February 3, 2012
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1 It's Frideeeeeeee! And it's normal again.
2 Super Bowl Frideeeee!
3 I'm all about my boy Brady. Bay Area guy who was a huge Montana fan as a kid playing a team that most likely doesn't deserve to be there.
4 When the Niners began tanking a few years ago, I had to have a second team to follow. I saw Brady, who had the same sort of swag Montana has, and decided that they would be my second team.
5 That's how pathetic the Niners were, and I emphasize the word "were".
6 Still not sure of how I feel about it, given that we have been priced out of the market for season tix.
7 The Super Bowl just doesn't have its luster this year. I'm not trying to be sour grapes, but I think the New York Giants are there on a fluke.
8 A team that was practically .500 the entire season has no business in a championship game.
9 But they are there, making this one of the most un-Super Bowls ever.
10 I'll watch. It's the American way.
11 To be honest, I haven't read the sports all week. I know nothing about things. In fact, I haven't had time to read the paper. I felt removed all week from all that is going on in life. At least until yesterday.
12 Moving on, Part the First: All of that might be directly related to the lockdown which took place exactly a week ago today. I still can't say a lot about it. I think you have to have been threatened by someone, and then have gone through your work going into a "full lockdown" in order to get it.
13 I can now say publicly that I was terrified beyond words. Some day I might tell the entire story, but I can now tell a few more things. I found a letter left in my room saying I was going to be killed last Wednesday. Two days later, we went into the full lockdown. There was news media and helicopters and cops.
14 I had to barricade my room really fast. The student I knew wrote it was four doors down the hall. I worried about my students. I emailed my family that I loved them. My heart pumped. My temples felt like bass drums.Some of my students were petrified, but most remained cool and calm.
15 At one point my door shot open. I almost had a heart attack. It was the police. They couldn't get through my barricade, so I removed it.They briefly checked my room looking for the kid who had purportedly Facebooked he was going to "shoot up the school" the night before. I handed them the letter.
16 We then barricaded the room again. The students were huddled together on the floor. Each minute seemed an hour.
17 The letter that the kid had left for me later turned out to be some verbatim quote from a video game, or some such nonsense, and it wasn't related to me.
18 But it was written in second person, and talked of violently killing a person described as me. It used the word "you" and seemed clearly aimed at me. The student was really angry with me, because I had told him he could try studying a little harder.
19 There is so much more but I simply can't say much because there is still stuff going down about it. The story is still real.
20 I can say this: it turned out to be an enormous misunderstanding, and I'm really glad that it was.
21 Moving on, Part the Second: After it all cleared up last Friday, I immediately began appreciating all things around me.
22 I know we all think that we count our blessings, but that day put it to the extreme. I stopped grading papers and took Helene out to lunch. I picked up my guitar and began learning new techniques. I went online and thought about taking my family to Disneyland. I talked at length with my Dad. I gave assignments that were easy for the students, but that gave me time to grade papers in class. I went down and watched auditions for Grease. I re-connected with old friends. I ate lots of vegetables and good foods.
23 And yesterday I put my room back in natural lighting from the sky. I also played a ton of Jack Johnson tunes while they worked on their grammar exercises. When my third period class came in, Banana Pancakes played to the same class that was barricaded for several hours a week earlier. They are a wonderful class of seniors. I love all my classes this year, but this one bonded from the first day of school. They were the class that was locked down.
24 A third of those wonderful students had me in their freshman year, so there is this special bond.
25 Banana Pancakes and Breakdown are two of the songs that almost define my classroom. I'm not certain, but I think they are both from Curious George. This time of year I play lots of Jack Johnson when they do desk work. It gives a nice vibe to the room.
26 I had put a JJ mix on at the end of my first class, so that happened to play yesterday those awesome kids came in for third.
27 The daylight worked as perfect lighting for the room. When they came in, everything finally looked and felt normal again.
28 They sensed it too. They could tell I was a bit out of sorts all week because of the lockdown.
29 It took the entire week for me to return to normal.
30 It is now exactly one week since the lockdown.The kid I thought had written the note confronted me, and we talked it through. He completely understood it was all a misunderstanding, and that he thought he had thrown the "letter" away. He said sometimes when he is upset he writes down words from his video games, and that it had nothing to do with me.
31 I advised him that you don't talk about bombs in a airport, and you don't write things about killing people at a school. I'm pretty sure he understood, and he's gotten back to his normal routine.
32 I look back on this week as a chance to pry my life loose from all the paper grading. I still have to do it, because my school produces. But say what you will, last Friday was the most terrifying day of my life. I don't think I'm being a drama queen either, because I put that sort of stuff behind me years ago.
33 I literally thought that I was going to be gunned down, and that the guy was going to take some students with him. Didn't happen, and everything twisted, turned and finally came back to normal yesterday, when we all enjoyed Banana Pancakes for breakfast.
34 I definitely saw that entire experience as a major wake-up call. My behaviors this past week were almost a subliminal means of getting back to family, friends, guitar, theater, sports, and everything else I love.
35 Today is going to be fun. I should be able to play more music in class and have time to finish up the lion's share of papers during class.
36 When I got home yesterday I instantly did about four loads of laundry. It had sat around a little after last week, so I finally jumped in and did it. I never appreciated laundry so much. That might sound random, but it is also behavior coming from someone who experienced a true-life trauma. If you are excited about laundry, then you have good news.
37 Laundry is cleansing. I also washed the TOOOOOONDRA, and washed my driveway down.
38 I can't wait to go to school this morning. It is February. This is the time of year I put it in gear.
39 It's Frideeeeeeee! And it is normal again.
40 Have a wonderful weekend. Go Pats!
41 Peace.
~H~
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