You know you’re a local when:

while watching the UM hockey game on tv, you recognize at least one person in all of the crowd shots.  (The last segment was a kid who I had in the daycare, whose brother went to my school, and then it was a kid from high school — Clyde, Amy — who was, unfortunately, picking his teeth.  i actually felt kind of bad about that, I mean it’s after the first break so he probably got some popcorn wedged up there, but still.)

In other news, yay, hockey season! I wonder when I’ll be able to score some tickets to go to a game.

Is it just me, or has Jane’s Addiction decided to sell the rights to their music to anyone who wants it? I swear, I’ve heard more JA as background music, or in ads, or whatever in the last 6 weeks than I’ve heard in my CD player in the last 10 years. I mean, go for it, but holy cow! (Or maybe it’s just that they are reaching for MY demographic, and Jane’s is the way to do it? I must admit, I probably wouldn’t have paid attention to the Jack Daniels ad if not for the Jane Says playing.)

Ahhh, the mountains.  I’m here for a conference, which is great, but it’s been so nice to just hide out up here, all by myself, with no one else around. I mean, literally, I am the ONLY person in my parent’s building, which has at least 20 units. It’s very spooky, in a way, especially when you freak yourself out watching haunting shows on TLC.  It’s been nice to just make the bland food I want to eat, and not have to worry about dinner proper.  It’s been nice feeling the fall air, even if the mountains are buried in fog.  (Today’s phone pic is the view from where I’m writing today, what’s missing is the stretch of mountains on the other side of the valley, as they were buried in fog yesterday.  Today is even worse.)

And, another milestone: Today is Week 10, meaning my embryo is — lord willin’ and the crick don’t rise — a fetus.  WEIRD, eh?

I’m driving home this afternoon after being here for two nights.  It will be nice to be back in my own bed, curled up with the husband and cat, but it’s been really nice this week. Just really nice. Except for the crippling heartburn. That part sucks.

On the news tonight, the lead story was about a burglary in the town I used to teach in.  They mentioned the road, a short little 1 mile road that I used to drive on regularly, and I thought "oh shit."  I know every kid on that road, and there’s quite a few.  I sort of crossed my fingers and watched the news story, and when they got to "3 juveniles" I already had 2 names in my head, and then I saw the profile of JE, hands cuffed in front of him, as he ducked into the sheriff’s car.  The third kid arrested was TD, a kid I’d had as an 8th grader in my first year of teaching.  I called my coteacher and found out that the third was SM, another kid of mine who graduated last year.  All three, my kids.  All three, tough, street-smart kids that I fucking adored.  Two of those kids adored me back, as evidenced by my collection of ‘favorite teacher’ letters. Fuck. I cried.

Here’s the story from the news.  I’m sure there’ll be more details in the paper tomorrow.  I do know that the school was on lockdown, because they couldn’t find TD and there were rumors that the guns and ammo that had been stolen were taken on school property. (It would make sense, as that’s the shortcut between SM’s house and the other two’s homes) JE and TD are in the youth center tonight; SM was released to his parents.

These aren’t just any kids. None of them are, but especially JE and SM. I had them for two years, and they were two of the toughest kids ever. I still have JE’s contact numbers in my mental rolodex, and SM’s mom’s email address, because I was in that much contact with them.  I tried to contact them when things were good, because I had to contact them a lot when things weren’t good.  I dropped off homework to JE’s grandma (Mom is MIA, and dad in prison in AZ), once I dropped off a holiday-party-to-go because JE was too sick to attend, and the kids missed him. They put together a bag of brownies and chips and candy, and the napkins and paper plates, and I dropped it off to gram, who just couldn’t believe that the kids would do that.

Here are some links that reference these guys: (TD was referenced in my old journal, but he was in high school last year, so not mentioned here)

This entry, the part about the dance, the SM and JE were the two ringleaders to drag me out on the floor.

This one (look for the one by JE), and this one are about JE.

This one is about SM.

I really rarely wrote about school, just a few kids mentioned here and there, and that accounted for about 1% or less of all my kid interactions, as you can imagine.  A few names popped up more often — K&A, Geoffrey — but that these guys even get mentioned speaks volumes for how much I dig these kids.

When I talked to Deb, she mentioned that the principal commented that "two of them were yours, right?"  And no, asshole who doesn’t KNOW what goes on in the school, actually, ALL THREE were ours.  Apparently Deb replied with "NOW do you see what we meant about being stacked with the behavioral kids?"  Seriously.

It wasn’t that my program turned these kids into criminals.  If anything, the only reason this never happened until now was because of our program.  I am certain that it is no coincidence that within 6 weeks of starting high school, these guys were arrested. Just, FUCK. It’s sad.

Gretchen:  and I got a pair of jeans for 15 bucks (from 40)
Gretchen:  good stretchy fat jeans to get me through the next month or so
Andy:  mom jeans?
Gretchen:  hee
Gretchen:  comfort waist
Gretchen:  resting at the breastbone
Andy: i want to start a band called Elastic Waistband
Gretchen: no, just strechy jeans from lane bryant in a bigger size
Gretchen: hahaha
Gretchen: ooohh
Gretchen: and we could all have stage names, a la "Plum Slacks"
Andy:  hahahahahaha
Gretchen:  "Pleated trouser"
Andy:  Dunga Ree
Gretchen:  hahahahaha
Gretchen:  Poly Blend
Gretchen:  on the bass guitar. . .
Gretchen:  Stone washed
Andy:  our first hit will be "Tuck and Roll"
Gretchen:  hahahahahaha

After an absolutely drenching, cold weekend that led to a 2 hour nap (UNDER THE COVERS, the peak of napping) wherein I dreamed I was ordering a Happy Meal in Omaha’s "train & plane station," and wherein I also dreamed that I was napping (napping in a nap dream means total exhaustion for me), today was a much better day.  I slept in, with the cat snuggled up as close as she could get.  I had cream of wheat for breakfast, talked to Amy and my mom, took a shower, and headed out to the movie theater to see "In Her Shoes."  It was exactly what I wanted from the movie (although — spoiler alert — I was kind of bummed they cut out the part where she lived in the library at Princeton) and on my way in, I saw one of my old students, which was a total highlight.  A kid from the other program saw me first and tugged on Sam’s sleeve, who turned around and jumped the velvet rope and gave me a hig and told me that "school is totally boring since you left! WE MISS YOU!" So that was way, way cool. She was (is) a good kid, and it was cool to know that I was missed.

After the movie, I picked up Andy and went to Governor’s for a late lunch, and then we tooled around TJMaxx for a bit.  One of the baby dreams I’ve had is that nothing is ready when the baby comes, and one of the things I dreamed of was a red gingham crib bumper*, which I really liked the idea of when I woke up.  At TJ’s, they had one, but it was 30 bucks, and I couldn’t justify it.  They also had a whole crib set with a red gingham theme for 36, that was more tempting, but it also seemed a bit early to even spend 36 bucks.

I dropped Andy off, and went to the mall to get a new pair of pants.  I had been so bloated from not pooping in 6 weeks, that I’d worn my maternity pants for a few days, but when sweet relief finally arrived, they were too big. (Seriously. My belly was hard and distended from. . .The Situation.)  My regular pants are fitting weirdly (maybe 1 lb of weight gain so far) and I had a coupon, so I picked up a pair of stretchy fat pants jeans at Lane Bryant.  Oddly enough, while I was looking around, a woman came out of the dressing room and was all "Hi, Gretchen!"

It’s odd, because this is a girl I sort of grew up with.  She is the niece of my dad’s former business partner, which is closer than it sounds.  His partner is more like a grandfatherly type to my sister and I, and she was always at cookouts and such.  Anyway, the last time I saw her was about 3 days before I found out I was pregnant the last time.  I ran into her at Target, and we talked for an hour or so, and she commented that the last time we’d run into each other she’d been pregnant with her youngest.  Today when she popped into view, I said "okay, this is too weird."  I told her that any time that we’ve run into each other in five years, one of us had been pregnant, and I told her about the m/c (and she shared her own m/c experience, I swear, I think the 25% is a really low figure on that topic) and that I was pregnant again, and we discussed that.  She asked who my doc was, and when I told her, she said that that was hers as well, and that she LOVED her. (I really hit the goldmine with my OB, I’m sure of it.)  I bought the pants (and she said "you’re buying PANTS? You know that you don’t have much longer to fit into them, right?" heh) and decided to go for a lap around the mall, just to do it.

Whenever I walk through the food court, I always look to see if I see any kids there.  I rarely do, but I always look.  On my way back through, as I was headed out, I scanned again, and had the thought of "I wish I could run into Kaitlin and Ashley one of these days, I wonder how they’re doing. . . ."  I literally had the thought, got sad that I hadn’t seen them in so long, and heard "S*******! Is that you?!"  I turn around, and there were K&A.  They ran up to me and hugged me and were so excited to see me.  These are two of my favorite kids, ever.  I told them about the miscarriage on the 8th grade trip, because they had become so concerned about me, it was easier to tell them than not.  They never told anyone (that I’m sure of) and were sad, but relieved to know I didn’t have cancer.  They are just good kids.  I’ve told Dave that they are my first choice in babysitters for the future (and I told them that, when I told them about the m/c) so I said "Hey, girls, I might have a job for you this summer!"  They looked at me for a minute, and K figured it out and said "Oh! Are you pregnant!" and when I said I was, they both squealed.  I told them that it was still early, and that I was still nervous because of last time, but that I was feeling pretty confident that I would need their services when I finished up my classes this summer.  They were totally thrilled.

K’s email addy had changed (and A’s doesn’t allow non-AOL senders or whatever, parental controls, which is cool) so when I left, they were running off to one of those "enter to win this stupid contest" kiosks to write down my email address that they were repeating out loud to remember it.

It was so cool. They told me about how school was going, that K had a boyfriend, that they totally missed me.  K’s science teacher had asked them to write about what their favorite teachers had been like, and K said she wrote that I was "the only teacher I’d ever liked, and no one could ever be like [me]."  Awwww.

It was just a good day.  I made dinner (meh), and took a catnap, and am ready to tuck in for the night under the down comforters.  It’s chilly here (but still a good 10 degrees warmer than our apt. in Levant was in it’s cold days — I cannot BELIEVE we spent 3 winters in a 50 degree house), and we’re trying to hold off on firing up the furnace until November, on account of the oil prices (but hey, we have a super efficient house and furnace, so I won’t complain too loudly) so for now, it’s feathers and furrry FatKitty keeping us warm at night.  Life could be so much worse.

*There’s lots of pro/con stuff about bumpers, but in our case, it would pretty much be totally decoration for the first few months anyway, as we’ll have the babe in our room for a while, anyway. 

Three things, from everyplace else on the internet

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