Saturday, Dec. 18, 2004
A school Friday night, posted at 8:52 a.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com Yesterday after school, I headed immediately over for our English teachers book club to discuss Jumpha Lahiri's The Namesake, a book I had read one chapter of. Going to a book club without finishing the book would be silly at most book club meetings, I suppose, and it's certainly more interesting when you can contribute, but the meeting was good anyway. We ordered Indian food and talked about the book for about twenty minutes (verdict: a little too dense for our tenth grade American lit curriculum, but we like the idea of teaching one of her short stories to capture the modern immigrant experience), and I'll try to read it sometime soon. The January book is White Teeth by Zadie Smith. I might be able to finish that one, since I have the break to catch up with it.We spent the rest of the time discussing school. Teaching is a lonely profession at times, since you're pretty much in your classroom alone. Most teachers like to talk with others, but the job offers precious little time to do so. It's easy to get caught up in your own little word of planning and grading. These Friday afternoon - whether they're at Rocky Run or somewhree else - have become crucial to my increase in contentment this year over last. Last year, I was working often on Friday afternoons and didn't have the breakdown period. Not anymore.
It feels like our school is in shambles right now, and I really want to write about it, but I can't. I'll leave it at that, I guess.
After the meeting, I headed back to the school with most of my colleagues to watch a student production of Henry IV. The kids did great. I don't know much about theater and can probably count on two hands the amount of plays I've been to into my life. The fact that someone can memorize so many lines and movements is amazing to me. The fact that 15-year old kids can memorize Shakespeare to the point where it looks and sounds natural is even more amazing. The kids did a great job and it's hard not to feel inspired by that.
Of course, I didn't understand a damn thing about what was going on in the play, but I could pretty much figure out what was happening in the individual scenes. It was my first exposure to Henry IV.
After the play, two colleagues and I headed to O'Donnells Pub right by my house. It's a dive bar, to be sure, and that was what we needed. We needed to listen to a cover band sing Bon Jovi and Counting Crows, drink Guinness for $2, and have free shots of some green shit they were giving away. I was exhausted after two drinks and headed home, falling asleep nearly as soon as I walked in the door.
I've been very tired all week, a result of being abnormally busy, of not working out, and of not getting enough sleep. I hope to have a productive day today, and then tomorrow is the night of the big Christmas party at the restaurant. I've already decided to take Monday off, so I can cut loose. Last year, the party fell on the eve of my eye surgery, so I couldn't even drink water. But this year, it's happening the night a day I'm going to take off of school to christmas shop and do laundry so I can leave for Michigan right after work on Thursday if I need to. I haven't decided if I'm going to leave on the 23rd or the 24th, but I'm leaning towards leaving after school on the 23rd so I'm home with my parents on Christmas Eve. I'm getting very excited about the holiday.