First, thank you all for your wonderful words of support. They mean a lot. It's nice to hear them. And a special thanks to Mike. My teacher friend will be thrilled to get some sort of answer to our burning Swedish question.

Today was a better day. Mainly because I went to school today with the attitude that it was going to be a better day. It actually helped. It also helped that I wasn't bombarded with paperwork. Good gravy the trees we're killing! I stayed late tonight (until 7) and put a lot of stuff away in my room. I'm finally less stressed about the room looking and being ready for Open House next week. I'm meeting the other new teacher at school on Sunday so we can work in our rooms for a while. Hopefully, I will be ready at that point. I'm hoping to be able to enjoy Labor Day weekend with the in-laws.

Regarding mentors: Yes, I have a mentor. He's also my team leader and a really great guy (except for a huge character flaw of hating cats). I've talked to him some about the mean teacher and he's assured me it's not personal. She's just dingy. That being said, they're also friends since she was on the team last year. So, I don't want to say too much because I don't know who to trust yet.