Hail to the Thief

This morning, at approximately 6:45, my telephone rang. I stumbled from my bed and into the kitchen, where I glanced at the caller ID box to see who was calling. It said "Out of Area" which, nine times out of ten, is a telemarketer. Since I couldn't fathom even the most inconsiderate telemarketer calling at that ungodly hour, I answered the phone. (Incidentally, I did once receive a telemarketing call at 4:00 in the morning. I promptly let fly a stream of curse words at the caller and hung up.) At any rate, this morning's phone call was not from a telemarketer. Instead, it was the sub-caller from the South Pasadena Unified School District. I have been on their sub list since January 17 of this year, and this is only the second time that they have called me. They called me once last week, but I was unable to sub on the days they needed me. Today, however, my schedule was wide open...as usual. Since South Pasadena Unified is my dream school district for which to work, I readily agreed.

Now, as you probably know, I am pursuing my credential at the secondary level in the field of history. Naturally, all of my classes have been geared toward this sort of thing. None of my classes were able to prepare me for what I experienced today.

Yes...today, I taught kindergarten.

It was not quite as bad as Arnold Schwarzenegger's experience in Kindgarten Cop. Actually, it was quite fun. But, I was told by a few other teachers that the class I subbed for has a reputation for being the most out of control, even with their regular teacher there. They certainly were pretty crazy, and I certainly do have a very large headache as I am typing this. I really enjoyed it though. It kind of reminded me of when I had been a camp counselor at summer camps in New Zealand, back in 1999.

However, I must say that nothing could ever make me teach kindergarten full time. When I got home, I called Katie Pearson (who teaches kindergarten) to let her know that I now had a newfound respect for her...I just don't think I could do it day in and day out. She told me she would have loved to been the proverbial fly on the wall in that room, just to see how I handled myself. I'm pretty sure most of you would have liked to see it as well.

If the teacher is not feeling better by tomorrow, then I will most likely have to do it again, since they prefer to use the same substitute if it is for more than one day. So, I might be there again, getting my wits trampled on by a room full of six year olds.

At any rate, my brother's wife is in labor at the moment. The baby was due on June 4, but had refused to be born. So, they induced labor today and now it is only a matter of time.

Coincidentally (NOT ironically), today is also Shane and Erika's third wedding anniversary. Shane has a final today, and I'm pretty certain that Erika has to work, but maybe not. I guess that's ok, though. People rarely make a big deal out of their third anniversary. But, happy anniversary to them, all the same.

And, speaking of happy occasions...as I mentioned last week, today saw the release of Radiohead's Hail to the Thief. Naturally, I purchased it at Borders in Pasadena today, after leaving the school. I also decided to finally pick up Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Now, I just need to purchase A.M. and I will have all of Wilco (with the exception of Mermaid Avenue, Vols I and II). While at the store, I glanced curiously at the Uncle Tupelo CDs and contemplated purchasing one of them. However, I decided that I needed to hear some of it before I made such a purchase.

Well, not surprisingly, I am really quite taken with the new Radiohead. I don't think I'll obsess over it quite as much as I did over Kid A, which did not leave my CD player for almost three months when it first came out. However, Hail to the Thief is quite good...better than Amnesiac which, in my opinion, paled in comparison to the absolute genius of Kid A.

So, I noticed that VH1 has rated "Smells Like Teen Spirit" the greatest song of the last 25 years. It's hard for me to say if I agree...I mean, 25 years is quite a long time...going all the way back to 1978. I mean, is "Smells Like Teen Spirit" really better than "The Safety Dance"? I think not.