The Daily News

1  Graduation.

2   Always a heartbreak.

3   T.A., way to deliver the goods. Eloquent, professional, and with head held high. Magz and Thy, you made all of us proud. Thy, I never really got to know you, but thanks you for a wonderful speech, in three different languanges. Quite impressive, and very classy.

4  Maggie, you are incorrigible. And amusing. You added the intelligence and comic relief that fit right in.

5  And T.A. I’ve never been so proud of a kid in my life. You set the tone for the entire evening, and added so much ultimately to the class song, which fate and destiny said must be, simply stated, Your Song. Requests for other songs had been rejected, and when push came to shove, was there ever a more appropriate song than Your Song from Moulin Rouge? Actually, it’s from Elton John orinally, but you know. Just beautiful, and beautifully understated.

6  The clouds and drizzle added to the end of the ceremony, if you ask me.

7  When my officers walked down the center aisle of the Event Center, I truly felt that we all had accomplished something. The Class of ’05 never looked finer than last night.

8  After the ceremony, I did my usual hugs. As close as I was to that class, it still felt pretty normal, so I wandered for a while, then moved out, and on into the misty evening. It was a little bit strange leaving all alone, and driving through the mist, but it also added a touch of poetry to the last night I would spend with the Class of ’05.  I listened to the Class CD, which was handed out at the ceremony. Amazing.

9  And so it goes. Anne Bancroft walked into a bar somewhere around there. Maybe she was hoping to rendezvous with a young man.

10  The Graduate.

11  And at the end of this rainy day, the sun will set on this very emotional school year.

12  So this is it for the DN for a while. I’ll see you in September.

13  And Class of ’05: Look at the stars. Look how they shine for you.

14  I love you all, everything.

15  The Rest is Silence.

The Daily News

1   This is officially it for the Seniors. Tonight’s the big night.

2   It’s been a pleasure reporting all the emotions of this from the perspective of  a member of the Senior Class.

3   I  know, I know…

4   I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the class considers me a member, whether I want them to or not. We’ve ALWAYS gotten along that way, and even though I’m technically just their advisor, with this class, it has ALWAYS been special, and different. I can’t really figure how, but let’s just say that they are, and have always been, a very special group to this old brown shoe.

5  Today is actually almost just…let’s just get it all over with. Sound familiar? I really think all the reminiscing, crying, hugging, bonding, and everything else has finally hit all of us. There is only so much of that sort of thing a person can take, and then it starts to give one a headache.

6  I’ve done my hugs, said one of my best good-byes EVER on this very sight. I read in the paper this morning that Xanga and My Space are somehow going to be more controlled and all, which is, I imagine, a good thing, safety-wise, but I always thought that Xangas and My Space and things like that  are pretty healthy outlets for kids.

7  Oh, well…

8  So it’s a done deal as of tonight. Hopefully, all will go wonderfully, but I’ve made the mistake at times this year where I had high expectations only to have things dashed for this reason, or for that.

9  So I’m just…ready. I think a lot of kids feel the same way, so this is just me reporting to you probably some of the feelings we ALL have. Let’s just do this…

10  So I shall disappear here just saying one last, lovely time: thanks Class of ’05. Those of you in the KNOW, you know I love you so…

11  Godspeed, my wonderful friends.

12  Peaceout.

 

The Daily News

   Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout;
     The pretty nurse is selling poppies  from a tray.
      And though she feels as if she’s in a play,
      she is anyway…

–John Lennon and Paul McCartney

1  Sometimes I just feel as if I’m in a play.

2  Don’t you?

3  Well, the Senior Picnic went off fairly without a hitch. It was one of those deals that I thought I had paid meticulous attention to the minutest detail, and STILL had things go awry. The food arrived a little late, which meant a feeding frenzy. Although I had bought literally hundreds of forks, spoons, plates, etc., they vanished, every one. Kids sucked down soda and water like there was no tomorrow, and I was running off to the stores getting things. The ranger got mad, the inflatable collapsed, but other than those minor things, the Seniors had a ball.

4  The class always had a core group that was in on everything, but since the massive success of FANTASTICS and Prom, interest in the class has clearly risen substantially. So instead of running the usual 20-30 kids, my numbers have tripled. So here I am, down the stretch, with three times the amount of kids going to things. I’m ready to go over.

5  Anyway, I had bought enough serving spoons for all the food, but we lost them; that sort of thing kept happening yesterday. The Seniors barely noticed, but from a “directorial” standpoint, it really made me feel I had lost a football game, like 48-6 or something. From the STUDENTS’ perspective, we just keep winning, every single day!

6  So, you just shake it off.

7  I finally heard the Band playing Pomp and Circumstance, and it all closes in, man. Every time you go down a different alleyway, something jumps out and catches you, I swear.

8  Just reporting here. Emotional, yeah, but it’s also fun to step outside myself and watch, and report. I feel somewhat as though I’m both IN a play, and reviewing a play.

9  After we got back to campus yesterday, Thuy and I drove slowly through campus. It was a Disney ride, pure and easy. She felt she had come home again. The CD began playing that Graduation Friends Forever tune by Vitamin C, and  I turned it up. We parked between the Theatre and the Gym, right there on the corner of the Theatre, and as the song played, Seniors began hugging, mugging, high-fiving, and doing this wonderfully choreographed show for us. Kids would walk by, flash the peace sign, and return to bonding with friends. Groups would put their arms around one another and sing along with the track. It was sad, but bittersweet. Exquisite pain is what I call it.

10 Fun to remove myself, be a reporter, and then jump back into the emotional vortex that has engulfed the students, and the school.

11 I sit and watch this every year, but it is SO different when YOU are the Senior Class, and make no mistake, I am a member. At least in their eyes.

12  Whew.

13  I went home yesterday afternoon, the first time I’ve been home in the afternoon on a weekday in about a hundred years.

14  It’s funny, I climbed on the couch, and fell into a deep zone. I awakened at around 7:30, looked at the clock, and yelled, “Ah, s#!t!! I’m LATE for school!” and literally popped off the couch, only to realize it was 7:30 at night!

15  So yeah, I hope you’re enjoying reading all this emotional drivel. Tough guy reporter; you can’t hurt steel, baby.

16  Back to school.

17  We mere mortals still need to do finals.

18  See ya soon.

19  Peace.

The Daily News

Ladies and Gentlemen

The Class of ’05.

~h~

                      

 

The Daily News

1  Today is the Seniors’ last day of school. It’s a little bit funny.

2  Seems to me only yesterday that I first met this beautiful class.

3  I had gone through much personal turmoil the year previous, and was recovering emotionally, as often happens to us in this life.

4  I remember looking at this class from the eyes of an old fool who had suffered quite enough, thank you very much. I had decided just to walk calmly through life, and take things in slowly and cautiously.

5  I seemed quite in an old silent movie, or at least, I felt quite the doddering old fool, watching life go on, staying safely distant, and immune to any sort of feelings. I certainly wasn’t even THINKING of throwing myself into a wild world of chaos, paint, posters, plotting, and poignant pleasantries.

6  To me, it seemed this group of kids was simply a happy village of Disney characters walking  grandly through purple balloons.

7  And each time one would walk back out and into my world, they would be polite, cute, happy, and smiling. It became infectious, and I would stand amazed at how glittery and charming they were, and that there were LOTS of them.

8  Oh, they asked me advice about this and that and the other thing, and I would gather with small groups and offer whatever kind words I could muster.

9  By the time Spring rolled around, I had become a huge fan of the Class of ’05. I remember at FANTASTICS being a judge, and how they simply knocked me out with their ambitious innocence. I recall at that time thinking that destiny waited just around the river bend…

10  When they became Sophomores, I had become totally hooked. Maggie had asked that I be their “un-advisor”, knowing both my busy schedule with the Drama Workshop, as well as my psychotic tendency to suddenly explode and cuss. I’m well-convinced right now that there was a great reluctance to pull me on board when their relationship with their advisor had become strained.

11  Still, they began using the Theatre to practice for their Jungle theme, and I welcomed it with open arms. Before long, I became absolutely pulled into the magic of their smiles and sweetness. I felt that destiny was playing a huge hand, and that really, nobody else would ever fit in as their advisor. I kept working with them and advising them, when one day, while painting posters outside, Thuy had been approached by a student from another class, and told that she couldn’t paint around the Theatre without an advisor present.

12  Thinking quickly, and without missing a beat, she said, “Oh, um, Mr. Harrington is our advisor!”

13  The rest, as they say, is history, maybe just a make-believe history of relatively un-importance to most people, but in my life, the fulfillment of a mini-destiny that became one of the greatest joys of my entire life. I became the advisor to the very wonderful and amazing Class of ’05.

14  We turned completely green, and began a campaign to be a Sophomore Class that was going to WIN Spirit Week. That was our goal, and we went full force, coming in with one of the most impressive Sophomore Spirit Weeks in YB’s history. I remember all the fun, the songs, the long hours, the posters, and the excitement of our Spirit Day appearance, when they were supposed to go to the steps in the middle of the song TUSK, by Fleetwood Mac. But all of us were just too excited by the morning, and they ran and screamed and never turned back. They just couldn’t wait to be King.

15  After Homecoming, the whole class went into the Theatre and bonded. Although we took third, it never mattered. We had become one, and from that point on, I was to be forever a member of this beautiful class, and my heart was filled with absolute joy, and continues to be filled with absolute joy to this day.

16  I could go on; I could talk of the sound going out on FANTASTICS that year, and of them handling it gracefully and coming up with an amazing entrance, or of Junior year, and the entire month of September sitting outside in the warmth of Autumn, painting posters for Pirates, water balloon fights, wedgies, sitting around declaring everything “pimp”, and becoming a force, but a lovely, blue, wonderful, smiling force.  I could talk of Stacy’s Mom on the front of our float…ah, indeed. The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings…

17  I could talk of riding all over town in the Trio, listening to So Far Away, by Staind, and laughing so hard that tears would come. I could talk of all the tragedies of lost loves, of people dear to us passing away, and all of us hugging and holding together emotionally.

18  I could talk of the car washes and beach trips to Capitola and Carmel, or of the healing power of McNuggs and Jamba Juice, or of the simple times when it would rain, and we would chill in the Theatre under Disney lights and sheer beauty.

19  I could talk of Midsummer…

20  I could talk of Songs We’ve Heard…and of our Seasons of Love…

21  I could talk of Your Song…again and again…

22  I could talk of the one-on-one soulful moments spent with individuals, each of whom seemed the most important person in the world to me.

23  I could talk of the absolutely magical Junior Prom, on the rooftop of the San Jose Rep, literally, above the city lights, and how we all fell in love to the song Wonderful Tonight, the last song of the evening…

24  I could talk of summer plans with my Senior officers, plotting the emotional course of Senior year while sharing burgers and fries at the old school McDonald’s, listening to teen songs from the fifties, and planning out our strategies.

25  I could talk of the first day of Senior year, and how we vowed to make every day the best day of the year.

26  I could talk of the search for a sunrise spot, and of the brand new TOONDRA slipping sideways into soft dirt, and having to get towed out of Grant Park. I could talk of the magic of the ride up the hill to sunrise, listening to Cold Play going on perfectly in the background, and climbing up into the darkness of dawn, again moving above the city lights, and enjoying the peaceful silence of the birds, and of friends, and still later, the sounds of acoustic guitars…

27  I could talk of the moment we finally won Spirit Week, with a circus act to beat the band, and an energy-filled class president who never gave up, and who seemed to gain more energy the more energy she would spend…

28  I could talk of the frustrations of planning both FANTASTICS and Senior Ball, and of daring to roll a rock band to the judges and winning FANTASTICS, and the class suddenly becoming huge…

29  And I could talk of the off-the-hook Senior Ball at the Decathlon Club, where the music and the dancing never stopped…

30  And finally, I could talk of driving hither and yon, listening to To Good Riddance, and Stacy’s Mom, and The Boys of Summer, and always, towards the end, Landslide, followed by the very poignant Your Song…

31  I hope you don’t mind, I hope you don’t mind, that I put down into words…

32  To my beautiful class, today is your day, today is your heart, and you can tell everybody.

33  Write it in your heart that every day is the best day of the year… 

                                               – Ralph Waldo Emerson

34  Godspeed, Seniors.

35   Peace.

 

~h~

 

The Daily News

1  Congratulations to everyone for a nice Spring Concert last night. It turned out well, with a nice audience, appreciative, but a tad rude (when are people at this school going to get it that yelling names out, hooting and hollering, walking in and out of doors, etc. is considered rude behavior?), and some beautiful musical moments. Thanks to all for keeping it real.

2  Well, I stand corrected on an item I threw out there yesterday. Marilyn Chambers WASN’T Deep Throat. It was Linda Lovelace. Leave it to a student to correct me.

3  Who knew?

4  So the other night Jose and I went out for an afternoon snack, because both of us are HELLA anorexic, and our moms are getting a tad worried, when we discovered that McDonald’s on Berryessa gives out these little hotel pamphlets of Nutrition Facts. It’s pretty hilarious, because it is done in green and beige, looking  every bit like a brochure for jamba juice, or a health clinic from Kaiser.

5  The font is like around a 2, which means virtually NO one would bother reading it. If one did, one would find long paragraphs that tell us virtually NOTHING about real nutrition.

6  To wit: under “butter”, which is filled with nutrition, it reads, “butterfat, water, salt, curd (milk solids)”. wtf? The pamphlet opens up to around a two-foot by two-foot paper, most of which is just describing what you are eating. It might as well have said, “yellow, fattening butter, you idiot!”

7  If you turn it OVER, it has the REAL facts, but Jose and I figured that by then, most people would have given up and used it to share fries.

8  Might as well. One thing you NEVER want to read while you are reading is the Nutrition Facts on a McDonald’s pamphlet. You might discover HORRIBLE stuff, like Chicken Selects containing a whopping 66% fat! Most things range like baseball home runs, you know, from 7 maybe to around 38. Jose seemed horrified that Chicken Selects are the gastronomical equivalent to smoking 200 cigars in one sitting and then attempting to blow up.

9  We had a few belly laughs (wrong image. sorry.) reading the nutrition facts. Like,did you know that butter/garlic croutons have only 1 gram of fat? And that side salad you were so worried about? None. Now, a double-cheeseburger sandwich (yeah, go figure; they list burgers under “Sandwiches”. Who on this planet orders a hamburger sandwich at McDonald’s?) contains only 23 grams of fat. If you are watching your hips, that would seem to be the place to go, until you realize you are measuring it against the Selects, which are guaranteed to kill you. The Double-Cheese might just clog your aorta for a stint.

10  Anyway, I, for one, am pretty impressed with Mickey Deez for having the balls to print a pamphlet of Nutritional Facts. I’m guessing they HAVE to. But fortunately for all of us, you can’t read the font without binoculars, so eat happy!

11  Or happily.

12  Oh, bother.

13  It’s around 2 in the morning, which most of y’all couldn’t care less about anyway, but in fact, it IS, so I think I’m going to go back to sleep. I woke up to write all this about burgers and health and stuff, and it’s giving me a stomach ache, if you really want to know.

14  Tomorrow is the Seniors’ last day of school.

15  I’m glazing over.

16  Have a great Thursday, everybody.

17  Enjoy the banquet tonight, music kids! Just avoid McDonald’s tonight.

18  Peace.

The Daily News

1  Tonight the Music Department brings in this year’s dazzling Spring Concert. The Spring Concert is always one of the nicest nights of the entire year, because amid all the dances, banquets, proms, etc. the music takes on a new dimension.

2  To most of us, it’s just a wonder and a marvelous time. To the Seniors: you know. I know, because every year, I know. I don’t need to say a thing; it’s understood.

3  Anyway, good luck to everyone tonight! I’m excited about the show, and I want to wish all of you all the luck in the world. Do your very best; we’re here for you, we, the audience, and I can’t wait to listen. Practice, and then enjoy the performance!

4  Moving on: the Installation Banquet went off without a hitch last night. Congratulations to all the ASB kids, to the old officers, and good luck to the newly installed officers. It was a wonderfully Hawaiian night, sweet, and even a little emotional.

5  Well, the year’s winding down like a tired old clock…

6  One thing we’ve had in our favor has been the rather mild weather. Even though it’s been a little warm, we’ve been quite lucky that the weather has not tortured us these past few weeks. Count your blessings!

7  So…I always thought that Marilyn Chambers was Deep Throat…

8  You may need to do a LOT of research to get THAT one.

9  So it goes.

10 Today is Wednesday already. How fast is THAT?

11 Seniors…

12  Every year, I know…

13  This year is tough, lemme tellya.

14  Well, enough of that nonsense.

15  Go to the Spring Concert tonight, and tell a hundred friends! We could all use some wonderful music right about now.

16  Good luck to all of you!

17  Godspeed.