Lessons In Life

As part of my so called weight control, I started the year off by eating black beans and hot Rotel for lunch. I literally bring the two cans to work, put the contents of both in a bowl, and microwave until hot. It tastes good enough and convinces me I’m doing something to lose these unsightly extra pounds. Well, after a couple of weeks, it pretty much stopped (I think it’s what the Kelloggs originally fed to mental patients to destroy their spirit). When I had motivation at the beginning of the year, I brought a bunch of cans of both and left them in my office. Now I basically only eat them when I forget to bring some food to work or don’t have any cash to buy the rectangular school pizza. 

I’m not sure if this has been made clear anywhere on my blog, but I am a high school teacher and a swim coach. During swim season (right now!), I have swim meets at least twice a week, and sometimes, I don’t get home from them until 9:00. Seeing as I go to bed around 10:00, I haven’t been preparing lunch for the next day too often; I’ve been resorting to the black bean combo. Furthermore, because I don’t plan ahead, I use the community bowls that are in the teachers’ lounge.

I noticed last week that my bowl looked dirty – like it literally was never washed (we have a dishwasher that has a clean/dirty sign on the front). I kind of expect this kind cleanliness when there’s no one really in charge of the dishwashing. It’s not like someone gets a stipend to do it, or it’s one of our duties. “You watch this hallway. You make sure the kids are getting off the buses and going inside. You make sure the dishes are clean, SPOTLESS. Use the lemony detergent too!” I have the first lunch, so obviously, I can’t be held responsible for this. 

It turned into a pattern. Eating BB and R – only dirty bowls available. Again and again. Well, the other day I walked in to the lounge to buy a coke, and the special needs kids were putting the freaking dishes away! Now, don’t get me wrong; I am absolutely not blaming these kids for this. The fact they are doing this isn’t wrong either. Their class is called Life Skills, and they are being taught how to live. The problem is the person in charge who doesn’t take the time to check to see if the dishes are clean beforehand. 

Even if I had a teenage son or daughter who wasn’t special needs, I wouldn’t let them put the dishes away before I gave it a once over first. I can tell you firsthand that teens are not the most thorough people in the world. I can’t get them to reread an essay even ONE time. I worked at Pizza Hut as a teenager; believe me, you don’t want them in charge of food or anything around food. Once at work these guys started throwing pennies at each other when we were working and one hit a pizza. I saw the cheese fly up like dust when a cowboy makes someone dance. We never found that penny.

The moral of this story is that teens need to be taught to be responsible. They need to learn to read, memorize SOHCAHTOA, and the bones in the human ear, but please stay away from my food!