My Cardboard Balcony

This week, I yielded more yearbook power to my students and freaked out. I dealt with various questions about a unit project that were all answered by the instruction sheet and rubric I wrote and shared with my students. I came down with a cold that made me feel like I was hit by a train for two days. I had to withstand constant drama from the teenagers I work with. And had to manage a tense and stressed out staff. And had to find a way to balance out their demands with the demands of an adult volunteer with high expectations. And had to respond to countless aggressive messages from my students. And had to read the constant news about a potential rapist and emotional partisan hack becoming a Supreme Court justice because screw my country. And on top of that, I had to watch the ending of the Of Mice and Men film adaptation four times. Can I just... Can I just get a break? Can I just make breakfast with my wife tomorrow and go check out costumes that the local high ...

Halloween Spirit by Belinda Roddie We made out, and she had spiders on her tongue.

Mrs. Semple wore a golden hoop in each ear, and she claimed she was an expert hula hooper in her youth. I was ready for her to brag that she could shoot hoops, too, but she never mentioned basketball in all the times we had tea together. I was heating up the kettle when she came down with a cough. I held her hand as we went to the emergency room together. She wore silver hoops in her ears that night.