I'm a sucker, part 1 of a million

Walking home from school yesterday, I ran into an art teacher in a nearby park. She was waiting for a ride, surrounded by laughing and running children, none of whom will ever attend the high school down the block. I waved. She waved back and said something. I had to walk over.

"Something incredible happened," she repeated.

"Really? What? Are they closing down our school?" I asked.

"No, something really incredible. The kids were telling me about it." She smiled. "Apparently, you got really mad."

"Me? I don't remember getting mad. When did I get mad?"

"I don't know," she said. "But it made a huge impression. They said, 'You should have seen him. He was really mad. It was scary.'"

I thought about it. "Well, I must have been in such a rage that I blacked out and don't remember."

"You know," she said, in a teacher voice that sounded like she was about to impart some knowledge. "Back when I had a voice, every once in a while I'd really let the kids have it. And they knew it was serious because it so rarely happened."

"Yeah, me too," I said. "The thing is, I don't remember being angry in the past few weeks. I've been keeping on the sunny side of life."

I thought about the last couple of weeks. I've been busy. That's good. Too busy even to post on this blog. I thought about some of the things that I can write about, and yeah, some of them make me unhappy, even angry. But I don't remember actually losing my cool.

Anyway, thanks for your patience. Here are a few things you can look forward to in the next few days:

• I almost got beat up.
• I did get bitched out.
• A student got arrested.
• My school's gonna get shut down, and some people protested.
• I'm coaching yet another sport.
• I've lost some important report.

Does any of it sound like I might have gotten angry? Stick around ...