I think today was the closest I’ve ever come to telling everyone in the house to head for the basement without an actual tornado warning. The top video is out my front window; I saw the first tree across the road fall almost immediately when the wind started, and missed the second one. My wife saw the tree fall in our back yard (second picture) which is the second time that our neighbors behind us have had a tree fall into our yard, thus becoming, by Indiana law, our problem.
The final picture is from maybe 20 minutes later, rain still falling, as every Hoosier-ass dad in the neighborhood and their dogs went outside to wander around and look at the carnage. I may hop in the car soon and see how the rest of the area looks; supposedly there are a lot of power outages nearby but we’re fine.
One of those lingering bad mood, stressed out, all for no particular reason sorts of days. I feel like I left work on Friday feeling like I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to do this weekend, and right now I can’t remember a bit of it. Making things worse, I finally got around to starting Tails of Iron 2 on the PS5 after really enjoying the original game and so far I am not having any fun. I remember the first one being difficult as hell but I don’t remember losing every single fight three or four times before I got through it, so either I’ve gotten worse at video games, this game is a lot harder, or shit’s gotten wildly unfair, which might be what I’m leaning towards.
Anyway, arglebargle whine complain whine cry. Tell me about something fun you did recently.
So the 8th graders went on a field trip today. Half of them went to Goshen College, the other half to IUSB. I don’t really know what they did there, but they were gone most of the day, and I found out earlier this week that I wasn’t actually going on the trip– I was one of the teachers chosen to stay back at the building and babysit (call it what it is) the kids who weren’t going on the trip. For, like, five hours.
I was, to put it mildly, a bit concerned. I can handle just about anybody for the length of a 55-minute class period, but five hours? I might have to kill one of them to keep the rest in line.
Well, not only did my seventeen kids basically chat amongst themselves, play cards, and watch videos quietly for the entire time, but I got an enormous amount of work done in my room– which, remember, I have to vacate next week for carpet, lighting and paint work– and and and the field trip, and specifically the part of the field trip and the bus for the field trip that I would have been on had I gone, was a nightmare hellscape.
First, it was pouring all morning. Everyone got soaked on the way to the buses, then had to pack three to a seat because the district didn’t send enough buses (which is the second time they’ve pulled that move while I’ve worked at this school) and then the bus broke down, apparently spraying unknown fluids everywhere and forcing an actual bus evacuation through the back doors– still in the downpour, requiring the kids to take shelter at a nearby farmer’s market, which I’m sure was just great fun for everyone involved. Then the next bus took them back to school for some reason, then yet another bus actually got them to the field trip, over an hour late, and then apparently a kid had a major allergic reaction to something? And all of that would have been my problem if I’d been on the trip?
And yet, I find myself sitting at my computer at 8:35 at night with not much to say, especially since I didn’t get home until late and then sat in a chair for far too long. I’m taking the night off; be good to each other.
The weird thing is I don’t even know why. I mean, I do sort of; it’s spring and I teach 8th grade, and Spring Break is six days away. And there was a field trip for all the band and orchestra kids today, which should have led to an easier day and somehow didn’t.
I am so tired of 8th grade boys that I’m starting to genuinely lose my shit about it, and something about today made that a much bigger problem than it has been. I literally told two of my boys to “sit the fuck down” in fourth hour. In my defense, the previous thirteen times I had told them to sit down apparently didn’t take. Tomorrow, “won’t sit down” will become an office-referral level event, because I need to be done for a while. If I have to be a complete asshole for the rest of the time before Spring Break, I’m perfectly happy to do that. It’ll be fine.
Anyway.
I was gonna shoot Nazis some more– I’m in the final level of Sniper Elite 6, so I’m starting to think about the next game after that– but somehow it’s 8:53 already, so maybe I’ll go to bed a little early and read instead. I have a meeting tomorrow morning to help pick the building’s Teacher of the Year, which is disappointing because presumably I’m not being invited to vote on an award I’m up for, but it’ll mean having to get to work a little early and eight or nine seven or eight hours of sleep tonight might be a pleasant change of pace.
I feel like I haven’t treated Tananarive Due with enough respect.
The Reformatory is the third of her books that I’ve read. I did not know that until just now! I remember reading her book My Soul To Keep way back in 2016, and at the time I really liked it, but for some reason every time I think of it now I feel like it wasn’t something I enjoyed. And I just discovered that I read her debut novel, The Between, in 2020.
When I tell you that I don’t remember anything about that book, I need you to understand that not only do I not remember any details about the story, I did not even remember the book existed. That cover looks unfamiliar. I cannot picture where my copy of it is in my house, and I surely read a print copy. I don’t know what the spine looks like. If you had asked me ten minutes ago what the name of Tananarive Due’s debut novel was, I would not have been able to tell you. My recall of books from years ago is not always great, I admit that, mostly because I read 100+ books a year. But forgetting a book existed or that I ever read it at all is not a thing that I do.
And that after my weird about-face on My Soul to Keep? I have no explanation for this phenomenon.
Anyway, The Reformatory is really good, and if six months from now I find that I’ve turned on it too, I’m gonna need someone to come get me.
The Reformatory is the story of Robert Stephens Jr., a 12-year-old boy who is sent to the Gracetown School for Boys for a supposed six-month sentence after kicking the son of a wealthy white man in the knee. The book is set in 1950 in Florida, thick in the middle of Jim Crow, and the Gracetown “school” is a segregated, haunted nightmare, run by a grotesque abomination of a man. It is widely understood that Robert won’t be getting out in six months, as the warden is renowned for finding excuses to hold on to any boy sent to him until their 21st birthday regardless of their original sentence. Beatings and torture are commonplace and the inmatesprisoners “students” are encouraged to turn on each other at any opportunity.
The book bounces back and forth between Robert’s story and his sister, who Robert was defending when he kicked the other boy. She is trying her best to get him released, which is easier said than done in any number of ways. Their father has fled to Chicago after his attempts at unionization upset the Klan, and it’s fairly clear that part of the reason Robert is being treated as poorly as he is is because the authorities can’t get at his father.
The book would be scary enough without the haints, is what I’m saying, and the presence of a large number of ghosts at Gracetown becomes almost a distraction from all of the more grounded evil taking place there. Of course, a number of them are ghosts of children who were murdered or otherwise died while incarcerated there, and, well, a whole bunch of them bear quite a serious grudge against the warden.
I won’t go into much more detail, because (as usual for books I enjoyed) you deserve to experience the twists and turns on your own, but this really is a hell of a book, and I’ve not heard a lot of people talking about it. Give it a read.
Pretty much every single thing that happened today was stupid, and I don’t have the mental energy to deal with any of it, so I’m going to sign off and go shoot Nazis.
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