Epiphany in Baltimore

2001-11-12

Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com

This weekend was the big football game. We have the oldest high school football rivalry in the country, and we played our rivals at the NFL Stadium on Saturday.

I didn't go. I was planning on it, even looking forward to it. But I got sick. I think I had a fever, as my eyelids were hot when I closed my eyes and I felt that strange mix of sweat and chills that one associates with a fever. My muscles ached too much for me to rifle through my stuff and find my thermometer, so I just sat and moaned. Twas a great weekend.

My muscles ached horribly. Part of it was probably from the Faculty/kids soccer game that I played on Friday afternoon after school. I'd never played soccer before, and hadn't been running in over a week - with my hiking trip and all. Well, the game kicked my ass. I think it was the sprinting. I never sprint, so it must have been that. Running after the ball and trying to get the kid who kept yellng "I'm wide open" even though I was within ten feet of him. No one scored on me, though.

Jason and I went out with some teachers I work with after the soccer game - apparently to the best jazz club in Maryland. It was a fun time - a true hole in the wall, but nice nonetheless. We didn't stay for the band, but I'm sure they were good. We were the only white people in there. Cool.

We sat and drank with Nick and his wife, both MSU grads. Nick teaches at the same high school as I. We hadn't talked that much this year, because he is in this temporary position right now because he and his wife are joining the Peace Corps in March. But we got to know them that night. They're cool.

Friends from Michigna are coming down this weekend, and I can't wait. I've got to finish up Whitman and Dickinson this week, then figure out something for my kids to do on Friday. I'm going to the NCTE conference here in Baltimore. I haven't signed up for it or anything, and am not planning on it. But I was able to sneak in with a friend to the Detroit one a few years back, and plan on doing that. I'll try to hit a couple of sessions and check out the sales area. They have a lot of giveaways. My department head hasn't told me anything about what I need to bring as to proof that I went, so I assume that I can sleep in and go whenever, if I truly wanted to. But I'm excited, so will go early.

Would it be bad to show Dead Poet's Society to my classes? After all, the Whitman poem "Oh Captain, My Captain" is featured prominently in it, and we're in the Whitman unit now. I know, I know, that's stretching a bit... I can't think of much else that I would trust a sub to do. Only one kid in my two classes has seen the movie.

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Money spent this weekend:

Car fixed (belts fixed, rear adjustor kit installed, oil changed, tire fixed): $150

Ikea (shelf for kitchen, picture in the "as is" section that was $70 but ended up being $20, TV stand, two end tables, an oven mitt, some potholders, two floor lamps): $125

K-Mart (calculator, two pots to replant plants in, pot to bake egg stuff in for visiting friends this weekend): $28

Soundgarden (3 tickets to Melissa Ferrick/Dan Bern show this Thursday night downtown here, new Catie Curtis CD, Nelly Furtado CD): $65

Safeway Grocery: (stuff for staff meeting today, as it's my turn to bring in food - two bags of Oreo cookies, bag of pretzels, bag of chips, three 2-liter pops, box of Clementine oranges): $20