October 12, 2006
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The Daily News
peace.1 Whew!2 Well, I figured yesterday’s DN would ruffle a few feathers. Some people wrote positive responses, others weren’t too pleased with some of my opinions, but keep in mind we area all different and entitled to our own opinions. I respect most as sincere and perhaps even researched, so thanks to everyone who put in a response.
3 I’m not going to go on the DN to editorialize too much. It’s more here to give y’all a morning chuckle, or a ponder. Occasionally I’ll throw my opinions, which are ALWAYS right no matter what, into the mix, but it is rare. I wish to assure most of you that I consider myself a patriot, and I love my country, and I just get pissed when idiotic decisions get made.
4 Anyway, that story about Student A came to a sweet conclusion yesterday. Communication happened on a number of levels, and by the end of the day, Student A was planning on bringing a Hip-Hop artist in to flow, and he was going to flow and make a campaign to bring that art to the school in a positive way, rather than protesting with rocks, fire and brimstone.5 The student wanted to tell the other students about his life, and how that one art helps him as well as an entire nation of others to express their feelings with power and emotion.
6 Moving on: The Drama students had pre-auditions for student directors yesterday at YB, and I descended from the Chill on the Hill to be with them for the first time in quite a while. I happened onto the YB campus, slid under the radar and shared some how-to’s with the students attempting to keep the dream alive, as per their request.
7 I stood amazed as I looked at how much they had done in terms of the Fall show. That isn’t an easy task as a teacher and director, let alone as a self-sustaining student crew with no real help in the directing arena. Gotta be a challenge.
8 Yesterday also saw a student from the Chill on the Hill unable to turn her French homework in because the night before she had spent the evening previous at the Pink Floyd concert.
9 I love when life does things like that, especially after the entire incident with Student A the day before. The entire incident involved us and them. And after all…10 She told me she wanted to explain to her teacher that she was going to do her French homework, but that Floyd decided to do the entire Dark Side, so all bets were off.
11 Uh…Parley voo?
12 Cafe au lait?13 I must be making some sort of inroads.
14 I once heard Pink Floyd come out for a sound check and play My Sharona.
15 In shorts.16 Some fun, no?
18 My Sharona. Whatever you do, don’t think of that tune today.19 Nasty little song, really!20 Parley voo indeed.21 Moving backward: So I just remembered one more thing that happened yesterday, and I need to put it down the list here because of computer freezer-fear. When I first got to YB yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Victoria Gleason, the new English teacher extraordinaire and new ATFNL advisor, so I basically was able to help two groups at once. This set the afternoon into a getting-home late mode.22 I talked at length about ATFNL, and some of the activities I had planned over the summer, none of which would work at this late date, but it was a very nice conversation. It delayed the Director auditions, which I had been requested to come down and sit in on.23 The evening wore on , and eventually we all went to get Pho.24 That’s pronounced “faugh” but with a mini-syllable. More at “fuh”. It’s this Vietnamese noodle soup that is the greatest comfort food on the planet. Anyway, as we were getting ready to leave, I got up, and it felt as though my toe had turned painful and was ready to fall off, like when you stub it on a cold day?25 Yeah.26 I got up and began to limp terribly. I sat back down worried, and Suny told me I might have diabetes. I got worried. and he told me that feet get injured and all when you have that. I got way worried, and as we walked out, the pain became excruciating. I told him that I had taught the word “gangrene” as a vocab word for a story my students were reading, and that I hoped my toe hadn’t gotten some disease and was dying on me.27 It was HARRRRRIBLE.28 Before I got into the TOOONDRA, I decided to take my shoe off and look. I expected it to be yellow or something. Instead, I found that the tiny hole I had in my sock in the morning had expanded to around two inches, and four of my toes were trapped, like a freshman pilgrim in stocks. The edge of the sock was cutting into my pinky.29 Everyone exploded into laughter, including myself. I tried to explain that when I was at YB I never knew when I would have to go into an Asian home, so I ALWAYS wore clean, new socks, but that now that I don’t hang with students ever, I thought it okay to leave a little air now and again.30 Well, it’s getting late here, so I just thought I’d share that one little tidbit before all of us go off to whatever we do each day.31 So you know, I’m healthy, and my pinky has returned to full color, and it looks like I’ll live to see another day.32 Love life.33 Have a great day.34 Peace.~H~
