Random Notes

1. Today was the retirement presentation given by a woman who has taught for forty years in the Baltimore City Public Schools (and 42 years total - she spent two years in the Peace Corps.) Her retirement ends 127 years of continuous service by her family in the Baltimore City Public Schools; her great, great aunt was a principal of Western in the 1880's, her other great grandmother was a school board member and teacher, and her father was a teacher for years and years at Poly. It was a cool presentation, though somewhat sad. She started out by saying, "You all may think of me just as this crotchitty old lady, but I wasn't always this way" and then went into a powerpoint about her life.

2. It reminded me of this story I just read, about an English teacher retiring this years after 69 years of teaching.

3. If they (the kids, the administration, the colleagues) don't stop making me excited about next year and making me feel so darn happy, I might just end the year on a good note. I just find it so difficult to be cynical about things, even after this year of floating hell.

4. Reading educational research is boring as hell.

5. A couple of weeks ago I had to take have a blood test to see if I was immune to Measles, Mumps, and Rubella. I'm immune to two of them, but not to Mumps. The initial phone call - a message saying, "Hello, sir, we need you to call. We have important information about your blood work" freaked me out a bit (as it would any sexually active single person, I'd assume), but it was just that I was not immune to Mumps. Apparently there have been some outbreaks, so I guess it's good to know this is the case. I went in today for the shot, and it sucked, but now it's over.

6. For Friday, I am organizing the 3rd annual Noah's Ark Pub Crawl. It's something I invented five years ago with my then-roommate, where we toured around Fell's Point and visited every bar named after an animal. Therefore, we'll be starting at Gecko's at 4:30, then moving on to Wharf Rat, Horse You Came In On, Cat's Eye Pub, Kooper's Tavern, Max's On Broadway, Bertha's Mussels, Brass Monkey, The Greene Turtle, Birds of a Feather, and then maybe do some houseware shopping at the Blue Iguana. If we decide to change up and go to a cool bar like Slainte, Waterfront Hotel, John Stevens, Red Star, Full Moon Cafe, or Lulu's Off-Broadway instead of going to a shitty bar like, well, the Green Turtle, then we might make it a two-drink penalty. Sadly, The Armadillo Pub and Crabby Dick's have both closed so we may have to find replacements. This is to celebrate the end of the school year and the start of the summer. Huzzah!