Oversight

No one was more surprised than I was when I walked into my classroom yesterday morning to find a total stranger peeling off my word a day calendar page. "Uhhhhhh," I stuttered. "Do I have a sub today?"

The woman looked at me brightly, but without comprehension. She continued updating my calendar. My desk was kind of a mess. I was confused. Gradually, the situation became clear to me: I had a doctors appointment which I rescheduled, but I forgot to cancel the sub. "I'm so sorry," I started when I realized my mistake.

"Don't be," the woman said before I could finish. And then she introduced herself to me as a parent of former students. She professed an abiding love for our school and all who worked there. She did not let me explain the situation.

"Um, I'll be right back," I said and headed to the office. The secretary in charge of substitutes was very understanding.

"Send her to me," she said, "and I'll put her to work."

Back in my room, students were starting to arrive. Again, I tried to apologize and explain. The substitute nodded, and continued wandering around the room, offering complimentary comments about the furnishings. The announcements came on; she sat down at a table.

The phone rang; it was the secretary. "Did you send her to the office?" she asked.

"I tried," I said quietly, "but she's not leaving."

"I'll be right there to give her the schedule," she assured me.

A minute later, she entered my room, spoke quietly to the substitute, and led her away.

I sighed in relief, and promised myself to never make that mistake again.

The Tao of Construction

I See the Positive in Every Situation

Ommmmmm

There was so much vibration right outside my window this afternoon that I felt like I was in a massaging chair. If it hadn't been for the loud whine of the steam shovel as it deposited scoop after giant scoop of gravel directly below my classroom, it might even have been a bit relaxing.

Ommmmmm

Thoroughly Modern

"I forgot to bring water!" I told Heidi as we were leaving school this afternoon on our way to the gym.

"Me, too," she answered. "And it's so expensive to buy it there."

Just then we passed the vending machine in the lobby, a fixture which is largely invisible to me even though I walk past it several times a day. I noticed a touch pad by the dollar slot, double clicked my Apple watch, and tapped it up there. In seconds I had an ice cold bottle of water.

"No way!" Heidi said. "Get me one, too!"

And then, delighted with our use of such nifty technology, we took our water and went to the gym.

Semi-Annual

I had a dentist appointment today. It was uneventful: my teeth were scaled, flossed, polished, and flourided, and my tongue and gums were examined for any suspicious activity. All was well in my mouth, and soon enough I was on my way into a lovely spring afternoon to walk back to school.

But as I rambled my thoughts did, too, and I considered the dentist's last words to me-- Enjoy the rest of the spring and have a wonderful summer! See you in the fall!-- and just like that, the soft air turned a bit chill, and I imagined the burgeoning leaves on the trees spreading wide like open hands and changing from spring green to red, yellow, and orange.

I shook it off, though. October is a long way away.

A Pocket of their Own

Every year since 2007, I have celebrated National Poem in Your Pocket Day in April with my sixth grade students, but this year we were on spring break when the big day rolled around. We are in the middle of the 100 Day Writing Challenge, though, which in April is a new poetry exercise every day, so I posted the information and asked students to tell us what poem they chose and why, a kind of virtual celebration.

To be honest, I didn't know what to expect, and so when I logged in last Thursday night to check on their progress, I was amazed and humbled by the quality of their choices and the consideration they had given to them. In fact, this group of kids did better than any other so far. Here are a few examples:

I chose the poem Kid, this is October, by Jeffrey Bean. This poem stood out to me by the word choice he uses. I liked when he said “You can swim one more time in the puddle of sun ” because that gives October coming a whole new perspective. This poem reminds me perfectly of how I felt when summer was ending and fall was coming. Finally, I liked this poem because it all flows so smoothly and just makes the poem better.

I chose a short haiku poem about forgetting the sorrows of your past and focusing on the present. This is how the poem goes:

What joy you will find
when you drop the yesterdays
and embrace today

I really like this poem because even though it is short, it has an important meaning that I think is a really good rule to live by. This poem always reminds me that I need to focus on the future and present especially, instead of living in the past. This poem has only three lines so I don’t have my top four lines, although I like that last line that says to embrace today.

I chose Caged Bird by Maya Angelou. I chose this poem because first of all I love Maya Angelou she is a strong female figure and is also black. The other reason I chose this poem is because this has a personal connection to me because this is literally the first poem I ever read, my first thought was the grammar was wrong and I LOVED it.

I chose “You Lose Something Every Day” by Willie Perdomo. The reason why I chose this poem was because at first it didn’t make sense to me but when I read it carefully I noticed that it is true. You do lose something every day even if it isn’t physical with you. I felt like this poem was trying to tell me how we also lose stuff in our mind or how we forget stuff. In this poem, something I also noticed is that each line has two important words. For example,”the finish on your way to the line” the two important words are Finish and Line and if we put it together it spells out finish line. Anyway I enjoyed understanding this poem and I really liked it.

War Within Myself by Daniel K.I chose this poem because "fighting a war within myself" is very common with people today, even me. I was diagnosed with anxiety a couple years ago, which felt like a new war had begun. Walking on eggshells relates to me because I feel like I need to say the right thing, at the right time, or else I mess it all up, which I have before. Tearing friendships apart relate to myself as well because I don't want to mess something up so badly, to the point where a beautiful friendship or relationship has ended. And I have one particular relationship that is so special to me that I don't want to end.

Glamour Boy

We threw open the doors and windows this morning to let in the spectacular spring weather. Our place is sheltered, but there is no denying the proximity of the neighbors, so I wasn't surprised to hear voices floating in through the kitchen window. The baby talk was another matter, though.

Yes! We think you're beautiful. Yes, we do. You are gorgeous!

I stopped chopping parsley and looked out, but I couldn't see who it was. The praise continued. I stepped into the dining room. "Is someone talking to one of our pets?" I asked Heidi, who was reading on the couch with a view of the front door. 

She grinned and nodded. 

"Who are they talking to?" 

"Milo!" she told me, "and he is just sitting there loving it!"

Journeys

Air travel gives lie to the aphorism about journeys and destinations: it's rare that I step on a plane without looking forward to disembarking. Having flown back and forth from the Twin Cities twice in the last few weeks, I have become quite a fan of those little inflight entertainment screens. There is nothing like watching a trashy movie to wile away the flight time.

Plugging in my earbuds and settling back as the opening credits roll on a movie that Heidi and I have chosen to skip reminds me a little bit of the bygone days of air travel when a single movie was screened for all. Back then, when we lived overseas, any movie they happened to show was new to us, and I was often riveted by films I never would have paid to see. Those movies, not a single one of which I can recall at the moment, also helped pass the time away until we landed and resumed our lives.

Tonight, my choice was The Notebook, a 2004 film that almost everyone except me has seen. Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling were beautiful babies in their 20s back then, and the tale of Ally and Noah was engaging in its melodrama. I was actually happy that our flight time was longer than scheduled, because I got so close to the ending before my screen went dark. By then, it was James Garner and Gena Rowland whose fate was in the balance, but I still came home and Netflixed those last 12 minutes, and it was with a tear in my eye for all the journeys that ended tonight that I sat down and began to write.