2 For example, on Friday the week worked perfectly. I hit everything into the water and felt great. The second the bell rang ending the day I received a phone call...
3 The phone screamed this at me from across the room: "Annoyingbrinnnnnnng! Annoyingbrinnnnnnng!"
4 It said on the screen that it was from our APA Kyle, but I also saw that it was from someone else with alphabet letters, but not clearly identified. I anticipated instant bad news. Occupational hazard. I answered.
5 "Mr. Harrington? We're just calling to let you know that there will be some major changes to your schedule, and that your prep period will now be the first class of the day..."
6 It slowly occurred to me that it was our assistant Principal Chantal and our Department Chair Sarah, both of whom I respect a lot. My heart sank, because I was going to lose one of my ears-and-braces English 1A classes, but it sank deeper when I saw that my prep period changed from right after lunch (hour-and-a half lunch in anybody's eyes!) to a one hour prep period from 8:15 to 9:15 in the morning.
7 We're all professional here, but that's quite a come-down from that dandy break right at midday.
8 Because I know those two are hard and diligent workers, I told them they could slot me wherever there is a need, and I actually stayed pretty good-natured about the change.
9 I took it in total stride, driving home, opening the front door, walking in, closing the door and letting out a sustained Janovian primal scream. I breathed in and did a yoga move of having my right toe touch my left ear via my neck.
10 And then I looked at the bright side: I'll have four English 2A classes, and I always loved teaching 2A. The students tend to behave much better than the 1A's and tend to be more graceful. Just an observation.
11 When Saturday hit I realized that I had to make some major changes to what will be taught, and had no idea really how to change to a newer pacing guide that hasn't yet been invented.
12 I looked up the latest professional books online, found one and ordered it immediately.
13 I then downloaded the latest English 2A Pacing Guide and printed it. I would at least have a proven plan for now.
14 When it started printing, my printer started talking. It said this: "Buh-bleh, blah, blah, Buh-bleh, blah, blah, Buh-bleh, blah, blah..." incessantly. It's not a laser printer, so it makes those "Ka-chunk" sorts of noises.
15 It switched middway when I changed my own attitude. I was suddenly a character in a lousy book.
16 I smiled and changed, because I've done this sort of thing a bazillion times before.
17 The printer knew this too.
18 It slowly morphed its words from "Buh-bleh, blah, blah..." to this: "Awe-some, awe-some, awe-some, awe-some..." It seemed to streamline and print faster.
19 Anybody lookin'?
20 I am thoroughly convinced that it changed because I changed my attitude.
21 Totally.
22
23 I gotta get looked at.
24 Moving On, Part One: Do you hear the birdies?
25 I am. On Saturday I decided to go on my bazillionth health kick. I walked three or four miles with Helene, Coley and Rocket J. Dog. He's a little pipsqueak who always looks worried, but he will cute you to a fault.
26 We heard the birdies and walked through parts of the neighborhood I had never seen.
27 Amazing how you can live so close to pretty places and never really know it.
28 One street we walked down had the sidewalk move through a shady park. I thought I knew every park in town so it was a nice surprise.
29 I had been exercising my legs all summer, because at the end of the school year last year I had trouble walking, and had cracky bones due to medications I took. It was really depressing, particularly when coupled with the horrors of last Spring.
30 I won't list them, as the majority were work related. Traditionally I am able to get past things like that with a pop on the snout and a road-runner departure.
31 I didn't even check out of the school on our last work day. I decided to go in after the weekend when everybody was gone, and pack it up then.
32 Best thing I ever did. The people who remained were a lot of the office workers I admire, some of the hardest working people on the planet. The mood was chill and upbeat; all the teachers had already gone off in their Hawaiian shirts, shorts and sandals.
33 I needed that time. I did hear birds again for the first time.
34 I scrubbed down my room, took time to chat with all these great people, and left on a really upbeat note.
35 I had been invited by my good friends John and Effie Arnolfo to stay at their place in Mt. Shasta City, and with my car still packed with some things from school I took off the next morning.
36 Scary trip up, as it was a Monday and you get LOTS of fast trucks on Mondays. It was also evidently Cops-Everywhere Day. It seemed I saw a police car on nearly every stretch of the road. Normally that would get me a bit paranoid, but with all the crazies out there I was pretty glad. It felt as though I had a police escort the rest of the way.
37 I loved getting there and seeing John, Effie and their daughter Kathleen, or "Kat" as she likes to be called. John and I took a ride through town, where he showed me some antique shops, a friendly furniture store and several great eats joints. Effie had suggested we visit their music store.
38 The music store in Mt. Shasta is run by St. Peter. I gazed at all the nice guitars hanging on the wall, and saw one small one that kept looking at me.
39 It didn't talk. I took it down, and played it. It sounded wonderful! It had clarity, a nice tone, and a percussive face.
40 That happens with more expensive guitars, but this one was relatively cheap, small enough to carry around, and pretty light. I LOVED it.
41 St. Peter told me some things about it, and within seconds I decided to buy it. John looked startled. "You're gonna buy that?"
41 I smiled. "Yep!"
42 Within minutes we were on our way to the shores of Lake Siskyou, in folding chairs, with no one around. In the distance stood the peak of Mt. Shasta, with wondrous clouds engulfing it. The clouds looked like something from outer space, and I knew that somehow both of us had slipped past St. Peter and that we were staring at heaven.
43 I stayed for three or four days, can't remember, but the school year dissipated in around four seconds. That is the power of Shasta. During that time we headed up to Oregon to Crater Lake, back down the Ashland, home of the Shakespeare festival, and into this family-style Italian restaurant for good food and good spirits.
44 The rest of this past summer rocked it overall, with Nicole's wedding, my turning the back yard into a lovely theme park,Tahoe, and home.
45 And the opening week of school rocked. The week went smoothly and everything worked. I got great students and great classes, so Friday's setback found inanimate objects talking to me for very short periods of time.
46 Even the voice that kept saying "Awe-some, Awesome, Awesome..." shut up when I lifted my left eyebrow.
47 It went lifeless. Completely silent.
48 For the record, I don't hear voices. The machine chugged what could have sounded like words, kind of like when I see little Rocky looking up at the top of the garage in pure confusion, and then I say, "Watcha lookin' at Rocks?"
49 And he'll always stare at me with his worried eyes, and then finally speak:
50 "Roof!"
51 I'll go now.
52 And as Vonnegut once put it in Breakfast of Champions: "I am better now.
53 "Word of honor.
54 "I am better now."
55 See you again.
56 Peace.
~H~
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