Wednesday, April 16, 2008

ten hundred percent

Today I took a trip to Chariton, which is the county seat of the county directly to our north. I picked up my brother's contact lenses at the eye doctor's, where I unexpectedly ran into my grandmother. I also went to the homemade candy store on the town square and bought some peanut clusters and 'turtles' (walnuts covered in caramel and chocolate, yum). Their candy is amazing, so it's a good thing that it's half an hour away.

On the way home, I stopped in at my former high school. Very few of my former teachers are still there; as the social studies teacher told me, the junior/senior English position is now like the 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' job from Harry Potter, since it's been held by five people in four years. But I did see my social studies teacher and my Spanish teacher; I was hoping to see the band director and the guidance counselor, but they weren't around.

Katie will of course think I was a huge dork for going back -- but I was a huge dork in high school, and it's not like I've gotten any cooler. And the social studies teacher promised some good gossip if I go back sometime when he's not on his way to a track meet, so I'll have to stop by again. He hasn't changed at all -- I've always thought that it was a miracle that he hasn't been fired for sexual harassment (and in fact, during my senior year, I flipped him off and walked out of class at one point when he made a joke about my menstrual cycle), but apparently his charm has carried him through. Anyway, today he asked me where I'd been living before I came home, I responded 'San Francisco', and he asked me if I was still straight. I'm glad that he hasn't changed -- there's something strangely comforting about it.

I spent the rest of the night playing around with my blog template, eating a delicious dinner made by my mother (cheeseburgers, corn, and fried potatoes -- healthy!), watching Big Brother (why am I so stupid?), and rereading the last forty pages of my manuscript so that I can figure out where to go next with it. Tomorrow I need to write like crazy, so I should go to bed!

3 comments:

~Wamp said...

You know, you had locker #60 in high school, which I felt was premium real estate at the hub of all the action, so I had that locker for 4 years as well. My first few years out, I knew who had the locker after me. Now, I have been out 5 years and have no idea. The question is, all these years later, do you remember the combination so you can open it and screw with the current occupant's stuff?? I do...

Sara said...

6-16-34?

~Wamp said...

Wow. You amaze me! Absolutely correct! You do know that anyone reading this from the hometown can now break into some poor kid's locker??

Oh, and your post reminded me today of the time the aforementioned teacher asked a German exchange student if she would sleep with me for a million dollars, when she said yes, he asked her if she would sleep with me for a thousand dollars, and she said yes. He then asked if she would sleep with me for a hundred dollars, and she said yes, but as I was taking my checkbook out of my backpack she went back up to a thousand. Of course, he was wanting her to say yes to the million, but no to the lesser amounts by saying "what kind of girl do you think I am?" to which he would have replied "we have already determined what kind of girl you are, now we are just haggling price" which is a line he was awfully fond of in my day.