This is rambly

It was a super great day at work. I was subbing in one of my favorite places. The kids (8th graders!) this teacher works with are (surprisingly) great (a testament to the teacher’s skills) (okay, they are, of course, people and make their own decisions, but she has helped them figure out how to be kind and mostly do work). After finishing my lunch, I was just about to leave the room when one of the kids for the next hour wandered in. There were ten minutes left of lunch, so he “shouldn’t” have been there, but when you are working with students with special needs accommodations are often made. I had no idea what this kid’s deal is, so I just said hi, how are you, do you need anything? He said nope, and I said, I will be right back, I’m just running to the restroom before class starts. I scurried away and scurried back to an empty room. When I got to the desk, the post-it note from today’s picture was there. When he re-arrived for class, I held it up with a shrug and a questioning look. He smiled soooo sincerely back, “I didn’t want you to worry.” Kids are so sweet some times.

After school I went to the dentist! I did not put a post-it (shout out to 3M post-it notes, I guess. Local company does good!) on my steering wheel like I usually do, and I made it without driving home, then remembering the appointment. I only did that once – walked out of school knowing I was going to the dentist, then started the car and drove toward home, because my car is trained to do that. I didn’t even make it all the way home that time, but ever since I’ve left myself a note to help (I may or may not whisper dentist, dentist, dentist as I drive by the intersection I should NOT turn at). I had a new hygienist today. I’ve had Rose for more than long, and she retired. They didn’t send me a letter telling me, I just got there and BAM! She is gone. You get letters that doctors are leaving a practice, even if you’ve seen them once for an ear infection, but years of chatting between scratching your teeth with sharp instruments (have you ever thought of brushing your teeth as cleaning your skeleton? Alexander always asks me that around dentist time. Then he shrugs, “It’s true. Think about it.” Then I think about it) (Now you can think about it) and it’s just over. New lady was fine – brand new (I considered the fact that she is at least 5 years younger than Alexander. No worries about her competence or anything, but when did adults get younger than my baby?)

OH MY GOODNESS! I FORGOT! One of Benjamin’s guys – the name for the group of four friends from middle school (and earlier. Hi Daniel) that Benjin brought into our lives forever (win!) – and his wife had a BABY! First of the group (another coming in fall!). This little one was expected mid-ish April, so every once in a while I check in with Benjin to see if there is news. Today I wrote “baby?” He responded “baby.” I wrote “What kind and all of that?” He wrote “Human. Scottish baby. Mac. Not sure of that. His dad could be lying to me.” I wrote “boy then? When was he born?” Obviously, he wrote back, “Probably. Yesterday…ish?” Then he sent a picture. An adorable baby. With a pink hat. Maybe a boy, maybe a girl – but most importantly here safely. Joy all around!

After the dentist, we went to the movies. I know, this is devolving into a movie diary, but I can’t help it. Today we saw The Lost City. (oh first we saw a trailer for Father Stu – 2 weeks ago movie. I am SO GLAD we didn’t see that trailer before we saw the movie, because it tells the entire movie. THE ENTIRE MOVIE. Why? Why do they do that? Augh.) Brad Pitt is in today’s movie. I have always liked Brad Pitt (his mom is a teacher and he always says really nice things about teachers, which makes me like him all the more. The holy-cow-do-I-think-he-is-cute part is also a factor). Holy-cow-is-he-cute in this movie too. Also, I laughed out loud so hard that I had to cover my face to get control (and Brad wasn’t even in that scene). I really like making the weekly menu and just writing popcorn on Wednesdays. What a win. I get my popcorn bucket and eat it like it the last food on Earth. Popcorn is the absolute best at the Woodbury 10 theater. Why? I don’t understand how popcorn is not just popcorn. Anyway, after we left the theater, with my refilled bucket of popcorn (eating again like it was the last food on Earth) we walked toward the car. Keith started talking about how the car needs a bath (more of a shower, really, but he said bath) and I said “Help.” “Help help help help help.” He walked away from me to look at the other side of the car (maybe it would be clean? maybe it would be dirtier? Would it matter? Do you ever just wash half a car? I say no). “Help. Help. Are you really walking away from me while I am actively calling for help?” He turned and looked at me. “Oh.” He walked back. I said, “Help. Help.” He got right in front of me and squinted at me. “This?” I was carrying the movie blanket (I invented bringing a blanket to the movies, btw), the napkins, and the popcorn in my left hand and my right hand was clutching a significant handful of quite buttery popcorn, and the wind had blown a bunch of rogue hair into my mouth (where there are shiny, clean polished skeleton teeth). He rescued me with only one finger. Brad Pitt, eat your heart out.