Tuesday, May 12, 2009
School Shower
Kyle's coworkers wanted to throw the two of us a shower, so on Thursday morning I drove to his school - several hours after Kyle had made the trip, of course. I was supposed to get to see Kyle's 3rd period class, but apparently after four years Kyle still doesn't know the bell schedule, because he told me the wrong time to arrive. One of his students was so upset that she didn't get to meet me that we hunted her down in the hallway a few periods later. Her reaction made it more than worth it: gasping, hugging me, and telling Kyle "you really do like me Mr. Schmidt! I knew it!" I also got to see Kyle, I mean Mr. Schmidt, in action a few periods later in a beginning programming class. He's quite good at his job, as I suspected, but throw thirty kids - mostly young boys obsessed with video games, youtube, and the like - into a computer lab and the best you can hope for is controlled chaos. It pretty much convinced me that I should only teach at an all-girls school where everything is done on paper. It was certainly entertaining, however, and I got to put faces to a few of the names that show up in Kyle's stories. The crowning moment was when one of the students compared Kyle to Dr. Cox on Scrubs - this has been our goal for years and only one other student has ever made the connection. I actually threw my hands in the air in celebration and may even have cackled. I was half convinced that Kyle had paid the kid.
Kyle has two periods off for lunch so we were able to grab sandwiches with his mentor and coworker Nikki before heading over to one of the technology rooms for the shower. It was all decorated with ballons and sparkly things - which had apparently caused a bit of a struggle amongst the party planning committee, but it certainly looked nice - and the coolest cake (which Kyle apparently failed to center in the photo, but you get the idea).
For gifts the teachers gave us what we needed most: money, which they creatively folded and taped together into a long string and put in a film container. We were very impressed and grateful. 
They also gifted us with marital advice, both silly and serious. The biggest fight triggers they warned us about were wedding planning and money. We're almost finished with the former, and while there has been a lot of stress and exasperated sighing no major fights have erupted because of it. Managing money matters will of course be difficult, especially in the current financial climate, but it should help that we're highly aware of the issue.
Besides, we keep saying that if we make it through the epic cross-country trip we should be able to make it through anything, right? And so far we're both infinitely more excited than nervous about the wedding, the trip, and married life in general. We can't wait for the adventure to begin and we're so grateful to have such a wonderful and widespread support system behind us.
| posted at: 12:26 |
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