One Crazy Day

I had a very weird day. This morning, I received five valentines from a sheepish first grade boy. They said things like, "You rock me!" and "You're a blast!" Yes, go ahead and check the date, this post is from June. I heard some other strange things from students, so strange I feel uncomfortable posting them on my non-anonymous blog, but if you are lucky you will get to here my tattoo story in person later this week.

It all started early this morning, when a man with a giant, terry-cloth bath towel on his head arrived at the bus stop. He greeted me with a "Hey sisSTAH," and then collapsed to his knees, laughing maniacally. He was carrying a bottle of water and a coffee, and I could only assume that he was in the recovery portion of a major bender. I hate to be unfriendly to people so I always say hello, but then I get trapped in conversations that have no endings. He preached a little, "the world is all one, man, we are together" kind of stuff, and then he got distracted by a woman who needed a lighter. I took the opportunity to get a little distance and started talking to this older woman who is always there. We have the same conversation every morning. She always remembers that I'm a teacher, but forgets where I teach, and when I tell her she says, "aren't you afraid to go out there?" Our attention was returned to the man in the bath towel, who was doing a little more "preaching", but when she asked me to repeat what he had said (which was something like, "you have to go over to that corner if you want to see my head"), I just told her he was crazy.

"Oh," she said, "I thought he was a Muslim. He was praying before."

I'm not kidding. I think America needs some cultural tutorials ASAP.

Anyway, so fast-forward through work. I got some Valentines. I didn't get paid. Again. I made some sock puppets. And after work, I stopped at the convenience store next to my school to get some change for the bus.

Before the woman could even hand me the change, a guy walked in the door and the very loud burglar alarm went off. He wasn't robbing it, the door alarm just misfired. They were frantically trying to disarm it before the police showed up, so I was stuck inside, because the doors have to be shut. Nothing worked, though. So, they shouted and gestured at me to go ahead and leave, but as soon as I walked out the door, with the alarm still blaring, I realized the entire neighborhood and all cross-traffic had stopped to find out who was robbing JJ's, and it definitely appeared to be me. I walked as casually as possible across the parking lot and was crossing the street when a women suddenly decided to make the left turn. I literally had to jump super hero style across the hood of her car to avoid being run over. And then she called me a b*&%$!

There are nine days of school left. Thank goodness.