School Zones and Old Folks and Red Lights, Oh My!

I hate driving. I absolutely hate it. I hate driving on quite streets on a nice day in a car with automatic transmission. Driving on busy streets on a 90 degree day in my persnickety old stick-shift makes me want to poke somebody’s eyes out.

I think it should be a law that everybody is required to drive 35 miles per hour on all streets at all times. Period. No exceptions. Ever. Inevitably I get stuck behind an old person or somebody poking along looking for an address or somebody who insists on breaking for every single speed bump or someone who thinks that because they are in residential neighborhood they should only go 20 mph even though the speed limit signs every couple of blocks or so clearly say 25 or somebody who just has no clue what they are doing or all of the above.

Then there are the school zones. There are two school zones on my way home. These are the kind where the speed limit drops to 20 when the flashing yellow lights are on. But one of these school zones is several blocks from the actual school and the light is still on until 4 p.m. even though school ends at 3:15 and even the kids who like to hang around on the playground after school have gone home by 4. I have never once seen a child in this school zone, at any time of day.

But what really gets me going is school zone number two. It’s for a private school that is, admittedly, on a rather busy corner. It would be impossible to drive faster than 20 anyway due to the procession of giant-SUV-driving mothers clogging up traffic. What bothers me about this school zone is the crossing guard. They have an adult crossing guard stationed at an intersection where—this is why it bothers me—there are lights, stop lights and “walk/don’t walk” lights. There are no left turn signals or anything that might be confusing. It’s a busy intersection, but not at terribly dangerous one (for anyone who lives in Boise, it’s 8th and Fort Streets). This crossing guard walks out into the intersection with her stop sign even though the light is red and the cars are already stopped. But here’s the real kicker. I was sitting at this intersection about a week ago and the crossing guard headed out into the intersection to cross two adult women who came from the other direction. No kids were crossing at the same time. These women didn’t have any kids with them. That really makes me angry. If they must have a crossing guard, she should be told to help cross kids only, not random pedestrians who just happen to walk by and are perfectly capable of crossing the street by themselves.

Why do crossing guards and school zones bother me? Well, to put it bluntly (and I’m sure there will be disagreement from any mothers who might be reading this) I think that if your kid is not old enough to cross the street by himself, he’s not old enough to be in school. But on a deeper level, it bothers me because I think it’s representative of the way childhood and adolescence are being continually extended, which I think is a serious problem. If elementary school children can’t be trusted to cross the street by themselves, then society is doing something very, very wrong. I have heard it said that people trust the kids, they don’t trust the drivers. But we trust drivers not to run over all the adults who cross the street downtown every day. And like I’ve said several times already, this intersection has lights. If drivers can’t be trusted to stop when the light is red, that’s also a sign that something is very, very wrong (and honestly, a driver who isn’t going to stop for a red light probably isn’t going to stop because some lady is standing in the crosswalk holding a plastic stop sign either). And finally, I am willing to listen to arguments in favor of the crossing guard being there, but there is absolutely no reason whatsoever why she should have gone out in the intersection to cross two adult women. That is where I absolutely draw the line. Period. No exceptions. Ever.

--Melissa J.

this week is homecoming week (ug)

To show just how much school spirit i have, this is what happened on tuesday. On homecoming week or any other spirit filled week my school likes to create crazy dress up days. I never dress up. But my friend molly does. Tuesday was jersey day. So i walk up to her at break.

"Where's your jersey?" She asked.

i take a second to remind myself why this question makes sense. After i remember it's homecoming week i say, "I do not participate in homecoming activities."

"But it's senior year!" Molly gets excited about the weirdest things.

Then yesterday was western day or some other such nonsense, which means they also have to make it hat day so we can wear hats. Why they have to do both i don't know. But wait! it gets better. Today's theme was....where the wild things are. the same theme the dance is. How very creative. Tomorrow is red and white day (our school colors). but wait!! it gets even better!!! i swear i don't understand how our principle thinks.

This must have been what went through his mind: we're going to cut classes short on friday to have a pep assembly. But we're not going to do the smart thing. We're going to have it after lunch so half the students can go home first.

Great idea Mr. Anderson. (no i'm dead serious, they really do want kids to not go to the assembly).

Now naturally, i wouldn't even consider going to homecoming. The last dance i went to was homecoming sophmore year, and then i had a date (great story that goes along with that, remind me to tell it sometime). Yes folks, that's right. i didn't go to prom.

*GASP*

Okay, so again, i wasn't planning on going to homecoming. I don't have a dress or any desire to go. The only way i would go would be if a certain guy asked me out. Well, he's a little slow on the uptake so has no idea i like him, so, that would be a no. So, no, until today, thursday, (homecoming is on saturday) i wasn't planning on going to homecoming at all. But of course all my friends have to ruin it. They're going. All of them. yes, that's right. Even Brian, even andrew, and possibly even elliot. All three of them Capital kids. Oh won't that be interesting. All three of them together could beat up my entire school if they wanted to.

Dropping Like Flies

It is a bad year for house flies. I don't know what it is. The unusually cool summer temperatures that rarely rose above 100 degrees? Global warming? A leak in the housing armor? Not sure. But we have tons of flies all around the house. In the past two days we have purchased four fly swatters and even those funny fly-catching "ribbons" as they are euphemistically called. I call them ugly and sticky. We now have four of those placed strategically around the house. We are at WAR.

(Sorry. Had to pause a second to kill another one.)

I don't know why I bring up the house fly situation, because it will go away eventually. Winter will come. And they'll die. (Ha! Sweet revenge.) But right now, they are driving us all crazy. Really. I think I may have to be taken away by men in white coats.

So here are a few other things that drive me crazy. (Now you see where I'm going with this.)

Emily just told me about a friend's recent twitter. He was appalled, rightly so, that his English teacher (grade 12) kept referring to Robert Frost's "Road Less Traveled" as a short story!!! A short story. Even the students knew it was a POEM. Hello! Now, I can understand a slip of the tongue once, maybe twice. But apparently this teacher continually refers to it as a short story. Yikes. And here's the rub. This person is employed as a teacher. I have been trying to get hired to teach secondary English for approximately six months now, and nada. How is this fair, I ask you? I could teach circles around this other person--with my eyes closed. Hello Boise School District, are you listening?

Okay, next. Does it ever feel like your belongings, house, car, etc. are falling apart faster than you can keep them maintained? It does to me. Just when I think all major appliances and household goods are repaired, five more break. Recently, our garage door opener broke down, which isn't such a surprise, as it was at least 20 years old. So you can't blame it. But at the same time, one of our cars needed an alternator replaced. This all happened about the same time we had to go back to school shopping. Hello, MoneyTree? We still have furniture that our dogs chewed on when they were puppies (they're now 3 years old) that still needs repair. Our stairway has been barren of carpet for over a year. Now, this is a factor of husband-neglect, which could take up several posts alone, so we won't dwell on that. The garage has needed painting for at least five years. And I finally am doing it myself after many attempts to entice the children with large sums of money. I have one side done. You get the picture. We are living in a constant state of entropy. I think, like chaos (see previous post), that is another natural state of the universe.

So are the flies, but I'm not going to let them win!

Have a great day.
Neysa