I am optimistic. I am a counter. In two months and seventeen days I will be thirty years old. In one year, one month and three days Barack Obama will be President of the United States. In nine minutes I have to get off my duff and get ready for work.
Winter intersession is in four days. The students know it is coming and even if we didn’t tell them they can feel it in their bones. When I taught in Connecticut the students knew the day before a cancellation that they wouldn’t be in school the next day and misbehaved accordingly. They have a sixth sense.
There is a joke at work, because someone said this to me: that I do the bare minimum at work; and I don’t care about the students or my coworkers. Chaos Bean, my sister, said this is horse hockey because I only care about my work, my students and my coworkers. During this time before the winter emancipation I try and do something nice every day for a coworker who isn’t suspecting it.
I brought Casey a drink – I have no idea what it is, really I can’t understand any of the words I say to the barista when I order it – and when I brought it to her she said, “How did you know I needed this?” How do you not know someone needs Starbucks? If you don’t drink Starbucks that may be the leading reason you are crabby and unbearable this month. Think about it. I decided this was a good idea and would do it the next day for another coworker.
I got Stefanie a peppermint hot chocolate one day from Starbucks. I also got myself a hot mocha. Seeing my hands full with other groceries the barista gave me a carrier my drinks. Okay, I’m kidding – I had to practically beg for it. I wish I hadn’t. I keep my phone in my cup holder so I left the drinks in the cardboard carrier on the passenger seat. This is never a problem; I do it all the time. What is a problem is swerving to miss being hit by the person talking on their cell phone in their German SUV. I would been tempted to throw the coffee and mocha that didn’t summersault around my car (and onto my leather seats) at her when she rolled down her window to berate me for honking if she had not been a parent of a child at my school. A bad way to start your day is having coffee and chocolate all over your new car. A worse way to start your day is to assault a parent or anyone else. I will arbitrarily fail their child instead.
Instead of getting something nice for Stefanie I ended up having a sip of peppermint hot chocolate and a nice tip for the woman who detailed my car the next day – even if I had to finish the job myself. Later in the day, before getting the car cleaned, I offered a ride to the holiday party to Kim and Mark. Mark got just as much of the hot chocolate that I got for Stefanie, only all over his pants.
I’m not sure what I am going to do today for a coworker – it has to be a random act of kindness to work – but I know it will not involve hot liquids, melted chocolate or my car. If we don’t hang together at this time we will hang separately. I just hope that the other acts of kindness are less maintenance for me but continues to cause laundry for Mark. As long as it keeps spirits up and keeps hope alive for four more days, I'm doing my job. Go do yours.
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