2001-09-13
more tragedy, roomies, basketball, dog, posted at 8:40 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com After a pretty great day at school yesterday and a more than faint sense of normalcy, I returned home to find nothing but the tragedy coverage on television. I was immediately drawn back into this aura of sadness and anger that has enveloped our nation. No repeat of the season finale of "The West Wing," which I was looking forward to watching, so I could lose myself in the fantasy world where the biggest tragedy is Mrs. Landingham's death and President Bartlett's multiple sclerosis, plus teach Jason and Mike about the show so they get as into it as I am. Instead, we watched the news again for hours. Mike doesn't like to watch it, and I'm sort of with him. I like to be informed, but I feel like the news programs are all spinning their wheels and speculating far too much. I want real news, not countless experts being interviewed about things that they can only guess about at this point. Still, there is the whole can't-turn-away-from-a-car-accident feeling that prompts me to watch. We vacillated back and forth yesterday between reruns of "The Simpsons," MTV-2, the 50th time I've watched the "Behind the Music" special on the music of the 1990's, and then lots of coverage of the tragedy.At around 9:30, Mike had gone upstairs to bed, and it was just Jason and I down there. CBS played this incredibly maudlin piece where a bunch of family members of employees all at one company were waiting to hear word about whether their family members were alive. There was a 14-year old girl begging for word on her father, a number of women begging for their husbands, etc. It was absolutely extruciating. I had to leave the room, and nearly vomitted. Over 800 employees of this company are unaccounted for. The sadness of just watching it on television was unbearable.
All the coverage again last night has hindered my ability to think about other things, like lesson planning or how the baseball game that I've been looking forward to for a week is cancelled. I wonder how long our country will be crippled by this. I'm still torn by whether it's more healthy to try to return to normalcy, or whether we should continue to focus all of our energies and emotions on what has happened. How long will our national mourning period be?
****************************************
My curriculum has come together to a point where I was able to show films to my three classes yesterday. It made me feel a bit guilty, but they're all called for in the curriculum - we watched "The Crucible" as part of the Purtian literature portion of my "The Beginnings" unit in American Literature, and the kids are watching "Of Mice and Men" after they read the book for summer reading. For the latter, I'm not necesarily a big fan of "read the book, then watch the movie" sort of teaching, but many of the kids read it in June or July, and I felt they needed the refresher. Plus, the 1992 version is excellent, and only five of the kids had seen it (whether they were telling the truth or not is another story, but they were rapt in attention yesterday). My sophomores loved "The Crucible"; I wish the curriculum had us read it, like we did last year. I'm covering Puritan Literature with three pieces - Anne Bradstreet (our first American poet), Jonathon Edwards (a fire-and-brimstone sermonizer who uses metaphors extremely well and scares the hell out of the kids), and "The Crucible." I'm skipping the Simon Bradford reading because I think it's boring and no one told me I had to do it. After moving quickly through the Age of Reason (Ben Franklin, Thomas Payne, Thomas Jefferson, Phyllis Wheatley), we can dive into "The Scarlet Letter" early next week. Should be fun.
My freshmen are going to finish watching the "Of Mice and Men" movie, take an essay test, then put George on trial for the murder of Lennie. After that, we'll be done with the piece and be ready to move on to "To Kill a Mockingbird." I haven't read it since my freshmen year in high school about a decade ago, so I better re-read it this weekend for a refresher in it. I'm also going to be teaching "The Great Gatsby" and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" this semester, neither of which I've ever read, and "The Piano Lesson," which I've only seen onstage and on television, but never read. I certainly shouldn't be sitting around and watching television every night.
****************************************
Mike (3rd roommate, just met at teacher orientation, a 2nd grade teacher, from Pennsylvania) may actually turn out to be a pretty good friend. He's quiet at first, but I've found he's got a wicked sense of humor (on the night of the tragedy, he was doing an impression of the Pakistani leader that had me rolling on the floor). We talked about music last night a lot, and both agreed that the early nineties were the best musical period of our lives. 1992, to be precise. I think we're going to go to a concert tonight of some indie rock group that I'd never heard of. Maybe it'll be fun. Hopefully it won't cost much.
I feel like my life is wake up, go to school, teach, go home and watch TV, and repeat. I need some variety. The concert will add that.
****************************************
Also, I played basketball today for the second time this week, and for only the second time since high school. Today was my weights day, but the guys talked me into it. I still suck, but today is was fun. I played on a team with a couple of huge African-American guys - both bigger and wider than me - and we played three much quicker, but smaller, guys. It was size vs. strength. I forgot who won now - we played three games - but the games were close and I actually made a few baskets. I still suck - I am incredibly vulnerable to a pick-and-roll on defense, can't move very well, can't play inside at all, and have an erratic shot - but at least today I wasn't all stressed out about it and actually had some fun. And, damn, it was a good workout. I feel like playing 45 minutes of basketball is as good as running three or four miles. And everyone was bushwhacked at the end of the game; I didn't feel like I was in bad shape. Who knows, maybe I will end up using the gym as a social outlet - it certainly makes it more interesting.
****************************************
I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about the dog thing. The previous owners had a dog, and it was obvious - a chain in the front yard, dog hair on the carpet, dog food in the kitchen, dog turds in the backyard. The landlord apparently didn't care. But since she is so disconnected from the property, I'm not positive she knew about it. Yet I'm sure her friend (a cute old man who seems like he's around 80 years old and wears funny socks and Orville Redenbacher glasses), who lives two blocks away and helps her out from time to time, knew they had a dog. The contract we signed said, "No Pets on Property without written permission from owner" and that the contracts would have to re-written if we did get a pet.
Now, if she's never around, I don't want to risk asking her if a pet is allowed, because then she'll be suspicious and always be watching us to see if we have one. However, I don't want her to pissed off either if we have one and don't ask. I'm not sure if the previous tenants asked her or not. I need to find that out. The Humane Society requires the landlord's name and number before they'll let you have a dog, or proof that you own the house (I was just going to say I was a home-owner).
While I was reading the contract, she said, "Oh, there's a bunch of dumb little stuff in there; it's not really designed to be read close," so I think I could plead ignorance about the pet rule (which was two lines of a six page contract) and just say that we thought it was okay since the previous tenants had one. And I don't think she will care at all. But I don't want to risk asking her and her saying no, since it's a nice place and I want to stay there for a while. Perhaps I should wait a few months and prove myself a reliable tenant, and then ask. Or maybe I should get a dog, be careful and not let anyone see it, be a reliable tenant, and then eventually ask. Or plead ignorance when she asks about it.
I'm not sure. I need to ask the previous tenants what their experience was, but we're not exactly on good terms with them and we don't have their contact information (which sucks for them, since they just got their income tax refunds and a bunch of bills in the mail and there's no way for us to get it to them). The landlord is supposed to call us with their contact info, so maybe that will get the ball rolling.
Indeed, the tragedy has sort of taken the wind out of my sails in getting a puppy. I feel like I can wait a while and figure out the best approach. It's not really something to leap into, anyway. I think the best approach, eventually, will be to get it from some classified ads in the newspaper - so there's no landlord check - and then wait until she asks about it. She seems desperate for tenants and was very glad to find us, and since the previous owners had a dog with no problems, I gotta figure it'll be okay.