Day 180: Past Work meets Present

 

June 29th, 2011Today, my past officially meets my present. One of the first jobs I ever got in my life was @ Popeyes in the summer of 2007, and I must say I have gone quite a far way to reach my ultimate destination of the present. Though times were TERRIBLE there, I’m glad to have advanced to my slightly superior present (minus the need to bus to work). I woke up this morning and followed my routine of going to EH&S first in the morning. The only thing that ultimately broke that cycle was the need to wash one red cart at the car wash. I drove the Red EHS car to the car wash on campus and subsequently had fun driving my car through it. Through all the turns and driving, I made no accidents, which makes me slightly more confident in my driving ability. Then, I bused using the 921 to work, getting off on the bus stop AFTER Popeyes. The stupid bus driver didn’t stop though, so I had to yell at him to open the bus, even though I had already pulled the yellow cord. Shrugs.

I got off, and we got debriefed before preparing for our stations. I’m going to go on a limb and say I think is a wonderful job, because all the good kids make it worth it. The bad ones…. not so much. But today I have to say two of my three groups were good. Lunchtime was chill, because somehow the kids managed to have arm wrestling tournaments on their own. As Ron Paul says, let Liberty reign over everyone.

Period 1: I taught Film to Group 7 showing them clips from the Jazz Singer, Singing in the Rain, and Glee, and subsequently afterwards asked them to make a musical number/routine of their own. The girls did well, while the guys had some micro-drama and subsequently were broken into two seperate groups. The kids had a good time and behaved, and that’s all that really matters in the end. They lined up in a perfect straight line bribed with the rewards of tickets.

Period 2: I taught Math to Group 8, and they were terrible. About roughly 5 of them was so bad, that by the end of the period I made everyone in the class play the game of silence, thrusting upon them the high level of disappointment I had in all of them. I told them if they didn’t want to be here, they had to tell their parents, and not ruin it for the rest of the class. I made them do worksheets the entire time to try to get them to calm down. One of their arguments was that they thought it was going to be summer camp, and it turned out to be more like summer school. I would have to slightly agree with them, but I told them they needed to make the best with what they had.

Period 3: I taught Film to group 6, and they were also behaved, except for the fact that the girls this time had the micro-drama, subsequently having to break up into two seperate groups. I would choose this group anyday over the melodramatic Group 8, who I will ultimately encounter again twice on Friday. OH JOY! All will be forgiven and I will re-attempt to try to make all their lives better in the end though.

Afterwards, my past and present collided. Because I missed the bus stop like 10 seconds after it came, I walked on over to Popeyes to have a delicious dinner (in combination with the sandwich I bought). It tasted exactly the same as the days I used to work there, and subsequently my past and present collided in an unexpected way. I would go to the bus stop across the street, bus back to campus, and use my laptop at Price Center for fun purposes. After going home, I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sadness, and then surprised when Tyler, Julia, Alex, & Lauren came back from Chipotle. We played a round of Uno (I lost), and watched the pilot of Dexter (okay show, but I hope the next episode is better). When they left I ended the night on the phone with Geetha before falling tragically falling asleep.

On June 29th, 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 bill into law. The National Interstate and Defense Highways Act was for the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways over a 20-year period and was the largest public works project ever undertaken. For each highway created 90 percent of construction costs were paid by the Federal budget and 10% from the local state. FAIL.

The political and legal future of the sweeping health care reform bill received a big boost Wednesday after a federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled in favor of the Obama administration and Congress, concluding a key provision in the landmark legislation was constitutional. The “individual mandate” requiring nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance by 2014 or face financial penalties — was challenged in federal courts by a large number of individuals and groups, who said people should not be forced to purchase a product like medical coverage. A partially divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit disagreed. EW.

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