A drive up and down the road

Friday, September 9, 2022

I had to go to the school district office today to get my new ID badge. As I drove the road between Woodbury and Cottage Grove, I passed a turkey standing right on the edge of the road. Turkeys are so weird, because they are food, but sometimes they are on the side of the road. Food turkeys and side-of-the-road turkeys are not generally the same turkeys, but still, it’s kinda weird. I thought he was a bush, or something, until I was quite close. I pulled toward the other lane, to give him space not to jump out in front of me, then thought, “I wish I’d taken a picture.”

I am not sure how I would have taken a picture, because I was the one driving the car. I went a block, then decided to turn back and take his picture. As I approached, another car whizzed right past him and he jumped back toward the trees. As I slowed down and stopped, he was jumping up and down and wiggling. I do not know how else to describe it. It was like he was trying to look funny. He calmed down and I got this picture of him. He dashed into the trees and then reappeared a bit farther away with several friends. Hi turkeys, bye turkeys.

I got to the office and asked for a badge. They did not have me in their system. There were two woman trying to help me and they were so apologetic that they couldn’t give me what I had come for. I told them I was glad they wouldn’t hand out a badge to someone not in their system – that seemed like a really good policy. They did offer to take my picture so they could send me my badge in the school mail. Fabulous! I wouldn’t have to drive back down.

I got almost home – all of about an 8 minute drive – and my phone rang. It was them. They had gotten notification of me and my badge would be printed by the time I could come back. I thought about saying, “Just mail it,” but they sounded so glad that they could get it for me, I turned around.

To be honest, I was really interested in seeing the turkeys again, but, alas, no turkeys at all when I went past this time.

I was surprisingly excited to get a badge. Subs don’t get a badge, because we are not real employees. Some schools give you a visitor sticker, some give a lanyard with Guest Teacher on it (I kinda like those), some do nothing at all. My last badge, when I was working as a paraprofessional (or teacher’s aide), had my name as Burlon Thompson. Burlon. Is that even a name? I pointed out the error as soon as I got the badge, but they were not interested in giving me a new one. I wore a Burlon badge for a whole year. I did not feel particularly valued at that time. After 14 years of subbing, it really felt good to be considered a real employee again, and it felt especially good to have a badge with my actual name on it. (To be clear, I will answer to Burlon.)