A couple of things that happened this week:
* I had to CHASE A KID AROUND THE ROOM AND GRAB HIM BY THE EAR to get him to sit down. I’m lucky this kid and I had a rapport, because he was REALLY surprised to find himself hauled by the ear to his seat. He was also surprised to realize that I had to chase him. In fact, I think he felt really bad.
* I had not one but TWO back to school nights. I think that needs to be said, because I had one last week and another next week, and I’m so sick of bts night by now that I can hardly stand it.
* Little Bone Daddy didn’t do badly at his soccer game–after he stopped pouting because we had to pull him away from the sprinklers, that is!
* Big T watched three Stanley Kubrik movies on youtube.com. I asked him to please warn us if he was planning to kill us in our sleep. He said, “You’re kidding, right?” I said, “Oh yeah. Kidding. Definitely.” Stanley Kubrik–yeesh!
* You know ‘spoonerisms’–when you reverse the beginning sounds of two words with humorous results, like, say, “Ladies may I sew you to your sheets?” Yeah– I had a kid do that with the words “Fun sucker”–with both hilarious and disturbing results.
* I overheard the following conversation at school between two students, a boy and a girl, both of whom were black:
B–Who’s she? She’s hot–is she white?
G–No–she’s Nicaraguan.
B–What in the fuck is that?
G–You know–Nicaragua? It’s one of those countries down in South America? By Mexico?
B–Are you sure? Because when you said ‘Nicaraguan’ I could have swore that was black-people speak for ‘Mexican’.
G–You are so retarded! But look–you made Ms. Lane laugh… that’s pretty funny, isn’t it Ms. Lane?
Me: 0.0 “Uhm, yeah. That was hella funny.” 0.0
* Our friends, the ones we visited in Colorado, came to visit all their friends here. We just got back from visiting–and I miss them very very much.
* I found out why Bone Daddy was so upset about getting his ‘number moved’–apparently that means he was bad. But he earned his place back on the door at the end of the week, so I think he’ll be good again. Poor Bone Daddy–he wants so badly to be good.
* My babysitter graduated from college. This is huge. Six years ago, when I was looking for a babysitter in the same area in which I teach, I swore that I would, under no circumstances, have one of the parents of one of my students be my babysitter. But then I met Lucia and I loved her, and she said, “My daughter Brenda is one of your students,” and I thought, “I LOVE Brenda. Brenda is a great kid. This could work out!” So Brenda graduated from high school and eventually took over her mother’s job when Lucia and her husband (who’s great with kids but very shy with adults and who doesn’t speak much English) moved back to Dominica. Brenda also continued to go to school, and today she graduated with her degree in business. I went to the ceremony (and knit a LOT while we were waiting for Brenda’s name to be called, and I was SO proud. I’m so amazed that I know this awesome young person–and that she thought enough of me as an educator to invite me to her day. (She had two rows in Arco Arena filled with family–I left her mom a card and slipped out of the place before traffic got bad. But I was so pleased to be able to see it:-)
* And I just spent three hours at a friend’s house watching Ladybug chase their cat. It was pretty funny, actually… but not for the cat.
Black-people-speak for Mexican? Laughing my ears off!
I empathize with the poor kid who got dragged by his ear. Sometimes, you just get so wound up that you don't realize what you're doing.
Bone Daddy versus the Sprinklers. Sounds like a great movie!
Fun suckers. snerk!!
Seeing young people I've known get on with their lives and do their own stuff makes me want to well up and cry. I get so proud, even when they're not my kid.
My babysitting problems were semi-solved by having a brother who is 10 yrs younger. I baby sat for him, he sat for my kids and now my kids are sitting for his kids. Just a pile of dominoes over here.