Tuesday 3 June 2008

Constipated Heron

Yesterday I felt rough, really rough, lousy in fact. I wanted to eat comfort food but couldn't muster the energy needed even for that. I wanted to curl up like a cat and sleep somewhere with the sun on my fur.

And I did sleep.
This morning we awoke to rain. And so my day went. Soaked going into work, soaked doing the morning programme, soaked doing the afternoon one. And then I started to feel better. Not great, but not as though I were crawling along the bottom.

Crawling along the bottom. I led the merry band of grade fours through the coyote tunnel, rain dripping from the bushes down my neck, wicking up my trousers. I stopped. Ahead of me a pair of white socks... and a condom containing fluid. And a tissue.
I'm glad the citizens of Richmond are practising safe sex, oh and taking their socks off, but seriously, go somewhere else.

Crouched in the dripping tunnel with kids backing up behind me, I did the constipated heron stance and scraped mud up to the offending item with the side of my shoe. Moving fluidly into the peeing dog with a twitch pose, I side flicked the Johnny to one side and carried on.
The kids made much of the socks, but saw nothing else. When we passed Alex, I forewarned him and he went in with a stick and was able to get rid of the thing.

Odd, working these last few weeks with Alex Y. I feel like a TV show cop. You work with one person on all these programmes throughout the year, puppets, plays, double act, you speak, I speak, dovetail, team teach, teaching partner, and then the year is done and he'll be gone to get on with his career. That's my mantra. It would be so easy to go through the year again, this time knowing the programmes, improving them because we know them so well, but I also know that it's easy to get stuck.

Meanwhile, in a universe far, far away.....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hell, if those were the kids from my neighbourhood, they would have known exactly what it was and what you should have done about it. The schoolyard has signs written up by children saying "please don't leave your condoms and needles in our park". Sad, really, but if the kids are living around it, guess they need to be well-warned.

I'd really like to know the story behind the socks. Isn't that usually the one thing you leave on? I'm constantly perplexed by random pairs of trousers on the street.

Schneewittchen said...

Hahaha, I stopped myself making a comment like that about the socks, I know it's what Canadian men are supposed to leave on! (In fairness, I had to be told that rather than know it from experience).

I doubt signs like that would even work in our Park since ppl don't seem to understand the meaning of a picture of a dog with a red line through it.
However, that wasn't your point, and I'm sure your new neighbourhood will have no need.

The random clothing is bizarre isn't it? It's almost like the feet that keep washing up. I walked past a single but expensive-looking trainer today and a woman's halter top.