Smile

These were yesterday's best shots.  They're not good enough, so we'll have to take more on Friday.  Are you sad for me, Jill?

I may have acted like a swamp witch while asking them to smile for the billionth time.  I've repented.

I may have turned gangsta' on the man who, my homegurl warned, was coming up from behind as I stood snapping pictures on a remote street in downtown Phoenix.  The guy asked, "Have you seen my friend...

"No," I cut him off mid-sentence.  "I have not seen your friend.  We just got here!"  I stared him in the eye and gave him the what's-your-next-question, chump? look.  Then I slightly wagged my head and neck while waiting for his response, and that's when he decided to turn and walk the other direction.

"That's what I thought," I said under my breath as he walked away.

"You're kind of tough," my homegurl noted.  And I said, "Dang-straight! That's how we do."

Then I turned and saw that Bryce was coming out from behind the building, so maybe it was Bryce who scared him off.  No...

P.S. Maybe I should repent for being rude to the man.

Tooth Fairy, Caesar, and Huck

Only three days left of teaching, and I've mixed emotions about it ending.  I love the students, like really love them.  I think about them as I lie awake in bed at night.  I think about the literature we're reading and how I will  make Shakespeare's Julius Caesar relevant to a room filled with eager to learn, but easily bored, tenth-graders.  I think about how I will skirt the 215 "n"words in Huck Finn. (We don't read the word aloud, ever.)  I think about how I teared-up (not cool) when I read to the class Jim's hurt-filled response to Huck's mean trick,

"When I got all wore out wid work, en wid de callin' for you, en went to sleep, my heart wuz mos' broke bekase you wuz los', en I didn't k'yer no' mo' what become er me en de raf'. En when I wake up en fine you back ag'in, all safe en soun', de tears come, en I could 'a' got down on my knees en kiss yo' foot, I's so thankful. En all you wuz thinkin' 'bout wuz how you could make a fool uv ole Jim wid a lie. Dat truck dah is trash; en trash is what people dat puts dirt on de head er day fren's en makes 'em ashamed. (Twain, 83) 

I think about how some days the students like me, and the other days they want to hop on a raft to Cairo or put me at the base of Pompey's statue.  Just kidding; they don't want to kill me, I pray.

I asked my homies last night, "What if I become a full-time teacher?" They said, "We miss you when you're not here in the mornings."

"I miss seeing you in the mornings, too."

Unrelated to the above thought process, I found this Tooth Fairy letter from years ago.  Haven't I shared it with you already?  It's too cute, and I think I'm getting Alzheimer's.

We're still waiting for the magic, Tooth Fairy.  And I would like to retract the crossing out of "Clean the whole house in a second."  We'd still like that, too.