My Weird-Ass Day

[As an aside, which is probably redundant since I've blocked it off, I can't remember how to correctly capitalize hyphenated words. Should the second half be capitalized, or only the first? I know I should know this, having taught writing for nearly twenty-five years, but my students don't often use hyphens, especially in titles, so it's not something I've had to correct. I will look it up, but not right now.]

I awoke at the ungodly hour of 4:00 this morning; I rolled around for a while before I finally gave up on trying to get back to sleep. I had an 8:15 doctor's appointment anyway and needed to shower. The results of my appointment came as no surprise: I have to have a vein in my leg abladed, and it's now set up for August 4, which just happens to be Obama's birthday. I know this because my son's birthday is on August 3, and when he looked up famous people with birthdays on or near his, he discovered this fact. Every year he used to get my mom a calendar on which he put each family member's picture on his or her birthday, and after he found out his bit of trivia, he put the President's picture on the day next to his own birthday. So that -- the minor surgery, I mean; I know I drifted a bit -- won't be a big deal. I'll be able to drive myself there and back, and will just need to rest that day. It's good. The vein protrudes and hurts; I'll be glad to have it gone.

Back at home, I finished all my grading for tonight's class and most for tomorrow's class. I had two full hours of nothing to do before class started, so I just relaxed and played with the dogs. I left for work way too early, and on my way I saw an overstuffed backpack in the middle of the street, not far from the base, with no one nearby, on a bridge. Now what would you do if you saw that? I thought about it for a few minutes and remember the "see something, say something" line I've heard so often. Probably it was nothing, but what if it was something? You probably already know what I did. I called 911 and told them. I'd rather call and have it be an innocent situation that not call and have the bridge blow up. When I was in my classroom, a few minutes before class had started, I asked the students who were already there what they would do (without having told them what I had done). Most said they would have called highway patrol (I don't even know if we have that here). I wonder if the fact that my students are active-duty sailors had any bearing on what they would do. About halfway through class, I saw a student I didn't recognize sitting in the front row. We were doing peer revisions, and I put him to work. He was enthusiastic and said it made him want to come back to school. One of my students grasped a difficult concept and said, "I love it when I learn!" I said, "Me too! That's why I love to teach. I swear sometimes I can see the lightbulb pop right out of the top of your head!"

At the end of class, I saw I'd missed a call from a number I didn't recognize. It turned out to be an old friend who has recently moved back to the area. I knew he was coming back; we'd exchanged a few emails over the past several months and made vague plans to get together. I called him back, and now our plans are less vague -- we're meeting for lunch on Thursday.

Now that I write it down, I guess it isn't so strange. My day, that is. It was good, but I'm not sure whether that was because of or in spite of the odd assortment of events.