Oh Sweet Sweet Weekend. How I love thee. Let me count the ways.
I knew on Friday that I just needed to get to 10:25 and I would survive the day. The students had three tests to take and then Art. I would get a planning period and the rest of the day would be surmised by a Halloween Party and the volleyball game. Well, everything went pretty well. We took our tests with no incident. The Halloween party was beaucoup fun. (Beaucoup, pronounced boo-coo down here, is my favorite New Orleans slang) A bunch of students brought in way too much candy. We distributed it and then watched "The Witches." The kids loved it and I loved seeing them make all the connections between the similarities and the differences of the book and the movie. My friend Alexa also pointed out to me that Ms. Finnerty, my third grade teacher, read it to us in third grade. Weird. Then I was off to the gym for the big game. I had some pressure on me, because the coach told the girls that I was a professional beach volleyball player. They believed him! The whole school was in the gym and as soon as we entered they went nuts, banging on the bleachers and screaming at the top of their lungs. I felt like I was at an LSU game. We beat the girls twice and I broke out the jump volleyball serve and it actually went in many times. Woo Hoo! Also, at one point, the principal missed a shot and silenty dropped the F-Bomb. I'm pretty sure that every single Third through Eighth grader saw it and all hell broke loose. It was a pretty hysterical moment. She didn't even realize she had done it.
That night I went into the city with the thirty something teacher who I'm living with. We bonded over Coors Lights at the Balcony Bar on Magazine. Good times. Jon's a great guy with good morals and a weird sense of humor, but he's completely loveable. The first time I met him this year, I was in my class, setting up my room, and he walked in just talking my ear off. Within five minutes, he decided to tell me his life history, including the fact that his wife was living in Connecticut with their son while he was in Louisiana with their two daughters. He went on to explain that he and his wife were not divorced, just separated. All this within five minutes of metting him! Some people are very comfortable sharing extremely personal nuggets on a dime. But here I am blogging it with no idea who's reading my stuff, so I'm not one to talk. He also a very good pool player and we had some fun beating up on some dudes who had no idea what they were up against.
Saturday was incredibly eventful. I began the day by going to VooDoo Fest at Audubon Park. The best band I saw by far was Cowboy Mouth, a New Orleans based funk/pop band. They played a bunch of music from an upcoming album. The music was satisfying because many of their new songs were based on Katrina. Many references to the levees breaking. The last song they played was "Jenny Says" which is probably their most famous. They had the entire crowd singing along and at the very end they had everyone get on the floor and jump up into the sky singing "Let it go, Let it go, Let it go. When the world is coming down on you, let it go." That night I went to see the first show at Tipitina's featuring the Rebirth Brass Band. They rocked the house. The audience was packed. The house was an inferno. But the feeling from everyone in the room was electric. They played the Ghostbusters theme song but adjusted the lyrics appropriately. The only verse I can remember was as follows:
When your house goes down,
From a hurricane.
Who you gonna call?
Call Fema!
I danced all night and definitely appreciated the added hour courtesy of daylight savings. Teach For America members were out in full force.
Well, this is a solid post to make up for the few days I missed. Having a personal revolution starting tomorrow. Time to reflect about what I want the next few months to look like. Tomorrow they are splitting up the fourth third grade class because the teacher is going back to her school in New Orleans. I'm not thrilled because my class size will jump from 21 to 27. Those kids aren't the most well behaved ones either. It should be interesting. I need to refocus my efforts on school and my own personal health. I've been depressed the last few days. I need to turn it around. Wish me luck.
