*Paragraphs with an asterisk may be cheesy
*This post is coming late because I spent the majority of this holiday with dear family. Of course being 3,000 miles from home put seeing family in jeopardy during this somewhat ridiculous holiday. You see if my Nan hadn’t decided to travel across the country to see her favorite grandson (which is one of her favorite lines, and one that is always followed by the fact that I’m her only grandson), or if my cousin hadn’t decided to move to New York years ago, say she wouldn’t stay there but a few years, fall in love and marry a guy, and thus still be on the east coast when the Universe placed me here, then it’s possible that I would have experienced a very solitary Thanksgiving.
But that’s not what happened, and I’m rather beholden to the Universe for letting it play out that way.
*Here are a few more reasons why I owe the Universe one, rather than the other way around, which is a mindset that I’m afraid many can become temporarily trapped in, including myself.
1. The day before Thanksgiving, after school ended, I was holding the door for all the little children as they left for the holiday. E–who’s not little and can’t really pass for a child as he’s easily four inches taller than me and very serious–said to me as he walked by, “Happy Thanksgiving, mister. Eat a lot of turkey, you’re too skinny.” That really made me happy. Because it was funny. And pointed.
2. I’m rather beholden to all the girls who tried out for the basketball team. I had twenty-five young bloods try out, and considering maybe three or four had picked up a basketball prior to this year, it was both hilarious and horrifying to watch them flop around the court like freshly caught fish in the hull of a dinghy. Nonetheless, I’m glad I’ll have enough bodies for a team. We may not score points–as in any points for the duration of the goddamn season–but we’re going to try really hard, dammit.
3. I’m really beholden to that picture over there. >
4. I’m extremely beholden to the vast majority of my Facebook friends that posted about how grateful they are for their family. I had no idea they were grateful for something like that before those posts. I literally read those and was just repeatedly blown away by their uniqueness.
*5. I’m beholden to my best friend in Connecticut, my partner in crime (and I don’t mean the cliché–we’ve committed at least three and probably more misdemeanors together). Without her this experience would be drastically different, and I’d probably be too blue to write a post like this one.
6. I’m beholden to the fact that I’ll be getting “real-time coaching” from Teach for America. I’m so looking forward to having someone in the back of my classroom giving me a constant stream of orders directly into an earpiece that I’ll have to wear. And I can’t wait for the privilege of having to sit through not one but two meetings with that coach, one during my prep period and the other who the hell knows when because no way in hell am I doing it before or after school. And finally, I’m really beholden to the fact that someone let me know beforehand that I was getting coaching in the first place, because I love being treated like an autonomous individual by the organization that I love so much.
Oh crud, I’m ranting. And someone from Teach for America may read this. If so, hey Tri!
*7. I’m beholden to the guy that stops traffic for schoolchildren at the intersection near my house. They have people like that all over the place in Hartford (they have titles across their green vests–“schoolchildren protectors” or something like that), and many of them are accustomed to my pedaling by each morning, so I exchange pleasantries with them now. But I’m especially beholden to that guy near my house because every morning, as soon as he sees me coming his way, he checks the traffic to see if the intersection will be clear when I get to it. If it is, he performs this intense hand motion, beckoning me to not slow down and just blindly trust him to run a red light and cruise through his intersection. Which I do every time. I love that guy.
8. I’m beholden to movies, because they put my students in a comatose state that I didn’t know was possible of a group of twenty or so pubescent knuckleheads jammed into a typically overheated room. Movies are gold. Next week I’m playing Cloud Atlas, and if you’ve seen that movie then you know it will take a full week to get through. If you haven’t seen that movie, sucks to suck, huh?
9. I’m beholden to the fact that I’m at 800 words because I’m running out of things to be beholden to–not because I’m particularly unbeholden, but because it’s hard to come up with things that aren’t grossly cliché when writing a list of things you’re beholden to. Like this one: I’m beholden to my family because without them I wouldn’t be the person I am today–like no shit Sherlock. The only time I think you could get away with writing something like that is if you need money, which may have been why I saw it so much on Facebook.
(Now I realize I just repeated a joke. Sorry, but I'm trying to make a point.)
10. I’m beholden to those of you reading this that may have posted about your family on Thanksgiving and who will–regardless of my jackassery in #4 and #9–continue reading this blog. It’s just my nature. Accept me?
11. I’m beholden to the hairband I wear to school every day (the one I’m wearing in the picture above). All my students find it utterly abysmal, and I get one helluva kick out of trying to teach them that a guy doesn’t have to act macho with a correspondingly close-cropped haircut in order to be…a guy.
12. I’m beholden to the wisps of red in this beard that’s taking two months to grow past a patchy shitshow.
13. I’m beholden to the word shitshow.
*Damn, over a thousand words! I guess I’m beholden to more than I thought–shut up. One would be beholden to countless things if one just took the time to think about it.
Almost forgot, check this neat video out by clicking this word. Then please vote for it. I'm giving Justin Crowe this shout-out because one day he's going to be some schwank-ass filmmaker, and I'm going to use this paragraph as leverage for him to accept a screenplay of mine or something.
*This post is coming late because I spent the majority of this holiday with dear family. Of course being 3,000 miles from home put seeing family in jeopardy during this somewhat ridiculous holiday. You see if my Nan hadn’t decided to travel across the country to see her favorite grandson (which is one of her favorite lines, and one that is always followed by the fact that I’m her only grandson), or if my cousin hadn’t decided to move to New York years ago, say she wouldn’t stay there but a few years, fall in love and marry a guy, and thus still be on the east coast when the Universe placed me here, then it’s possible that I would have experienced a very solitary Thanksgiving.
But that’s not what happened, and I’m rather beholden to the Universe for letting it play out that way.
*Here are a few more reasons why I owe the Universe one, rather than the other way around, which is a mindset that I’m afraid many can become temporarily trapped in, including myself.
1. The day before Thanksgiving, after school ended, I was holding the door for all the little children as they left for the holiday. E–who’s not little and can’t really pass for a child as he’s easily four inches taller than me and very serious–said to me as he walked by, “Happy Thanksgiving, mister. Eat a lot of turkey, you’re too skinny.” That really made me happy. Because it was funny. And pointed.
2. I’m rather beholden to all the girls who tried out for the basketball team. I had twenty-five young bloods try out, and considering maybe three or four had picked up a basketball prior to this year, it was both hilarious and horrifying to watch them flop around the court like freshly caught fish in the hull of a dinghy. Nonetheless, I’m glad I’ll have enough bodies for a team. We may not score points–as in any points for the duration of the goddamn season–but we’re going to try really hard, dammit.
3. I’m really beholden to that picture over there. >
4. I’m extremely beholden to the vast majority of my Facebook friends that posted about how grateful they are for their family. I had no idea they were grateful for something like that before those posts. I literally read those and was just repeatedly blown away by their uniqueness.
*5. I’m beholden to my best friend in Connecticut, my partner in crime (and I don’t mean the cliché–we’ve committed at least three and probably more misdemeanors together). Without her this experience would be drastically different, and I’d probably be too blue to write a post like this one.
6. I’m beholden to the fact that I’ll be getting “real-time coaching” from Teach for America. I’m so looking forward to having someone in the back of my classroom giving me a constant stream of orders directly into an earpiece that I’ll have to wear. And I can’t wait for the privilege of having to sit through not one but two meetings with that coach, one during my prep period and the other who the hell knows when because no way in hell am I doing it before or after school. And finally, I’m really beholden to the fact that someone let me know beforehand that I was getting coaching in the first place, because I love being treated like an autonomous individual by the organization that I love so much.
Oh crud, I’m ranting. And someone from Teach for America may read this. If so, hey Tri!
*7. I’m beholden to the guy that stops traffic for schoolchildren at the intersection near my house. They have people like that all over the place in Hartford (they have titles across their green vests–“schoolchildren protectors” or something like that), and many of them are accustomed to my pedaling by each morning, so I exchange pleasantries with them now. But I’m especially beholden to that guy near my house because every morning, as soon as he sees me coming his way, he checks the traffic to see if the intersection will be clear when I get to it. If it is, he performs this intense hand motion, beckoning me to not slow down and just blindly trust him to run a red light and cruise through his intersection. Which I do every time. I love that guy.
8. I’m beholden to movies, because they put my students in a comatose state that I didn’t know was possible of a group of twenty or so pubescent knuckleheads jammed into a typically overheated room. Movies are gold. Next week I’m playing Cloud Atlas, and if you’ve seen that movie then you know it will take a full week to get through. If you haven’t seen that movie, sucks to suck, huh?
9. I’m beholden to the fact that I’m at 800 words because I’m running out of things to be beholden to–not because I’m particularly unbeholden, but because it’s hard to come up with things that aren’t grossly cliché when writing a list of things you’re beholden to. Like this one: I’m beholden to my family because without them I wouldn’t be the person I am today–like no shit Sherlock. The only time I think you could get away with writing something like that is if you need money, which may have been why I saw it so much on Facebook.
(Now I realize I just repeated a joke. Sorry, but I'm trying to make a point.)
10. I’m beholden to those of you reading this that may have posted about your family on Thanksgiving and who will–regardless of my jackassery in #4 and #9–continue reading this blog. It’s just my nature. Accept me?
11. I’m beholden to the hairband I wear to school every day (the one I’m wearing in the picture above). All my students find it utterly abysmal, and I get one helluva kick out of trying to teach them that a guy doesn’t have to act macho with a correspondingly close-cropped haircut in order to be…a guy.
12. I’m beholden to the wisps of red in this beard that’s taking two months to grow past a patchy shitshow.
13. I’m beholden to the word shitshow.
*Damn, over a thousand words! I guess I’m beholden to more than I thought–shut up. One would be beholden to countless things if one just took the time to think about it.
Almost forgot, check this neat video out by clicking this word. Then please vote for it. I'm giving Justin Crowe this shout-out because one day he's going to be some schwank-ass filmmaker, and I'm going to use this paragraph as leverage for him to accept a screenplay of mine or something.