15 minutes

Andy Warhol famously said, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for fifteen minutes." It appears that last night was Cas' turn. We went to the musical at his school in the evening, and unbeknownst to him (and me), the kids saw his presence there as an opportunity to pull him up on the stage.

The premise of the show was that several young people were competing in a spelling bee. They apparently bring a few audience members in to round out the cast of spellers. When Cas and I walked in, one of the kids ambushed us to pull her favorite math teacher onto the stage.  It was extremely cute, and you could tell he was having a great time.  Every so often, it was Mr. Dunlap's turn to spell, and as each speller came to the microphone, the announcer told the crowd something personal about the individual.  The kids had a blast.  They mentioned that his only friend was a fish named D-squared.  Cute because it's his classroom pet...  They mentioned that his favorite food was Pie.  Cute because math teacher, Pi...  They had a great time putting my date on display.  I told one of the kids that the whole thing was adorable, but I was lonesome for half of the night because they had hijacked my date.

Overall, it was a cute musical.  During intermission, he was basically famous.  Parents approached him and congratulated him on his ability to spell.  he got knocked out on the word "intolerant," which he spelled with an int or an ent at the end or something.  I am certain that he did that on purpose so the act could end.  When they bid him adeiu through song, he was laughing his head off, and I was wishing the ban on photography during the show would have been lifted for a special my boyfriend is on that stage, and this will not be repeated, so please let me take a photo exception.  Alas, all I have is him talking with his fellow actors after the show was over.

So, it was another great night with my newly famous boyfriend.  Hooray.  

I was glad for it, too, because my day had left a little something to be desired.  First off, my students were fine.  It was the teacher next door who was struggling.  She apparently used to teach at the college level, and as such, was ill-prepared for high school children.  Her kids are so profoundly bad that they can't even stay in the classroom until the bell rings to release them.  That's a pretty low bar to set, and several of our new teachers are struggling to keep children inside the confines of the classroom for a full 47 minutes.  Of course, these kids go to other classes and try to do the same thing.  When one of these badly trained children comes to my class and tries to get up in the last minute of class, I get frustrated.  The inability of others now affects my life in two distinct ways.  Some of her kids try that business in my classroom.  Um.  No.  And now, the kids who spill out of her door and make noise disrupt my students.  Also, no.  Hell no, in fact.  Yesterday, her children were so noisy in the hallway that I walked over the 20 yards or so (my door is pretty far from my neighbors) and asked them to please get back into the classroom.  The ones out in the hall were struggling to return because the ones standing in the door wouldn't budge.  I pointed at a boy who was filling the door frame.  You.  Move back.  I pointed at another door-blocker.  You.  Move away from the door.  I instructed the kids out in the hallway to now move into the classroom.  I indicated that staying in a classroom for all of the class time was not too much to ask.  

That's when my dirty Spanish language switch kicked on.  I understood enough of the words spoken by a nasty, little girl to get that one of the ladies present felt my mood would improve significantly if I were to enjoy more special time in the presence of male genitals.  Now that I have had time to think about this, I have a lot of follow up questions.  In order for me to be more pleasant, it seems the child was recommending more penises.  Do I need to seek out multiple penises, or should I spend more time with only one penis?  How often should I interact with a penis in order to be more pleasant?  What is the ratio of pleasantness to penises visited?  Should I just sit in a room where penises are out and about, or do I need to do something with them.  All of them?  So many questions.  So many.  I think that I should go back to this teacher's sixth period class on Monday and ask my follow up questions.  

Or perhaps not.  Maybe I should just get ready for my nice date with my famous boyfriend.