So much to say, so much to say...

Alot can happen in 5 1/2 months. If you're a procrastinator like me, 51/2 months is plenty of time to put your dream of being a freelance writer to the side-especially when you worked in a place that made hell seem like the Cayman Islands. But, luckily, things are slowly turning around to some form of normalcy, and as the kids say, I'm "back on my grind".


So what've we missed? For starters, I'm back to teaching 5th grade. All those years of running errands for the elderly must've paid off because literally out of nowhere, the opportunity to teach in my natural setting-and part of a Team Teaching environment, no less-fell on my lap around December. What I thought would be a 20-minute conversation turned out to be a 3-hour interview and tour of a school. It's nice to work in a place where people aren't crazy. Or spineless. Or full of deceit. My students aren't Road Scholars, but their ability to behave like kids makes up for their lack of high intellectual prowess. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how much of a joy it is to work with my co-teacher. My experiences tell me that teachers by nature are extremely territorial: my room, my books, my paper, my spleen. To share your space with someone else can be difficult. To share your space with someone who transferred into your school mid-year can be torture. We're in what administrators call a "Professional Marriage". Well, much like my personal marriage, she hasn't put me out yet.


What else is new? Triathlon season for me starts in 7 weeks. I'm planning to compete in the Patenella "Flat as a Pancake" triathlon in Staten Island on June 12th. I'm not ready. It's almost to the point where I have to start from scratch in terms of training and preparing for the experience of open-water swimming (for the record, I blame all my lack of preparation on the Devil Spawn principal I used to work for. It's amazing how much one person can make life miserable. I heard about people like her, but only read about them in history books. They had little square mustaches and outstretched their arm alot. but I digress...)


To round out the last few months in reverse chronological order:

*G.U.R.U. from Gangstarr died (that sucks),


*Ricky Martin came out of the closet (He really needed to announce that, huh? Maybe the news was meant for Stevie Wonder).

*I've decided to put my wrestling fandom on an extended hiatus. Everyone I've ever liked is either old, retired, or dead. This generation's crop of stars just doesn't do it for me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXNz5CtLAB8. Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston. Whatever your thought was when you came across those names just now is kinda like mine. You should see their outfits. I'll wait until my daughter is 8 before I pick it up again. Hopefully, Ric Flair will be retired by then.

*My sister is embarking on her teaching career (oh God, why?) and lastly,


*My brother got married, hence the cause for the multitude of natural disasters affecting our world lately. He called me the day after his wedding and asked, "So, has it sunk in for you yet?". I said, "Dude, YOU got married. Has it sunk in for YOU yet?"

Time to get ready for work.