Paul Blart: Mall Cop

It happened for the first time. I got called Paul Blart* today by a student. It was in a joking, gently teasing way, but it was still a good reminder to get myself back to the gym. I tore my calf muscle (just degree 1 or 2, according to the doctor, so not a big deal) a couple of weeks ago and was on crutches for three days - teaching on crutches sure isn't very fun, makes me feel very lazy - but today it feels healed, or at least well enough to exercise. I even hit some softballs today at the batting cages, where our baseball team went for practice to escape the heat.

* The rumors I intentionally spread last year that I was Kevin James' cousin - to the point where I showed my students the name "Kevin" on my cell phone, telling them it was him - probably didn't help matters much. But I get the Kevin James/King of Queens ("only not as fat", uh thanks) comment so much from kids that I had to do something with it.

Only in Baltimore

We finished our game this afternoon, at Sloman's Field off of Windsor Mill Road, and the fifteen of us (all uniformed baseball players) were waiting around for the bus to return when a guy from the neighborhood approached and mumbled something to us. I didn't hear him, and asked him to say it again. He said that he wanted to get something out of our way. He shooed a kid away from a park bench, got on his knees, and dug lifted up a clump of grass that was sitting on top of some wood chips. Underneath, he removed a bag filled with a few grams of heroin, set the grass clump back, and walked away.

Yes, the man was hiding his narcotics on a children's playground.

The kids barely batted an eye and went back to wrestling, joking, and killing time. We all kind of did.

National Day of Service - with one of my students

One of my students planted trees with Barack Obama today! He was actually paired up with the President - just the two of them.

He's one of these students here, standing right next to Michelle. According to his chat with me on Facebook just now, he got a hug from her, and he got to keep Obama's work gloves as a keepsake. Pretty amazing.

Internet access limited...

Hi all!

I have absolutely no unblocked internet access these days unless I go to a public library, hence the lack of updates!

But I've moved into the new house, and I'm still coaching and teaching! Life is good!

I hope to be around shortly sometime in the near future!