Yesterday was my last day at school for a while. I had some paperwork to do, like last-minute survey things, emails, and pushing grades onto the internet. But my classroom was the pressing priority. The summer crews are already stripping and re-waxing the floors in the Middle School.
The most difficult part was my desk. It builds up various strata during the course of the year. As I strip it down to bare desktop, I strike pockets of papers and such that must be dealt with, so it takes a long time. This year’s theme was “borrowed items”. I returned a children’s book, an electric piano manual, a set of hymnals, a VHS tape of Oprah, and a foam ball. Some of these had only been with me a month. Others, all year.
But now my desk is clean, the walls are empty, and the aquarium is moved to the air conditioner cabinet so the crew can move its stand.
Good-bye, room. I’ll see you in a month or so.
So empty, so bare.
Nothing’s really there.
Gone papers, gone lists,
Good luck, abandoned fish.
Lauren, not to worry about the fish. I will be visiting them and feeding them and scooping out the ones who don’t survive. Brad, did you leave me a dead fish scooper of some kind?
Oh, and shame on you Brad for not watching the Oprah tape. It was a heart-warming show about how the anti-Christ (Oprah) helped to provide for African children who were starving for an education. I may save it and give it back to you so it can sit on your desk another year!
Hey, my desk is always perfectly organized and my mind is …. oh, I see what you mean!!
And just what kind of mind does it take to forsake innocent little fish with no remorse, huh?
What I want to know, is where does that orange extension cord lead to…and why on earth did they put an outlet up by the ceiling?
Oh, and one more thing, do you think anyone would notice if you painted that little rectangle of wall above your desk a different color every year?
The orange extension cord is plugged into a white one that is hard to see in the picture. The white one is plugged into a normal outlet by the floor. They lead to the fish tank.
The areas above and below both windows are painted to match the opposite wall, so painting just that one square would probably be noticeable.