Skip to main content

Dumpster Diving


OK, the promised dumpster story. I have a little bit of a habit of leaving things in places where they shouldn't be. And then not finding them again. Or something else happening to them. Last week, I had my wallet in a plastic bag from Walgreens, since I had bought something and just tossed my wallet in the bag instead of putting it away. Well, I took the thing I had bought out of the bag and (can you guess what happened?) threw the bag away. Not noticing that it was heavier than an empty plastic bag should be. By the time I realized this, it was after school. I went to find the custodian who told me that he had already dumped the garbage and I could have fun "going up in that nasty old dumpster."

As I walked over to the dumpster, I ran into 3 boys who were playing outside and really wanted to help. Apparently when you are an 8 year old boy, playing with garbage is a fun thing. Whatever. I told them they could help look through the bags if they got plastic gloves from the nurse. They ran and got the gloves, and as I was about to say that I would get in the dumpster and toss bags out, they all three jumped right in the dumpster with all the nasty old milk, beaming like it was Disneyland. I did find my wallet, and none of the boys' parents complained.

The picture is of a kid's desk which usually resembles a dumpster. We're trying to work on organization.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class.
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other prison but I still
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea
Post a Comment
Read more