room and asks if I can drive her to the Fresh and Easy a few miles away, and if we can pick up one of the parent volunteers on the way.  My mind raced all flashback style as I vaguely remembered some fliers being sent home last week about a fundraiser at the Fresh and Easy.  "I need to get there to work the fundraiser." she says.  Ah yes, confirmed.  

So we get all her "Fresh and Easy Supports Montebello" posters and pile in the car.  I don't want to pry, but I am wondering what has happened to Roseanne's car because I know this woman lives in Mesa and so she can't have possibly walked to work.  We started talking and somehow it came up that she didn't have enough money to pay her bills and so her car got repossessed.  Break my heart #1.  Sometimes her husband let's her take his truck if he can get a ride to work.  But how does she get to and from Montebello on the days when she doesn't get to take the truck?  "I take the light rail." Roseanne says.

This woman takes the light rail.  From Mesa.  That is 1 1/2 hours.  Plus time to ride the city buses to her starting and ending destinations.  To work her part time job at a school, where she is not a parent, but where she spends all her time trying to get other parents involved.  Annnnnd she is going to work, for free, as a bagger at Fresh and Easy till 8:00 tonight to raise money for our school.  Break my heart #2. 

After dropping Roseanne off, I sped back to school and burst all Kramer style into my friend Nikki's room. I told her about Roseanne and how we better get our butts to Fresh and Easy and support this fund raiser.  She and I went shopping, said hi to the other parent volunteers that were doing the fundraiser and left with armfuls of groceries.  As I was driving home, I hit a wall of traffic.  Usually, traffic is the one thing that can really wipe that smile off my face and erase every inch of positivity from my body. But today, it didn't.  I sat there idling with all my new driver best friends, quietly thankful that I have a car to take me places, and that in the time it takes me to get to the westside, it still won't be as long as the time it takes Roseanne to get to work.

Roseanne is positive she can make money for our school, positive she can get parents to volunteer, positive she can get our girl's basketball team a win, positive she can help teachers...so positive that not even a 1 1/2 hour + commute can deter her from her goals.  I wish I had remembered to capture a picture of her tonight, but I was too enthralled by how amazing she and the other volunteers were.  I'm truly honored to be working with this woman, and next time I am stuck in traffic, I will just remember to keep those positivity inches on.