Welcome Hattie!

Friday, November 18, 2022

It was an interesting day, but the most exciting part was when our new grandniece, Hattie, was born tonight. She was making her mom wait for extra days, so they went to the hospital last night for some medical encouragement. It was fun to check all through the day today, waiting for the news. When her big brother was told his new sister was here, he went to the front door to look for her. Makes sense to me!

I was off to sub at middle school today. I had a quiz to give and a Bill Nye video to show. Second hour was having none of it and I didn’t hesitate at all to call for administrative assistance. I figured if they get away with ridiculous behavior in 7th grade they will end up like 5th hour-ers in 9th grade.

Third hour was my prep, so I had to go to 6th grade math (our district has hired an outside company to supply them with substitute teachers – so even though we have teaching licenses we are not considered teachers and they are not required to give us prep time – so you always have to go somewhere during the teacher’s prep time). You never know what you are going to get. Luckily, I like math, so I was hopeful. I got there a couple minutes early (had 10:04 lunch first) and had a minute to read the plan before the kids arrived. They arrived, hopping from one green tile on the floor to another. I immediately correctly assumed all the white tiles were lava. So I started hopping only on green tiles, WHICH WAS THE GREATEST THING A TEACHER HAS EVER DONE apparently. After ingratiating myself by hopping, I garnered their attention. They said they are a terrible class and that their teacher hates them (in a resigned, what-else-would-he-think way, which is realllllly common and yet kinda sad). They were very civil in their conversation about it – quietly explaining they are crazy and don’t do their work. I, of course, said, “Huh.” I asked if they would like to do something fun for me. YES! I said, “What if we freak him out? What if you are fantastic and I say you were the absolute best? Would you like that?” “YES!” I explained what work needed to be done – finish all the stuff from the week, if it wasn’t, and watch a video on fractions for next week. If they could work, we would finish 10 minutes early and play silent ball. “YES!”

And they did. They were unbelievably good. I assume the kid who built a fort around his chromebook was playing a game, but I didn’t care. Everyone else was visibly doing math. I hopped from green square to green square until my oldness got the better of me and I just fell into the lava. It was a great hour.

In the middle of fourth hour, the office manager came into my room with a gift bag. I assumed it was for the regular teacher, and then she said “Someone dropped this off for you.”

Mind blown.

What?

I peeked inside to see a note that said Happy Substitute Day from Louise. WOW! I got treats to eat and treats to smell good! WOW! Thank you, Louise. You are amazing and really know how to make someone feel special!!

As I was watching Bill Nye run away from his pretend cell nucleus for the fourth time, I was reminded of something that happened when I was in 6th or 7th grade. I was going to my friend, Shari Stark’s house. It was 4-5 blocks from my house, and I was running. I have absolutely no idea why I was running there (to get there more quickly, I assume….). I don’t think of myself as a runner, but maybe 50 years ago-ish, I did regularly run. Anyway, I went into the house and her mom said, “Oh, that was you running down Chapman (Drive). I just drove past you on my way home. You run funny.”

What the hell?

Okay. I probably didn’t think that at the time, but I do now. It was a different time – people just said stuff to kids without worrying about future therapy or self esteem or well, anything, but what is interesting to me is that I remember it a solid 45 years later. I remember being momentarily embarrassed, then we left and I didn’t worry about it….but I did wonder what running funny meant…and what I should do about it. And I remember it this many years later.

Bill Nye runs just a little bit funny. Or not, really. I guess I was just wondering what it looks like to run funny and Bill just kept running away from that nucleus.

Why is the picture of the day a hotel room? We’re in Eau Claire for the chamber orchestra. The orchestra has been putting us up in the this hotel for the past couple years and I like it a lot. Tonight, we went to our room and instead of a king sized bed and a couch in the room, we had a room just big enough for a double bed. I said, “This is not really going to work.” We are here two nights this time and plan to spend most of tomorrow in the room, killing time, and having nowhere to go but to sit on the bed didn’t seem ideal, nor did a small bed. Keith called down and said, “Um. We are too big to fit in a double bed. We would gladly pay for an upgrade.” Down we went, back up we came to the room across the hall. Holy cow, BIGGER. Queen sized bed – although a king would have had ample room – and a couch and a counter with chairs. We will fit here just fine.