teacher's cell phone goes off at school play

The school play was last night, and I was on crowd control. I would have liked to have just sat back and enjoyed the show, but the kids were apparently jerks on Thursday night - talking and text-messagin throughout - that I decided to go and be the heavy. It was going okay for a while, when suddenly I heard a cell phone ring. I looked down towards the middle of the auditorium, getting angrier and angrier that no one was shutting it off. With some indignation, I rushed up there, ready to kick someone out for their misdeed. Then, in a moment of sheer terror, I saw my coat on the ground. Lit up. It was my cell phone. I tried pushing the buttons through the coat, trying to turn it off, and that didn't work, so I grabbed the coat and rushed to the back of the auditorium. Finally, I turned it off. Talk about mortification. And talk about totally giving up your authority in asking kids to put away cell phones that are out for text-messaging and the ilk.

I got over it, eventually joking about it. But, damn, that's never happened to me before - I swear I always leave my cell phone in my car - and it picked the worst possible time to happen.

The play, by the way, was amazing. These kids put on a rendition of The Crucible that I'll never forget.