a really nice shirt. a really, really nice shirt. and a visit from the fork lady...

the five things i fell in love with today...

1) that i am no longer 15-years-old.

i went to target today and saw a teenager roll his eyes at his parents, as his dad was taking out of his hands-- & putting back on the shelves-- something like a $17 striped shirt. i didn't think much of it, until i heard this kid a few minutes later throwing his shopping cart all over the aisle, and screaming like a six year old, "YOU GUYS ARE UNBELIEVABLE!!! THAT WAS A REALLY NICE SHIRT!!! I WANTED IT!!!"

2) that i know the difference between a really nice shirt... and a shirt from target.

don't get me wrong, i still love target. but, dude... i don't know if i've ever owned an article of clothing i've had a temper tantrum over. but if i did... i wouldn't have bought it at target. i dunno, maybe the winning lottery ticket was tucked away inside one of its pockets? that would explain things, i guess...?

3) that i know the value of free stuff.

i once had a great shirt that was given to me by a coworker by the name of patti visconti (her real name). over the years, she gave me a ton of stuff that she originally bought for her son joe, which he refused to wear (he was a teenager). this one shirt was... actually i don't remember much about it at all, except that it was so nice that i got about a dozen compliments on it at a new year's eve party. i kept telling people, "well, y'know... it IS a joseph visconti." and i swear this is true-- every single time i said that, someone would caress the fabric and say, "oooooooh!"

good times.

4) that i know one shouldn't throw a hissy fit over a fork.

there's a woman who works in the kitchen... and God bless her, i know she has a tough job; i wouldn't want to do it. and Lord knows everyone has a bad day every now and again... but you could just tell that she had been sitting on this moment for awhile...

basically, it's like this... there are forks that need to be returned to the kitchen and there are forks that need to stay in the staff lounge. and even though the staff lounge forks are easily identifiable (they're red), dammital if yesterday this one little bugger didn't manage to find its blankity-blankin' way from the staff lounge, into our classroom, and finally into the kitchen.

oops. our bad.

but, no big deal...? right...?

right.

except, of course, this woman in the kitchen-- i'll call her the fork lady (not her real name)-- was just about ready to pounce. and, honestly, to an extent, i can understand this. i'm sure that when she bought a bunch of these shiny happy red utencils, she was thinking, "oh holyfreak, just WAIT until one of these flippin' things winds up in my kitchen, then i am going to tear that little (beeeeeeeeeep) and then i'll (beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep)..."

...it's actually kind of embarrassing how much i can understand and relate to that, now that i re-read that last paragraph, but... yeah...

5) that i know that having empathy for someone's frustrations doesn't necessarily mean i have to excuse their irrational and rude behavior.

the fork lady pounced, alright. to be truthful, it did sound like she had most of her speech planned out for a few days. including the classic line, "well, the fork didn't just walk into the room by itself."

it was right around that point when i put a halt to it. y'know, forgetting for a moment that at 36 years old i don't appreciate being talked to like a spoiled teenager-- all this happened at our busiest time of the day, in the middle of our classroom, with 9 kids running around like the crazy people that they are. so, i'm sorry, but i don't have the time to sit and listen to a twelve minute lecture about a magical fork.

so, i cut her off. i didn't want to be rude myself, but, hey, i told her the truth-- "look, you made your point. i got it. but right now, i have other priorities." and to me, that was the end of it.

but, she was pissed. and, by the look she gave me this morning, i can imagine that she's still pissed. and, y'know, as a Christian, there's a part of me that wants to be able to tell you that, well-- that i give a rat's ass. but i don't. i really, truly don't.

see, there's a sign on the front door of the kitchen that reads, "treat this space as if it were an office." and i'm glad it's there-- i think too many people got into the habit of marching into that room with their demands and complaints. so, again, i get it. day after day of that sort of thankless job? i can see how it could esily lead someone to become, and remain, focused on the negative. even anticipating, on a daily basis, how they're going to react to the next nagative thing that is certainly lurking around the corner.

but, in my classroom? oh, hells no. that's MY office, fork lady. and those are MY kids. and there's not enough bullshit in the world that's going to distract me from keeping my kids safe.


song of the day...
"round the bend" by the beta band

movie of the day...
"high fidelity"