The Daily News
1 HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!
2 Ah, is there anything more grand!
3 Banshees, bumsteads and roses.
4 Branches, the final autumn leaves, and quite possibly a caldron of bubbling soup permeating the house with the simmering smells of the harvest.
5 The Heidi Chronz ran amuck this year.
6 HUGE hit.
7 You know, when you’ve delivered the same schtick each year, it’s bound to become sensational by years of hit-and-miss.
8 What made it all SO much better this year was the existence of block schedules, allowing an extra forty-five minutes of time.
9 This allowed time for the students to share some wonderful stories, as well as allowing me an opportunity to give them a goodly background of strange occurrences that have happened over the years in our very own Bay Area.
10 Anyway, it worked better than ever.
11 So MUCH going on.
12 Anyway, it’s our Homecoming today.
13 I’m exhausted,but it’s time to step it up and take all of this to the next level.
14 I have to get to bed early and awaken early so I can do what I can to assist with a rally, a homecoming, and JUDGE all of it as well, so I do need my sleep.
15 Anyway, have yourselves a HAPPY HALLOWEEN everbody.
16 I’m happy to report that nothing terribly strange occurred in the midst of telling the stories this year.
17 I was able to secure the theater and even had a photographer from the yearbook recording the stories.
18 I did tell her it was okay to record the entire story on video, but I don’t think that happened.
19 There were small parts that were left out, but the story has gotten so long at this point that sometimes I sacrifice certain areas so as to keep it moving along.
20 My goal for updating it by midnight tonight probably won’t be met. I went to the Sharks’ game last night, thoroughly enjoyed myself but by the time I got home I was pretty tired.
21 I conked out and re-awakened at around 3 a.m. and finished up the DN.
22 I promised to help with the Homecoming rally and game set-up today and tonight, and I’m also a Homecoming judge. I’m guessing they’ll make me the head judge later today but I don’t know as of this writing.
23 I don’t mind, really. It’s extra work and all, but the students work pretty hard for this each year, and it’s difficult finding volunteers who don’t mind helping.
24 Ah, you know how it is. As a teacher, you sometimes just wish to offer help, no reason. My feelings are that when I was younger, I was able to enjoy a lot of fun things in school because of teachers who didn’t mind putting in a little extra.
25 Nowadays you get that less and less, and a lot of teachers stick to their contracts and won’t go the distance. In many ways I don’t blame them, but in the process, the students really lose out because volunteerism is a vanishing art.
26 Virtue, they say, has its own rewards.
27 And punishments.
28 But I don’t mind throwing myself out there. In the process, some of us also gain a lot that many others don’t, and that’s watching memories happen right in front of us, year in and year out.
29 I get a stiff neck, sore feet, and letters from complaining parents, but I also know that ten, twenty, forty years from now, this will probably be remembered better than my finest lesson.
30 And the majority of the students won’t even remember that I was involved.
31 And in many ways, THAT is the best part of all of it.
32 There are amazing teachers out there who read the DN on a daily basis, and I can guarantee that each one understands exactly what I mean by that.
33 Anyway, it’s Halloween, and it’s time to howl.
34 Enjoy your day, and especially enjoy your night.
35 I’ll try to update the Heidi Chronz tonight or this weekend.
36 Meanwhile, blast Werewolves of London, watch old movies, and goof on trick-or -treaters.
37 It’s after midnight.
38 Happy Halloween.
39 Peace.
