Writer's (Building) Blocks

Good morning family, friends and friendlies.

I'll admit, it's been way too long since I've offered an update. Blogs are a bit like laundry.
The longer you go without doing it, the more you're going to have to do when you finally decide to sort every dirty scrap and take it to be washed--probably requiring more than one trip to the machines--assuming you had enough clean underwear to get away with that sort of thing.

I'm wearing clean underwear, and doing laundry, so why don't I begin at the beginning and tell you what's happened since I last washed my unmentionables--er, updated this blog?

Load One:


I'll start with the field day my friend AJ--let's call her Miss Bones, planned back for October 14.

First of all, the honor for being the reason she was able to help organize such a great day for the freshman class at the school where she teaches goes to THE COLLEGE BOARD. The Oak-leafed Testing Bureaucracy had scheduled the Preliminary S.A.T./National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which most high-schools administer to the Sophomore and Junior Classes.

As a C.A.P. advisor last year, my 15 hours a week at MAST allowed me to plan an incredibly boring last minute college fair and financial aid lecture for the Senior class, while the rest of the school got familiar with the ol' College Board. A chilly morning in Prospect Park was way more exciting.

Miss Bones and her co-workers (mostly Humanities teachers at the Brooklyn School) organized a well-structured event, broken down into Alpha platoon and Bravo platoon. In each platoon about five rotating squads of soldiers, supervised at each activity station by at least one teacher and one other warm body.

I was assigned to work with Mr. Knife, the freshman History teacher (His name is from the French for blade, lame)
Our station was equipped with two big buckets of water, two liquid measuring cups that held 4 cups, two tablespoons and two teaspoons. Miss Bones had me carry some hula hoops to the park, for her station which involved the students holding hands and not being able to let go, while they maneuvered the hoop around each person in the chain.

Each squad that appeared at our station was divided into two fire teams whose objective it was to safely transport a tablespoon of water from the bucket to the liquid measuring cups. Whichever filled it first, WON!
It could have been really exciting for the first group except Mr. Knife has, like the most monotone voice EVER, and refused to get excited about a water game. He mumbled the directions and didn't think to explain the situation to the students, so natch, they got bored quickly and began to dissolve into chatty little pockets, talking big for the young teens they were.

When the second arrived, I stepped in to help whip some enthusiasm, and behavior reinforcement into the kids. For some reason, little kids impressed by shiny tend to pay attention to me, so it wasn't hard to keep the other groups motivated, despite Mr. Knife's incongruous position. Knife is a second year teacher, and if his classroom manner is anything like his presence on that bright, crisp morning in Prospect Park, I'm sad for the students who probably aren't learning much from a guy who doesn't seem to be able to shoot straight in the dark.

Needless to say, after a day like that, Miss Bones and I were exhausted, so I took a long nap instead of going to the premiere for "Where the Wild Things Are," which I've heard described as an hour and a half of Spike Jonze chasing some Hollywood Ganymede through the skeleton of a burnt forest while James Gandolfini muttered to a Karen O. soundtrack. "Lovely, yet devoid of content," were my friend's words.

With that, the first load is washed and hanging on the line.

On to the second.