Daily Dribble and Trends

Hey! Look who's in DC sniffing her up some sakura blossoms!! Nice hat, Rosalie.

So much of the good stuff of life gets lost in the everyday distractions. I know that good good material marches by me on a daily basis. Sometimes I catch it, but most of the time I'm looking past it--down the road for something that might be better. Lest you brand me "VAGUE", let me give an example or two. Yesterday a kid walks into my classroom with his arm in a sling. Crutches, leg braces, elastic bandages, stitches, bruises, and walking boots are the norm--to say nothing of the gargantuan amounts of mouth metal that the light flashes off each day. I usually inquire about the injuries--common courtesy--and they SOOOOOO want to talk about all this drama. Mr. Arm Sling wears a cravat 95% of the time and cowboy boots. The books he totes around usually have a cow or two on the cover. Many many of these cowboys have graced me with their oh so charming presence over the years. Today's story took me to a bull ring in Wyoming somewhere. It wound down through a vivid description of a "mini" (yeah, I'll bet) bull and drew me in as I got a first person account of the subsequent ride and rider ejection. To come flying off a bucking bull through the air and to only get a broken bone out of it seems nothing short of a miracle. Did I detect some pride in the whole story and getting to wear a sling now? Oh, my testosterone imploded goodness YES! This isn't the first bull encounter injury to take out one of my students. It's fairly regular in spring/rodeo season. Paco and I drove to a kid rodeo a couple of hours away to see a student of mine a couple of years ago, so I know firsthand the treachery of it all! I watched one bull-induced injury go through a complete amazing metamorphosis a few years ago. It started out very very carefully wrapped and babied for a few days. Then as the cowboy "cowboyed up", the bandages came off to reveal something HUGE, RED, STITCHED LIKE FRANKENSTEIN, and...oozy. We all watched with interest each morning as that wound took centerstage. Our morbid fascination turned to slight interest and then to complete nonchalance as said cowboy put that incident behind him. Now, here's my point. Putting a kid on a bull? What do ya think? Yeah, me too.
A new trend reared its head today. No less than 8 kids were dared to remain mute during the entire day. I was more than happy to supply them with lap whiteboards and markers. Boy howdy was I... In fact I'm thinking I could PAY them to mute out! Better still let's take a semester and teach them all sign language! We'll see if this trend lasts out the week.