First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. The lead-up was killer, so I didn't get much done with that stuff I talked about in the last post... but I did start another blog.

Due to... well, lots of stuff, I guess... I was getting my room ready right up until (and while) the kids arrived.

As part of the craziness, I got to school this morning at about 4:50, and thought I wasn't going to be able to get in, but it worked out.

I'm dead tired right now. I'm excited about my new room, about this group of kids, and about the good vibe I've got for the year.

We shall see.

The First Annual "Wear Red For Patsy's Birthday" Is Next Week!

As some people may recall, I sent out a call for everyone to wear red in memory of my mother, Patsy, on September 10th and 11th of last year (we were having a sort of celebration of her life on the 11th, and her memorial service was on the 10th). I even encouraged sending digital pictures of yourself in red (and jokingly suggested holding up that day's paper) to my e-mail address. Peggy (who has commented on here before) and Rick complied with the newspaper suggestion, as seen here:
My friends at Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Company went all out as well, as evidenced by Jon, Jeanne, and the "actor" who portrayed Tiny Tim when I portrayed Bob Cratchett shown here:

Jeanne's husband, Dan, and their daughter Cassandra participated, although the daughter in question opted for a construction-paper outfit to go with her pre-photographed costume:

And, as you can see, the actor who had portrayed Tiny Tim was very shocked at the news that my mother had passed:

Another actor friend (who also sings) went all-out for the event. His name is T.K. Durham. Can you guess what type of music he sings? Here are three chances for you to figure it out:

I have other pictures (from the celebration on Sunday the 11th), but blogspot is getting persnickety, so I'll save those for later.

My point is, I've decide to make August 20th the unofficial "Wear Red For Patsy's Birthday"--a date where I encourage everyone I know to wear red in honor of my mom, Patsy. Red was her favorite color, and I figure it would be nice on her birthday if she could look down from Heaven and see a sea of red... and I don't mean the Red Sea.

I kid. Mainly it's just a way to recognize that I had a mother and she played a very large role in my crazy sense of humor... and really probably anything else about me that's crazy.

I'd like to somehow tie it in to the Alzheimer's Association or something, but I don't know how to do that, other than to encourage you at this time to maybe make a donation to them. But I'm not even sure if there's such a thing as the Alzheimer's Association. I know there are lavender ribbons.

Anyway, on the 20th, would you please wear something red for Patsy's birthday? I'm going to try to post some Fun Patsy Facts on here to share with people who ask you, "Why are you wearing all that red?" So it's like a party, only not.

Join us!

The Bathroom That Wants Me Dead!!!

Starring: ME!

Okay, first: Leslie and Ruth still have another month to raise more funds... or just search that site for some poor schmoe who hasn't been able to raise the required minimum and donate to them instead...

Now, back to the new horror movie starring yours truly.

Remember that bathroom I nearly died in last year? I think it is trying to kill me. Okay, so it's only made two attempts in a fourteen-month period, so when we turn this into a screenplay, we might want to lose some of the down time--but, still, I'm worried for my life. It might try to get me again next summer.

Caution: This story contains the word "urinal". If you can't bear reading the word "urinal", you should probably not read beyond the end of the previous paragraph.

So, today (okay, yesterday, but it's still today in my head) I was in the Restroom of Harrowing Experiences, which is my new name for it.

I flushed the urinal and turned to go, letting go of the handle. The urinal did it's favorite trick, which is to do the urinal equivalent of saying, "Okay, I'm flushi--psych! I'm not flushing!"

This particular urinal does this often, and I was rolling my eyes as I was in the process of stopping to change direction a bit so I could reach back and hold down the handle. That's when it happened. My left foot just went sliding along the floor. My right foot was in mid-step. It was all very slow-motion-y, and I remembered thinking, "Okay, you're going to fall. Just fall in a way where you don't hurt yourself as much."

So, still in slow motion, I let myself fall backwards, saying a quick prayer about halfway down something along the lines of, "God, please don't let me crack my head on the urinal and bleed to death in here... and if that's a given, then please don't let my head land in the urinal." Okay, I'm kidding about the last part. I was mainly just thinking, "I can't die in this bathroom after failing to die in it last summer, right?"

The prayer was answered in the affirmative... or at least with an "Okay..." or maybe a "I'm sorry, what were you saying? Um... I mean, yes, behold my power over urinal concussions!"

Also, second miracle: Kids aren't at school right now, so the floor wasn't... um... icky. Just not cooperative with my sandals, I guess.

However, my camera, which was around my neck for reasons that are not about a creepy guy in a public restroom with a camera, but more about my room being constantly left unlocked while the building is being readied for the upcoming school year (and also more about this site and the fact I'm always taking pictures these days--only, not in the restroom), decided--or reacted according to the laws of physics, more likely, but I like thinking it had some free will--to fly up and hit me in the head. And this is no small camera.

So, I have this strange knot on my... well, not my eye, but on that bony part around the eye. It hurts. Also my elbow keeps complaining that I had plenty of time to land while going in slow motion, but apparently I didn't plan well enough to spare it any pain.

But, I survived this second attempt on my life by the forces of evil that possess that restroom. However, I'm thinking I'm gonna use the restroom next to the nurse's office from now on.

Never a dull moment, folks.