Sorry about the unannounced and abrupt departure from here. If you know me in real life, you know why, and also why this blog is probably going to continue to remain dormant for a bit- I took the electoral job, and in deference to my boss, shut down anything that could've been an issue, and despite the fact that this is a semi-anonymous blog, I felt it best to leave alone for the time being. It's been rough, not gonna lie, as writing is definitely therapeutic for me, and I liked writing for the cozy little community here. But tis not to be, for a while anyways, and while I've got no end of funny and touching stories accummulated over the last year and a half, they are not going to be public (at least for a while), in written format anyway. There's a lot of stories that would suddenly pop up in my head over the last year and a half, and I'd think, "I never wrote that down!" and panic, and then forget about it by the time I got to a computer. I may continue to use this space to record those even as I avoid writing about my current life.
For example, in college, I worked for a number of tutoring/school support programs, doing everything from teaching theater to playing dodgeball to making photocopies for various teachers and programs around Chicago.
I recently looked back through a newsletter from one of these, an afterschool program that I spent some time at, and was shocked to see a kid that I remember as being an adorable 4 year old suddenly morphed into this ginormous 12 year old. I was horrified. If my math is right (luckily I only tutored him in reading) and I remember his age correctly (which is very possibly not the case) he couldn't possibly be more than 10. (Huge diff, right? I'm totally going to turn into one of those women who stays 29 forever. *sigh*)
Anyway, I had a flashback to sitting on a couch with him, reading One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. He's cheerfully smiling and following along, but then suddenly turns serious and stops me, pushing the book down. He turns and looks at me, and then gives me a once over. And I mean, seriously gave me a looking. There's got to be a term for that kind of look (once-over doesn't really get across the creepy objectification of it), but basically, the head to toe scan, and then back up. Still serious, he tilts his head.
"You got a man?"
Sadly, I don't remember the specifics of what I said. I think it was something along the lines of, "Huh?" as my brain was processing that a 4 year old was hitting on me.
He shook his head, knowingly but with a tinge of something that felt like disdain mixed with sympathy.
"Yeah, that's what I thought. You don' t got a man."
Still dumbstruck by the turn of conversation, I stared at him. His smile returned, he pushed the book back up, and put his finger on the word where we'd left off. I had just been dissed by a 4 year old.
On the upside, he's now (according to the newsletter) a straight A student, so evidently the early childhood reading helped. Hopefully he doesn't break too many hearts.
Speaking of which, despite the fact that I no longer teach, I've kept up with a fair number of my kids. Cyrus, Gamer, Whoopi, and a total cutie who used to give me apples (don't think I had a nickname for her) all have the same teacher this year (along with a few other kids from that class) and Cyrus hasn't gotten in trouble yet this year! A bunch from before that have my email, and, which feels weird, they're starting to get on facebook. So I get my fix of talking to them every once in a while as well.
And um, yeah. It's late, my sleeping schedule is all kinds off, and I don't even know how often I'll be back here, but it was good to visit for a bit and see that some folks either wandered here or were checking back from the old days.
Happy holidays!
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