I will look like a crack head by days' end

Today I did the unthinkable, the unforgivable, the inconceivable.

Last week I worked Monday with no students, and then had students only Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was a nice way to ease back into this teaching thing after winter vacation.

But it has thrown off my routine in many ways.  I am sleeping way later than I need to be for someone who wakes around 5:30.  I became adjusted to eating breakfast around 9 or ten, which means that I am not really that hungry at 6, so I don't eat a lot and then am starving by 9:30.  I am used to taking naps around 2, so when school gets close to being out, I am not sure if I will be fully capable of driving home adequately.

The worst thing of all, though is what happened this morning for which I will suffer the rest of the day.

I am a lover of hydration and a lover of moist, supple, hydrated, soft lips.

Unfortunately, I left home with no type of lip balm/Chap-Aid/lip gloss/Carmex/petroleum jelly/C.O. Bigelow lip shine.  I took out the spares over break to put in the bags I was carrying around.  For some reason I don't even have the spare I usually keep in the coat pocket.

Even when my lips are not dry, I apply product at least every two hours just to make sure that there is no possibility of crackage.  There is nothing worse than seeing people with dry, ashy looking lips.  Well, there is one thing -- having those lips yourself.

I am fearing for my sanity at this point.

I applied some generic vaseline-type product this morning before I left the house, but that was at 6:15.  It is now 10 and I am not sure if I can make it.

My lips are already feeling the pressure of not being moistened.  I am trying to up my water intake, but that seems to make them drier as the water touches these fine lips and evaporates.  I am tempted to lick them and purse them together to maybe force some moisture into them somehow.  I am hoping that at least when I have lunch, the extra grease from the taco-like lunch I prepared from home will be temporarily soothing.

I am not one to share lip products as I never know who has some sort of mouth ailment that they may spread to me through their product.

I don't have a prep hour today so can't even make a quick run to the convenience store nearby.

I may have to succumb and use that old method I saw on Oprah once about using the grease from the back of your ears or the side of your nostril to moisten your lips.  Though, upon checking, there is not much there since I am pretty adamant about scrubbing those areas clean and my skin has not been as oily as it gets in the summer time.

I really fear the cracks and tears, the pain, and the inevitable crack-head looking lips that could ensue with no relief to my lips.

By lunch time I am sure that I will not be able to smile or say words that require a lot of lip stretching.

I hope I can make it.

And I hope that as I drive home looking kind of tired, I don't get pulled over by a cop who mistakes me for a burnt-out-ashy-lipped-unsmiling crack head.

Addendum:
It was suggested that I apply lotion to my chaps.

Unfortunately I don't have that either.  I am hoping that I don't have to use the bathroom today and that I don't touch any students and don't touch anything that they have sneezed on and don't touch the railings as I walk down the stairs.

I am also hoping that I don't completely look like I have been punching flower by the end of the day.

I may have to borrow one of the students' over scented fruity/flowery lotions.