Leap Year

I decided, it seems, that because this is a leap year I will simply skip over the month of February as far as blogging is concerned. Truly this past month has been a demon hell-ride and I am clenching the coattails of my colleagues and begging for help. Influenza has struck down many a student which is great because less students make for smaller classes and that means easier days for a variety of reasons. While this outbreak of funky boogers was serendipitous it was also a bit of a drag when my planning partner and teaching partner was bed-ridden for 9 days in a row. Now, while I do consider myself skilled enough to go into any situation and take charge or to be flexible and "wing it," I have learned that I can only do that for about, um, two consecutive days before throwing up in my mouth every time I step onto school grounds. Last week was hell; winging it is no good. Here, I will share just a few little road bumps from last week: a student of mine was arrested for selling prescriptive meds, colleagues put white out over my name on the library reservation sign-up sheet, I got my first student suspended (he totally deserved it...nine times over), every employee of my school had a nice lil' passive aggressive email in their inbox from one upset wrestling coach because the newspaper of which I am the adviser for 'forgot' to mention his team, a crown completely came out of my mouth (I was eating taffy...so what), I stayed at work until 8:30 at night one night editing embarrassingly second-rate articles to print in the paper, the whole while pushing away my desire to ring the necks of every single one of my cocky newspaper staffers, and I got a nasty email from the man down below for missing a meeting.

One thing I have learned about being a teacher is that you can't take shit. Not from the students (most don't give it ) or from the eclectic mix of absurd people that you work with. Luckily I have some friends who have my back and can be like, "Yo wrestling coach! Lay off the new girl or I'll show you how to make a Half Nelson count!" and also I am no wuss. I am actually becoming less and less of a wuss every day when I realize that if I don't stand up for myself then no one will. Sometimes I catch myself humming "We Shall Overcome" in the middle of the day as I fight my own battles.

Oh, and heck yes Black History Month! My school is getting together a pretty fantastic program for next Wednesday and I am very excited. I think I have (possibly...maybe) decided that I want to go back for a masters in African American history/literature before going back for a PhD. One thing that is for sure though is that I wanna go back.

Last week I was at Emory listening to Salman Rushdie discuss the relationship between autobiography and fiction and just being there made me crave that school-type scenario again. I don't like being the one doing all the talking...I wanna listen too. It seems I talk more than I listen every day which is a shame...it is just he way things are working out right now.
I am trying to find alone time to read a bit, and right now I am reading Midnight's Children by Rushdie (yes I was inspired by his lecture). I was also inspired to get back up and write something tonight. He says that we are a "nation of forgetters." I don't want to be one of those. I wanna remember the details and take the minutes of my life. Hello again reflection and blogging.