Blue Day. Formerly B Day. Day 47.

One thing Florida lacks is fast moving streams. The water in the reclaimed swamp we all live in is tepid and slow moving. I find this same sluggishness has bled into the inspirations of the residents. I make no exception for myself. I sit at my desk every day, alligator like, unmoving and hairless. Yet I'd rather be an alligator than so many turtles waiting for a zero on a homework assignment.

Today was not horrible. I gathered a work crew of sophomores to deliver books to a teacher that didn't want them. Then in the afternoon I taught (a little) about the evils of child labor. The irony is abundant and so is the hypocrisy.

AP Government did fairly decent presentations on essential Supreme Court cases. I will publish them to Canvas, but after this group graduates I will take their names off of their hard work and use it to teach future classes claiming each presentation as my own. I hope they did a good job, but even if they didn't I will just fail the group and use their work anyway.

Apparently you only need a GED to be a substitute in Broward County and most of Florida now. I suppose I will be working with many of my former students, perhaps even sooner than I would have expected.

I really don't have much to say today. The AICE class attempted to break me. It became so bad that the group working on the problem of global torture just managed to make it seem like maybe it wasn't as big a problem as I generally believe it to be.

U.S. History Honors gained two new students. So far they seem OK, however I know this class will corrupt them. For now I am trying to keep them separate from the general population, but it won't be long until they are as surly and unruly as the grunting troglodytes that already show up to mentally abuse me daily.

At the end of class, while we waited for the bell to release us from our educational captivity, I showed them pictures from my wedding. I slowly died inside when almost all of them told me I was unrecognizable and that in my past I was not as hideous as I am now apparently. Age will come for you too. I have faced it like a rock pushing off the waves of a rising tide. I feel they are all already shopping for their hairpieces because they will never be as beautiful in soul as I am, and so they must cover their flaws with cosmetics.

I ended the day speaking with a very un-pleasant amateur ornithologist. It took ten minutes out of my weekend, but at least I know the difference between a grackle and a crow. It made me think that I myself, was like a roseate spoonbill, or a glorious flamingo living amongst so many grotesque and plain wood storks. My beauty is a curse. It is painful to carry this burden humbly.