Tie Dye, Man

Circle the date on your calendars, sports fans. On March 16, my school will be holding a faculty-student basketball game to raise money for Global Issue's 2nd annual Peace Conference. I will be playing for the faculty team, obviously.

We haven't held any practices. Our first is tomorrow. We did, however, have a team tie dying meeting today after school. Our team jerseys, it has been decided, will be tie dyed shirts. I had never tie dyed anything before. As a matter of fact, back in the day, and up until now, I have, for some reason, made it a point not to wear tie dye. I kind of think it looks, well, not so good. That and I always associated tie dye with all that hippie crap that it is stereotypically connected with. Of course, in the spirit of team unity, I will be making an exception. I also liked the idea of a self-made product as a souveneir of the experience. Anyway, it was fun, in an arts and crafts sort of way. I don't know what the shirt will look like, but I will know tomorrow. I'll try to get some pics to post of myself and my team mates modeling our fashions.

Beyond that, school is really kicking my ass, lately. I really can't go into a great deal of detail, but things are just hard in some arenas the past couple of weeks. On top of that, the busy time of the year for National Honor Society and the Hickman Review, both of which I co-sponsor, are full upon me. Add to that a major grading influx, due to my own poor forethought, making things hard on top of everything else. And, over it all is the impending move, waiting to hear from Lincoln Public Schools, following up on Monkey's leads for other possible job openings, and the house search (complicated ny the uncertainty of my employment situation) making things really funky for me right now.

But who really wants to here me bitch?

There's plenty of good stuff, too. The basketball game, interacting (positively) with my students, goofing with my co-workers, playing music, etc. all help to lift the spirits when times get tough. But in those quiet moments, the question marks, the "to do" list, the imagined negative resolutions to all the "what if" questions flood the mind and put me in a funk of of intropection and prospection. And the best thing to do in this situation? Get something done. Which is what I am about to do, as soon as I answer the following tag from my girl Mags.

1. Find the nearest book.

Okay, got it. It was on the top shelf, right side, of the black bookcase next to the filing cabinet in Monkey's office.

2. Name the book and the author.

Well, that makes sense. It is The Best American Short Stories of 2006, edited by Ann Patchett.

3. Turn to page 123.

A short story by Alice Munro, "The View from Castle Rock."

4. Go to the 5th sentence on the page & copy out the next three sentences onto your blog.

She will give up that, she will give it up gladly, if only he isn't gone.

If only he can be found. If only he isn't dead.

**********

There you go. I am supposed to tag three other folks, but I always prefer to just open up the floor to comments. You know, it has worked so well in the past, and I always like to encourage the comments.

Peace, y'all.