Really Excellent Week

I had a great week. GREAT week. Interesting components to the week.

Started back with my running club group. Personally, not sure it's the best week to run outside in Oklahoma at 6pm. But, it's 12 weeks til the Tulsa Run, so run we shall... and it's always a good boost of endorphins, definitely a plus.

Had two former students over for dinner - really great to see them. Paul and Audra. They are now 24/25... old. And growing up beautifully. I wouldn't have thought when I taught them in the 8th grade (And 9th and 10th and 11th and 12th) that five years later they would be sitting around my dinner table... but I LOVED it.

Memory of Paul that should say it all... Senior year, Spring Choir Concert at 7pm, it's 1:30 and I have my 7th hour class of 53 9th-12th graders coming in. Just got the programs back and they're wrong, so I've had to re-print them during the previous period and now am trying to get everything sorted. And I have a lot of Senior Boys in this class period. So, this HOSS of a kid, Taylor, walks out of my room, and the door swings out. I hear a huge smack and see Paul lying in the door frame with his hand to his forehead with blood coming out. Paul has a physical deal where getting hit isn't probably a GOOD thing, so I was MUCH more concerned than I would've been over pretty much anyone else. So, I run to the phone in my office, and tell another kid to run to the Nurse's office, and then... Paul starts laughing... he thought the FAKE BLOOD from the DRAMA DEPARTMENT PROP room would be a funny little joke for Miss Sharp...

I was so irritated - but it's not like I am gonna write him up, because if he gets written up again I'm doubtful he'll graduate, and he wasn't being a jerk, he was just being a jerk. So I said, "Get OUT. Get out of my line of vision. Leave." And he says, "Miss Sharp I love you." And I keep telling him to LEAVE. So he does.

Of course the guys in my class can NOT understand why I don't find it funny - (really helping Paul's case...) and about 15 minutes into class, in strolls Jon - a senior, who is an Office Aide, with a pass for someone. He leans over and says, "Paul says he's sorry." And I say, "Get out, Jon."

Ten minutes later another pass and another Paul apology.

Ten minutes later a THIRD pass and Jon says, "Paul says he's sorry and he loves you", and I look over to my door. I have a very small window that's covered with a piece of 8x11 piece of paper, and in the one inch space between the paper and the door, I see Paul peeping in - looking pathetic...

Ahhh... Paul.

And then sweet Audra who is so smart and funny and beautiful and full of life. I've always loved her passion for whatever she's doing, and she's still the same. She's very dramatic, but not a "drama girl". Actually, I think she reminds me a little of me. And she is seriously so BEAUTIFUL that she's almost painful to look at. I think it's all that life and vitality and humor and sunshine that spills out of her.

And then got to see another former student and former teacher friend the next night. Which was also fun. Again, what a wonderful young man Parker is turning out to be. Always liked him - he definitely got in trouble in my class... but it was always typical boy stuff and he was great about taking the hit (and coming back for more...?) And he is now smart, witty, consistent, willing to take risks and walk in the consequences (which is a trait, which if done correctly, is something I really respect), and had a great memory of the past. I had the delight of introducing Parker to "Thoroughly Modern Millie", which in typical fashion, he slammed, but then, in also typical fashion, came to me at intermission and said he had to grudgingly admit that I was RIGHT, and he was really enjoying it... ahh... the days when I was right...

And then something else happened that is maybe even better than ALL of that. But, that's for another post...