Strange Tuesday Teaching

Yesterday, like most Tuesdays, I was scheduled to teach my most predictable block of students, all four of whom live in the same neighborhood near me. Like any other Tuesday, I had placed all of them back-to-back so as to minimize any potential wasted time. Before I headed out for their neighborhood, I got a call from one of the students' parents that he would have to reschedule his lesson due to having strep throat, and since his lesson was in the middle, this already threw off my back-to-back efficiency, giving me 30 extra minutes to waste.

Then, once I got to the first of my other students' houses, I rang the doorbell a number of times and knocked a bit before calling to ask if we had a lesson for the day. Sure enough, his mother reminded me that he was away at camp, to which I was privately a bit confused, as that is the sort of thing I usually take note of in my calendar. Then, I called my next student's house to see if we could alter their time for the day slightly, and despite calling twice, their time came and went without me speaking to them, leaving me wondering if they were out of town and hadn't told me.

Finally, just before I was to teach my last student for the day, I thought about calling to make sure they would be there, seeing as how none of my other students worked out, but I thought this would be unnecessary, so I drove to the house, rang the doorbell and knocked a few times, and eventually called them as well: turns out the mother had forgotten to tell me they were busy during our normal lesson time that day and would need to reschedule!

So, although I had 2.5 hours of teaching scheduled in this one neighborhood yesterday, all four of my clients dropped on me! I still don't know what's up with the family that's presumably out of town, and I'm hoping to make up the other times soon. Ugh.