2003-06-19 9:10 a.m.
The End of the Year
My coworker's girlfriend is a teacher, and he came in with candy from her school since it was the end of the year.
Owing to the charmed domestic existence of my coworker and his girlfriend, I imagined these were teachers' gifts. I could see an orderly line of well-behaved little cherubs lined up in front of her desk, offering up sweet little treasures to their beloved teacher as a way of thanking her for their quality education.
By contrast, in the Mayberry schools, "end of the year" meant the time when the teachers would return all of the stuff they'd confiscated over the preceding nine months. For the teachers it meant blessed relief from the legions of upper-middle-class brats they'd been attempting to educate all year, and perhaps that they could ease up a bit on their medication.
Turns out that the candy was left over from the staff room "stress bowl." No more school, therefore no more stress, and our little group of geeks were the beneficiaries. Way to kill a fantasy.