15 October 2007

A few things

If I am ever teaching and a student comes to me after a school shooting telling the media that he was in the bathroom and saw the shooter loading his weapon, but just went back to class and forgot about it, I will literally kill said kid. How can you forget that occurred. I try to make class interesting, but was what I was teaching about blood diamonds or the Aztecs really so engrossing that you forgot that a fellow student is about to blow some students and potentially some teachers to smitherines?

And why did Kelli tell me today that a grown-ass, college educated woman, a teacher at that, has no idea of what apartheid was. No idea who Nelson Mandela is. What is really going on with the whitening of American education? This is why I teach African Studies. This is why I have discussions with students about historical topics unrelated to the material in the curriculum. This is why I talk about issues with friends. This is why I am going to have the children who swim out of my womb reading books at a young age and listening to NPR as I drive them to school or to their little kiddie practices after we go to the library and check them out their weekly, non-school related reading books.

To take my mind off some school mess and my fluid-filled elbow (this is what I get for deciding to work out after four years off) I decided to watch a little video. You can watch, too. Enjoy. Makes me smile, and giggle.

11 October 2007

Homecoming times two

So we had our reunion which turned out to be cooler than I thought. People, for the most part, were much more relaxed and not as clique-ish. Some things changed and some stayed the same.

There was the “popular jock” crew who now instead of their letterman jackets all have their wives with the massive diamond encrusted rings. Everyone in the crew. Kind of like they all had to get a ring just as shiny and sparkly as their buddy. I guess you gotta keep up with the Jones even if it means you are deep in debt. This is also the crew who regularly dines at Bush’s Grove. A place where Brishen said the cheapest drink is around 7 or 8 bucks.

There was still the crowd that didn’t really socialize with more people than their cluster.

Some things were pleasantly refreshing. Like chatting with Don who is now really chill. And absolutely hilarious. Stories I could not imagine coming out of his mouth, obsessions I never would have dreamed, jokes that literally made me spill drinks. And it has to be funny for that, cause I’m not one to part with the liquor easily.

Also chatting with Roo and wife and Brian and wife. Both of them are still cool. More open with me, or easy to talk to, than before. I always thought Roo was a bit standoffish after I started to wrestle. Both of them have really awesome wives, too. I actually think I talked with them more than their men.

I went back to the school and looked at the old sports picks. Really funny seeing me all skinny in the wrestling unis. And thinking I was all hard and fast on the track picks.

Reuniting with Brishen and Anna was cool. Haven’t really talked with them since school, but, with Brishen especially, it was like no time had passed. We were still cool. There were few people at the reunion that I had conversations with beyond “What have you been up to? Where are you now?” etc. I know it sounds cheesy, but the conversations that were real, were really real. And the people were all people that I was cool with before, but haven’t spoken with in fo-ev-ah.

Homecoming number two.

I don’t know why it is that Homecoming at the school I teach at typically has to have some scene that gets stuck in my head. Last year it was the big girl (BIG) running into the splits.

This year it was a girl who in the middle of her routine moved forward in front of everyone, putting her hands on the ground and raised her legs into the spotting hands of two girls. She then proceeded to booty pop on a handstand.

In case you don't know what this is, she gyrated like crazy while on her head. Very stripperesque. Looked like it actually took a lot of practice on walls or poles or whatever to learn to do that while balancing upside down.

Of course, the guys went crazy. My jaw dropped. They immediately cut off the music and ended their routine with that presentation.

I also decided to partake in a teacher v. student tug of war contest. Shouldn't have done that. Not only did we lose easily despite having seemingly fit faculty members on our team (hard to compete against a team with people who honestly outweighed our team by about 300 pounds, at least). I also got a rope burn on my obliques. And had my hands hurt for awhile.

All in all, two very memorable homecomings.