Crash (the sound, not the movie)

Teaching is hard on a body, physically and mentally. For several years in Baltimore, I paid for my hobby of teaching by cleaning the school in the evenings with my wife and a fellow teacher and his wife. This meant that every afternoon, I was looking for a way to rest up a bit before the second job began.

It was one of those long days with lots happening and I needed just 15 minutes. I talked another teacher into watching my class during carpool, turned out the lights in my room (which had no windows - one of the most inhumane conditions I have ever experienced in a classroom, but good for naps), and turned up my boom box right by my head with some soul enriching U2 as I lay on a folding table on my back, in the dark, with the sounds of Bono and the boys going strong.

I admit that I must have been moving a bit to the music, but probably it mostly came about due to my weight that a few minutes later, just as I was fading off to sleep, there was a large CRASH, followed by a bunch of students rushing in to find me in a newly formed "V" in the table top, the cd player on the floor, not working, and very wide white eyes in the semi-darkness from their surprised Bible teacher. At those moments, laughter is all that moves one past the moment.

I left the table in the corner of the room for a few weeks just to give the students the pleasure of laughing with me again each time they came to class. I don't lay on folding tables anymore.