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tuesday was a busy day above
and beyond the classroom. a trip to the dentist after school
(i had to ditch the yearbook class) found me one old filling
short and a temporary crown to the better. that old filling was
probably the most ancient of my dental devices - maybe twenty-five
or thirty years old. my new dentist is acceptable. he shoots
me up good. the left side of my face from chin to eyelid mimes
a senseless slab of granite. drill away. i almost fell asleep
in the midst of the business. what's that burning? oh, it must
be me... under the high-speed drill... no problem.
a few hours later i was in the
carmel auditorium watching the mr. chs pageant... a student-produced
extravaganza featuring some senior guys. what a hoot... singing
and dancing, stand-up and sit-down comedy and a number of acts
that resist description, i.e. Dr. Dance and Officer Energy (masters
of Interpretive Dance Therapy) or the ninja attack. one talented
soccer guy and his band sang neil young's Rockin' in the Free
World, which singlehandedly kept me from regretting the time
away from processing a variety of student papers. sorry, kids.
(could neil be on the upswing with the boyband britney set? some
dark beast is bound to fill that hole)
i check my other email and find
some news from mom... and a second note from mom, addressed to
what looks like all online children and grandchildren, basically
saying: write to me. and, of course, i did. good boy. but there
are others who have writtten to me to whom i have not yet replied.
bad boy.
we began a discussion of emerson's
"self-reliance" on this week's crazy day, one of five
"dress weird " days leading up to homecoming. waldo
never imagined that he'd be studied by a roomful of besequined
and befeathered outrageously mismatched sophomores...
but stranger things would happen.
for instance: today: on the friday of homecoming, when students
are traditionally at their squirreliest, i invited two periods
of brown white and gold sophomores to sit in groups and take
turns reading emerson to each other, to mark their books as they
read, and to pause from time to time to help each other understand
the reading. AND THEY DID. they read and they marked and they
discussed. and they groaned only a tiny bit when i asked them
to finish the reading for monday.
the big homecoming game is happening
right about now, if the cars piled up outside my window are any
measure. it has been raining. the optimists are predicting a
clear evening. but i'm not one of them - not that it matters,
since i'm in here getting right with god & not out there.
no guilt. i did my duty, helping with salvi arena decoration
from 3 to 6 after school: special privilege of some senior homeroom
teachers. i got to string the icicle lights from the track balcony.
now saturday: i have, once again,
too much to do... and i am intensely busy not doing it... until
the dance tonight.
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