There's just been way too much going on lately. I can't believe how much of a blur the month of June has been...I mean, two weeks ago was the final week of the regular school year. We had Field Day, where in an awful pie-throwing fundraiser scheme masterminded by my third (and no longer second-favorite) brother Steve, I joined several other teachers wearing black garbage bags on an 85 degree day so that the dairy in the pies being thrown at us would spoil even faster. Even had sour whipped cream in your hair? No, don't answer that, but it's really not pleasant. And I'll leave it at that.
Then there was packing my classroom. One of those times where it becomes evident that, as Laura would put it, I am an "abstract random." To help you picture, she is a "concrete sequential." I had boxes everywhere, stuff everywhere. And that's just how I work. But it was a lot of work, just so next year I can work with a different group of teachers. We'll see.
The Comcast Center has been very busy. We've had already Iron Maiden, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam, Petty and some other people. It's been OK...last night we had this guy, maybe Italian, maybe French...maybe from Ohio...so hard to tell...screaming and threatening a lawsuit because our bartender cut him off. "This is UNtolerable!! Yes, I think...lawsuit. This is UNtolerable. I think we have lawsuit next." I guess the reason I'm a seasonal waitress and a full-time English teacher rather than a full-time manager is because had he been screaming that at me, I would have corrected his INacceptable prefix usage before addressing the INprofessional behavior of the bartender (who, by the way sounded even stupider yelling back with a...I dunno Fall River accent?!) and his UNexcusable actions, which make it ILLlikely we'll ever see him again...[Sigh]...we have a break after Pearl Jam tomorrow night, so it'll be nice to have some time off from there. People who work full-time in the hospitality/entertainment industry frighten me.
Many of the teachers from school are playing indoor soccer at Bridgewater this summer, just for fun. Steve and I put the team together, thinking we'd be able to hold our own with any team we'd see. Turns out most of us make better coaches than we do players anymore; we're a bit overmatched. We lost our first game 12-2, we think--they stop the scoreboard after 7 goals or so. My goals against average stinks already. Our next game is Wednesday the 9th, if anyone's looking for free entertainment. I'm not giving refunds though, if one of us fails to break something. Take your chances.
Earlier that day, before our opening match, Scott took me out on his boat, which I've been pestering him to do for just this last year and a half or so. We mostly hung out by Bug Light in Plymouth, which reminded me of a story I had done at the paper about the lighthouse's problem with cormorants nesting on the light and soiling it quite significantly thus causing an eyesore. The solution had been to cover the lighthouse in netting, which, unfortunately, prevented cormorant poop through the most effective means: strangulation. We had photos. And there was this great quote from some woman, like, "I think dead cormorants are pretty unsightly," or something like that. So, long story short: no netting. Lots of cormorants.
I'll be headed out to Seattle this weekend for Tiina's wedding, so that's exciting. And I also finally caught up with Stacey and Nick last weekend, so that was great. And Charlotte let me get close enough to touch her, so that's huge. Nick makes a good burger, too!
Sigh. I really wish I had the energy to make myself sound slightly more interesting than this. Summer school has me still semi-busy. One week down, three to go. The problem kid mostly has been asleep, so so far (touch wood) no major hassles. We'll see. And I actually do have some kids failing. How is that possible??? Guess I should figure out what to teach tomorrow...it's a big game of winging it, which we all know I'm terrific at, but the older kids are a bit harder to fool. Oh well.
All else fails, there's always....BOMBARDMENT!!!