Wednesday, February 16, 2005

It finally happened to me. That moment. That moment that I had nightmares about on the night before my first day teaching. It happened to me.

I stood in front of my class to teach. The Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum was observing me. My fly was completely unzipped.

Luckily, one of my nice students motioned me to talk to her. I said, "Just a minute." She said, "No, Ms. R. Please? Can I just tell you something?" Then she whispered in my ear, "I’m not looking or anything, but your zipper is down."

I thanked her and zipped up my coat. I was right in the middle of a lesson about double-bubble maps—a lesson, incidentally, that required me to stand on tip-toes and point, thusly opening my fly even farther—so I couldn’t just zip it right in front of everyone. I stopped pointing and tried to move on.

I don’t know if the person observing me saw my zipper down. But I thank the stars above that one of the kids just didn’t scream out, "I can see your underwear!" or worse, that the entire room didn’t just giggle and make fun of me and not tell me at all.

I am so thankful that I just gave the girl who told me quietly all of my Valentine’s Day candy.
¶ 9:34 AM