Back in the Saddle Again!
Well, after a two-week forced hiatus, I once again earned a little bit of pocket money today by substitute teaching. The two weeks of vacation were rather relaxing, even if I didn't accomplish anything of note, but it gave me some peace of mind to know that I might actually receive a paycheck of real substance from the Clayton School District on May 20; I'm just worried that the paycheck I'll get on April 20 for the month of March will be puny. If I want to go with Tempe & Ben and my Venturing Crew to Shiloh on Memorial Day Weekend, we're talking $80.00, or if I want to attend Pi Pi Rho and Alpha Phi Omega Spring Weekends, April 26-28 and May 3-5, respectively, at Current River in the Ozarks, those will easily run between forty and fifty dollars apiece. I do know that I'm booked to sub again on Friday, which is reassuring.
Today I substitute taught for a band teacher at Wydown Middle School in Clayton. Basically, all I had to do was to put tapes of Fantasia 2000 and Great Moments of the Ed Sullivan Show into a VCR and press play, but as always, crowd control and class discipline were my primary responsibilities. For some reason, I just had an extremely low tolerance for disrespectful behavior and disruptive activities today, and sent three students down to the front office to sit there for the rest of the class period under the watchful eyes of the school secretaries. I felt a little ashamed when the sub whom I was working with, who was skinny as a rail as it was, told me that all he was having for lunch was a Slim-Fast, after I had let him know that my lunch plans involved a trip to the Schnucks nearby to buy a chicken club wrap. Go figure. I'll try to resume my diet in earnest in a day or so.
Lucky Jim is turning out to be as funny as I had hoped. I really sympathize with Dixon, and can quite easily picture myself getting into the sorts of scrapes that seem to be continually plaguing him. I hope to lie down to read it for at least two uninterrupted hours tonight. Ben and Tempe, thank you again for buying it for me for Easter. For any curious readers, check out the previous entry for a link to the Masterpiece Theatre page discussing its production of Lucky Jim back in February.
Lastly, I seriously discussed working on the Philmont staff yesterday with my Scoutmaster, Tom Coscia, and a friend from Troop 21, Andy Paster, who worked at Philmont himself in 1998, when he was 29. I didn't even expect to receive a Philmont contract, because even though I had submitted an application back in September, I had told Tom not to bother mailing in the letter of recommendation form required for my application to be considered. However, last Thursday, a contract to work as a Program Counselor at Sawmill Camp, the only staffed camp in Philmont's Backcountry to offer 30-.06 rifle shooting as a program, arrived in my mailbox. If I plan on accepting this contract, or even if I will end up turning it down, they'd like to know by April 10, so I've got to make up my mind soon. The bind that I'm in has arisen because about a month ago, I returned a signed contract to work as the Older Boy Program Director at Camp Famous Eagle this summer to my council director of camping, Pat Martchink. I didn't particularly want this job, so I won't feel much guilt if I do back out, especially if my reason was to work at Philmont, but I have committed myself. However, I cannot help the fact that my Philmont contract arrived so late in the season, and this is an opportunity that I'm not sure that I'd like to pass up. As Mom said, what we regret later in life are the chances we haven't taken. I have to admit, money aside, I am leaning towards accepting the Philmont offer. I'll announce my final decision with much fanfare here in a few days.
