and then there were four... or, narrowly escaping a very frightening halloween

so i've not been home ten minutes (french class - i get home at 20:00) when I am informed that my sister has been thrown in jail. apparently she was picked up with her jerry-springer-degree-of-trashy friends drunk and smashing pumpkins.

honestly, how completely f*cking stupid can you be? being underage, drunk, and smashing pumpkins... before 10pm? it must have been around 6:30 or 7:00 when she was doing it... there are still trick-or-treat-ers out then!

she had asked for a second chance. she said she would get help, she said she no longer wanted to be friends with those f*ckfaces because they weren't really her friends.

bullshit. she was just saying what she thought my mom wanted to hear.

i ask what happened? they got a call at home shortly before my arrival, a courtesy call, to let them know they were not releasing her to anyone but to her parents. my parents said, well then do whatever the law says to do because we aren't coming to pick her up.

as far as i'm concerned, she is no longer welcome here is what my mom had to say.

you'd have to be stupid not to take advantage of the resources available to you.

ok so rewind to early afternoon today. i have just lined up the kids and picked them up from recess. they are reading semi-quietly as i try very hard to come up with something to do for math. at 12:45 we transition to math. my paper passer chooses a volunteer and they pass out the math papers that need to be corrected. i spend a few minutes reviewing rounding. and at this moment my sympathetic nervous system took over because i do not remember exactly what i was doing when the fire alarm went off.

my first thought was god, a fire drill on Halloween? how could they! then i thought (or maybe i thought...) wait - they know we're having parties this afternoon. they wouldn't have done it. it must be for real.

the kindergarteners have just finished parading around the classroom when the alarm goes off. some kids start running out the door but start yelling and tell them to get in line. we don't go anywhere until the class shows some semblance of a line. of course we're not in any sort of coherent line when we exit the classroom. i'm standing in the hall making sure all my kids get out of the room. for a second i look to my left. the doors have shut but the principal has just walked through the one on the left. i see smoke behind her. ok this is when i am telling myself to stay calm. i'm not sure how calm i actually stay during these situations, but at least i know to tell myself to stay calm. because i know that a lot of kids react to things how adults react to them - for example if a little boy bumps his head and the adult rushes over to comfort him, he is going to cry. but if you look at him like, well you'll get over it, he's fine.

so the principal passes me, yelling at the kids to be quiet. i'm yelling at them to walk and not to push. we did a little better than our last fire drill.

i'll spare the details of the half hour or so we wait outside while two fire trucks are outside the building.

apparently the fire started from some electrical problem in the literacy room. Read: THE ROOM WHERE ALL THE BOOKS ARE!

the peruvian special ed teacher later commented to me that the principal had said something like a few more minutes and the whole school would have burned down.

i mean, think of it. if the burner got hot enough, it would catch fire, the surrounding books would catch fire and it would engulf the literacy room. the door of which is usually open so it would have spread to the hallway; with all the papers and stuff on the walls and the literacy room in the middle, it would have spread down the hall in both directions.

tomorrow i'm going to thank the lunch lady for saving our lives. she has a little office in the literacy room. fortunately, she was there when the thing started smoking.

i asked my dad (who has an HVAC business) if he wanted a maintenance contract? talk to my school district. he explained to me why he does not do business with public entities - basically the allocation of funds for maintenance is f*cked up. the state pays to replace equipment, but the local districts must pay for maintenance. which makes no sense because it's much more expensive to replace equipment than it is to maintain it, and it lasts much less longer without any maintenence. but why raise taxes to keep your energy systems running when you can just wait for it to break down completely and have the state pay? it's retarded.

anyway it has been an eventful three days. all rolled into one. and add on the weekend. it all makes for one tired miss e.

who needs to start looking for a shrink b/c fire was my main issue growing up. i trace my OCD back to when for some reason i was always afraid my house was going to burn down.

*************

oh and on a more positive note, the following song has been in my head since sunday morning:

house of bush is falling down,
falling down, falling down;
house of bush is falling down
-told you so-