The Butt of Jokes

Do you ever have the experience where you approach a group of people, and immediately one of them bursts into laughter, or they were all laughing and suddenly clam up? Either way, the suspicion is always there in the back of your head that they have just been talking/laughing about you, so your sudden presence causes them to alter their behavior. This happens to me on occasion with students. It's a pretty common phenomenon. Heh, heh, it probably has something to do with the fact that I'm such a lightning rod of a figure, everyone either loves me or hates me, so either way they're always talking about me when they see me around. (I can just imagine what those who hate me say: "There goes Mr. ___, that fat blankety blankety blank. I'll bet he's gonna come by and say something about U.S. History!") In fact, today I approached a group of students in the library at a table. Interestingly enough, all of them were either current or former students of mine. I say hi to one of them, and another girl bursts into spontaneous laughter, and tells the others "That's the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life." "Huh?" Obviously I'm missing something, so I ask her what she means. She doesn't care to elaborate, and doesn't. I'm left in the dark to shrug it off or ponder what it means.

If I was a peer of these students, I'd obsess over it a lot more than I am. Probably I'd have some major issue over whether they think I'm weird or something. Thankfully I'm mostly above that with students, though naturally I'm curious. (I mean, after all, why worry much about the opinions of teenagers who pay big bucks to buy jeans with rips in them? In case you didn't know, this "ripped jean" look is the rage these days, and can be purchased for a mere 90 bucks at Abercrombie and Fitch, or some such type store I think. So I don't have much confidence in their value judgments.) But as a teacher these types of things come up quite often, so you learn generally to ignore it. Actually, most of the time such things are over something totally unrelated to the teacher. And given what things most students find funny, it's probably just as well that I don't know. Based on Claire's recently revealed ability to imagine things about Omar, maybe she could come up with some possible explanation of this incident. It's just another part of being a teacher: you learn to ignore some quirkiness in students, even while mocking them at whatever chance you get.

Yes, I'm Alive, and Entering "The Ring"

For my avid South African fans out there, who have been worriedly gnawing their fingernails over my lack of blogging, wondering whether I have dropped off the face of the earth, or just been sick, have no fear. Yes, I was sick, but I am alive and kicking. Just haven't felt like blogging recently. There's also the time issue, although that's not any real excuse, as I had a week of vacation since the last post, so could have written if I felt like it.

Things are busy, but here's some general news.

Matt update: he also picks his nose in class. Yes enthusiastically making comments about how he loves me, and picking his nose in class. I had kind of seen it before, so wasn't terribly surprised when I saw him doing it today, but it was still pretty gross. I guess it shows you that some inhibitions are a good thing once in a while.

On acting: I'm directing another show now, this time a comedy. It's The Importance of Being Earnest. Should be a good one. We'll probably be spending a couple of thousand to make this a memorable performance. It has some serious set demands, which are a little scary to contemplate, but I suspect it will all come together.
I was cast in Beauty and the Beast, but not as anything significant. I'm in the adult ensemble, non-dancing. So basically I'm in three songs, I collect my paycheck, and go home. Or something like that. Actually, I'll also eat plenty of free pizza at the restaurant down the street from the theater, before going home. (It's an establishment that loves the shows where I'm performing, so gives the actors free pizza afterwards. It's a nice perk.)

In other news, I have officially begun my political career. Yes folks, you can expect to see me in a run for the presidency in 2032. But right now you can call me director S. For today I was appointed as one of the board of directors for my condo association. I went to the yearly meeting to be involved as an association member, and it turns out they needed someone else to serve on the board. After the meeting they asked me if I was interested, I asked some questions, found out it was not a huge commitment, so said they could put my name down for consideration. The board met for about three minutes while I waited outside, then let me in as the newest board member. I will be involved in the financial decision making process for association business. We actually decide quite a few things. Should be a good learning experience. And it's pretty much a huge springboard toward taking over one of our senator's seats in 2014. So expect great things from me in the political ring.