far, a long, long way to run

i wanna go back... that was the most relaxing week of my life

so i was really wanting to go see jay clifford (of jump, little children) last night cause he's one of my favorite songwriters and an incredible musician. well thursday, i hear that one of my kids is bragging about how he's going to dunk me in the dunking booth at pta's family fun night. i can't let my kids down, so i scramble, get the pta lady to fit me into the schedule, and proceed to promote my stint in the dunking booth by getting the kids riled up in their classroom before walking out the door and leaving it up to their teachers to calm them back down.

so the big day arrives and i walk outside to see the booth. it's not some dinky little thing. the bench sits about 3 feet above the water, and the water is about 5 feet deep. i'm a little worried because it doesn't have any water in it. every kid who ever had a green plastic turtle pool in the yard knows you've gotta let that thing sit out in the sun all day before it's comfortable enough to play in. so the school day goes on and there's still no water in it. eventually, a fire truck pulls up, takes out the hose, and starts to fill it up. apparently fire trucks and hydrants don't carry clean water. it was brown and you definitely couldn't see through it at all. but it was warm. (i'm not sure which i'd rather have, warm water or clear water.)

so the first few teachers go and it's a big hit. the first one to go discovers that if you don't stick your feet out, the bench will cut the heck out of the back of your leg. she bandaged it up with a bandana and kept going though. when it's finally my time to go (2 hours into the night) the novelty of it has worn off and the crowd has dwindled. a few of my kids get in line and get to try like 3 or 4 times within the span of a few minutes. folks notice there's not much of a line so they start coming over. apparently a young guy in the booth means it's not just kids anymore. i've got all kinds of folks throwing at me. one dad had a little girl who hit the target, but the ball just bounced back, so he got mad and took it upon himself to dunk me for his daughter. (it was pretty funny, everyone was like "what did that dad have against you?") heidi managed to dunk me on her third and final throw, other teachers i work with weren't so lucky.

i heckled a lot and said "aw, good try" a lot and after what felt like more than 20 minutes it was finally time for our principal to hop up in there. i'm not tenured yet, so i didn't take any throws. instead i went back inside to change, grabbed my free pizza, and headed home.

the most interesting part of the was seeing a parent, introducing myself, and hearing "that's not your teacher is it?" the kid so confidently answered, "yeah, that's mr. dean!" just motivates me to work harder and earn their trust.

poor blue was in the apt for 13 straight hours. he's a trooper. i took him to the dog park today as a reward. he made a little 3 year old's day by playing fetch with him. i should have taken my camera.