September 27, 2006
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The Daily News
1 So…Byron Nelson walks into a bar…2 If you’re an A’s fan, you’re loving life right now.
3 If you’re a Giants’ fan, you’re wondering how they went from 2 games out a week ago to 9 games out presently. Talk about character.
4 If you’re a Niners fan, you’re still enjoying your goofy team.
5 If you’re a Raiders’ fan, you’re probably wondering why the Pop Warner game gets rid of scalp tickets faster than the guys shucking around the Coliseum.
6 If you’re a golf fan, you probably miss Byron.
7 And If you’re a Saints’ fan, you’re probably still drunk from their hangovers after Monday night’s game.
8 Ah, sports.
9 Moving on: I measure my life in Post-it notes. The new job is so ridiculous that I find those little guys to be something I can cling to, because it clings to me. I have thousands of them, all over, many stuck to yellow legal pads, desks, pants, foreheads, forearms, and even on my nose.
10 An Activities Director is a perfect cross between a servant and a Godfather. I’ll have people calling and asking when the supervision schedule will be out (when I say it will be out!), because it is a HUGE inconvenience to them, and I’ll later have a line of people outside my door asking for my blessing, either financial, or just hat-in-hand to request a favor.
11 Well, in the first catergory, when people ask when I’m going to do things, I have learned to give the Rocha shrug. It’s pretty well known to people out there in YB Land. It goes something like this:You Got Your Answera one-act play
by
~H~
(AT RISE: An Activities Director stands on stage with a cup of coffee. From off L. a CRAZED DRAMA TEACHER wearing dumpy clothes, a blazer, and a baseball hat enters and confronts him immediately. The Activities Director seems to have a slight cat-that ate the canary smirk on his face. He is unruffled.)
Crazed Drama Director: Hey, when are you going to clear all your shit out of my storeroom?!?(The Activities Director stares, holds his endless cup of coffe, smirks, moves head back, shakes his head, and walks on by. He says nothing. The CRAZED DRAMA DIRECTOR stands, staring at the audience. Lights fade. Blackout)
Curtain.12 Yep. Quite a play.
13 Over in these parts, Rocha is considered a Jedi.
14 Working up on the Chill on the Hill, I find myself a feeling more like the Birdman of Alcatraz than I do the Godfather. I have this wonderful space, and a roomy office, but I am confined to the school plant. I see the city shining below some nights at 8 p.m., it’s San Jose yellow, and I love it, but unlike the YB experience, I’m not to leave. Everybody walking around at any time of day or night wants me for something.
15 It’s great to be loved, I tellya.
16 But I just can’t leave. There’s volleyball. There’s Homecoming practice, but one class has an advisor who didn’t show up. I have to take the cash box back to my office and make sure everything balances after the volleyball game, which ends at 7:15 p.m.
17 I can’t get access to my AOL e-mail because the District has blocked it. They would prefer that I use my ESUHSD e-mail, the one any Tom, Dick, or Harry could access with just a little computer savvy. It’s this: harringtonb@esuhsd.org.
18 I would advise writing it down on a Post-it note.
19 I get home just as late as I ever did at YB, the only difference being that I have to get up two hours earlier. So tonight, for example, the DN will be done at 1 a.m. and I have to awakent in four hours.
20 I get home and collapse, and only a bit later do I dare try to eat, and then I try to check my AOL mail. The computer freezes. I turn it off and let it rest, which it usually does nicely, but it won’t work again for at least an hour. So I eat, if possible.
21 I try talking to people, or watching TEEVEE, but my eyes naturally and instinctively close because they haven’t rested. I awaken a lot of times around 10:30 and try again to answer my AOL e-mails. Sometimes I can, sometimes I can’t. Tonight, for example, I couldn’t. The computer was somehow left on all day, and it was ready to freeze after an entire day of inviting trouble.
22 I wind up not getting my big things done, like the supervision calendar, or my School Site Council elections. That will have to wait another day, but the ballot deadline is tomorrow 5th period, which reminds me that I have to remind the teachers which reminds me that I have to remind my supervision people that they have a football game Friday night which reminds me that I don’t have nearly enough coverage for the game which reminds me that I haven’t finished writing up the supervision calendar yet which reminds me that I now have Post-its all over my head, but I need to hide them because, well, in a few minutes after awakening, I’ll have to deal with my Leadership class, my English class, my ten o’clock, and oh yes:
23 The Daily News.
24 Ha.
25 A Day in the Life.
26 If I’m not getting a hold of you, I still love you.
27 It’s just difficult to love with a frozen computer and a head full of Post-it Notes.
28 But I’m doing it, and doggone it, people like me.
29 It’s pretty nifty.
30 Peace. It’s 1 a.m. I’m up in 4. Gottago.
~H~
