You know you're a teacher if.....

1.  Your desk is a rainbow of Post-It notes so deep you can't even see the bottom layer.

2.  You receive more than 50 emails a day.....most of which are asking about the homework for today's class.

3.  Your students follow you around and visit even when it's not your office hours.

4.  You have red pens stashed in every pocket of every purse you own.

5.  You stock up on white board markers and colored chalk when it's on sale at Staples.

6.  You carry around scratch paper and diagram sentences for people at dinner parties.

7.  You respond to the following without being frustrated or annoyed: "Uh......Professoressa......I don't know what's going on right now."

8.  You often wear black clothing and discover a white line across your butt because you leaned against the chalkboard in first period and didn't realize it until now (7pm).

9.  You don't know how people live without knowing what Worldcat.org is.

10.  You actually want people to interrupt with questions when you talk.

Ahh yes, the joys of being a teacher.  Life settles into something pretty deranged sometimes.  I now hoard white board markers and have developed a pretty complex Post-It notes system.  I also have piles which make no sense to anyone and constantly have at least 86 new emails in my inbox.  The business cards I carry around in my wallet are all publishing reps and my volunteer work has morphed into critiquing new textbooks.  I often talk slowly and in mono-syllables.....and act out just about everything that comes out of my mouth.  I have an arsenal of choreographed dances not to songs, but to lists of pronouns, and I'm a little bit ashamed to say it, but I have a teacher sweater on the back of my desk chair.  Funny how things work out, isn't it?