West Wing, Star Wars, and a Wedding

1999-2000, Irene and I are dating and we are drawn in by this new TV show which has fantastic dialogue and really makes me reconsider how good TV shows can be.  The show is the West Wing.

2003, my first year teaching and there is this guy working at Swampscott High School too who delivers me a mini lecture on how much better sandwiches taste if you wrap them in wax paper (versus putting them in a ziplock bag).  Who it this guy I wonder?  Turns out, his favorite show is The West Wing!

New Year's Day 2006.  Isabelle is a baby, my brother is visiting and I have all six Star Wars movies on DVD (how dated is that fact?).  My buddy Mark (aka wax paper guy) has a new big screen tv and sound system at his apartment and *voila* the new year is ushered in in a very nerdy way (Isabelle slept through all the movies, Irene and I nodded off, but Phil and Mark were the true fans!).

June 25 2023, We haven't seen Mark as much as we'd like in the past decade or so, but he's a keeper and so we all make the effort to keep in touch (funny how friendships are organic and easy when you are younger and then, once you have a family of your own, they require effort to maintain, huh?), but we are honored to make the cut for his covid-delayed wedding.  The first outside-of-the-family wedding we've been to in well over a decade! (and, Irene and I agree - our second favorite wedding that we've attended)

Mark and I on his Wedding Day! (Marblehead, MA)

Give to Receive

 Many moons ago, I 'gifted'  (I, ahem, may have found it on the floor a few days earlier) a wrist-size keychain to a student in the front row (CL).  Unbeknownst to me, she was taking her driving test later that week and began to use the serendipitous gift from her physics teacher on her actual keychain. So, it became a running joke between us that it was the best gift she'd ever received.

Then, today (last day of school), she gifted me with an actually personal gift ('ty', as the youth say!):  A crocheted representation of my head:

Note: I am the last classroom teacher to still mask.  Also note the detail work on the glasses!

CL commented "he has a bit more hair, but you can always dream".

Note the top view does come complete with the trade-mark bald spot:

That is Worf-as-a-cowboy's foot that is serving as the anchor point over my desk!

So, kids the moral of the story is never hesitate to be generous with items you find lying on the floor, for it will come back to you ten-fold!

Let the summer begin!