Friday, May. 20, 2005
Goat Hall, posted at 4:28 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com What a long day. It's the last day of school for the seniors, which means everyone is on edge and geared up for pranks. From the morning announcements, we're told that we do not get a planning period today, that we're expected to be in the hallways whenever we are not teaching. (Yeah, right.) Rumors fly through the building. We made a "Senior Threat Threat Level" on the english office chalkboard, complete with colors like fuscia, burnt sienna, and taupe.It turned out to be a relatively calm day. I heard about a goat - absconded from a White Marsh farm - let loose on the third floor, and heard other rumors of bleach balloons and eggs. But nothing came near my classroom, and I had a pretty great day with my kids. My ninth graders, many of whom were scared they would be victim of pranks, and I read through Act 5 of Romeo and Juliet, and you could have heard a pin drop. The half a class of Juniors who showed up sat through a choral reading of Beowulf. Despite the good day within the walls of my classroom, I'm exhausted by the nervous tension of the day, the hushed tones of "no hallway passes" and kids begging to eat their lunches in my room to avoid the cafeteria, the small amounts of battling for attention I had at the beginning and end of classes. It was a long day, one that couldn't get over quickly enough.
I'm now home, with a nap taken, and with a plan not to do anything tonight except relax. I'm pretty exhausted, dating back to three straight nights of going out fairly late. Last night, a big thanks to Snay for organizing the Star Wars Happy Hour. I got there at around 6 (had a typically terrible meal at Ryan's Daughter - oh, how cool that place would be if it was affordable and had decent food or decent service), hung out with a bunch of blog folks and friends, then headed over to the theater. We ended up in a very long line around the block, but it moved quickly once it started moving. The movie was good, easily the best of the three prequels. As only a moderate fan of the series, it was fun for me to connect the dots and see how it all has been put together. And, unlike the previous two prequels, the film was swiftly paced, solidly acted (except for Natalie Portman, who gets dumber with age), and emotionally affecting. Not perfect (haven't those folks in the future heard of ultrasounds?), but good and entertaining.
I lost my cell phone at the theater. I realized it at the cell phones reminder at the beginning of the film, and it was odd since I had just had it in my hands in the long line. I walked the lobby and the sidewalk looking for it, while Fool got down on her hands and knees and scoured the floor. I finally gave up, hoping it would turn up after the movie. After the movie, we all looked some more, and I pretty much gave up, glad I had purchased insurance for this three-day old phone. At that moment, though, Tuesdays coming looked down and found it, just right under the seat. I tried understanding it how he had found it in a second of looking and we had not found it in hours (okay, minutes), but the only thing I could think of was that he had the force with him and the rest of us did not.
Twas a good night, and now I'm home, ready to relax and do nothing else. Tomorrow might be my crazy night. Then again, maybe it won't be.
Update: The Tigers are being no-hit by the Diamondbacks right now in the 6th. I'm hoping writing about it will jinx them to break it up. I'm also really wishing I had someone to go to the movies with, but my cell phone has very few numbers in it just yet and all of my friends who I could call are amongst those that do not have their numbers stored yet. Crash plays at 9:45. Maybe I'll head there alone.