Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Treat and Trick and the Omen of the Personal Stall.

My students seemed unusually happy tonight. They laughed at all my jokes, answered questions with great enthusiasm, and seemed to really enjoy tonight's topic. They worked hard, and everybody finished the assignment. I gave them a Halloween treat (even adult students like to get treats!) (maybe even more than kids because kids get treats all the time and adult students seldom get treated) and they all thanked me, smiling.

I was so impressed, I gave them very little homework and dismissed them early.

Hey, wait a minute. . . . . .

I knew tonight would be a good session. I knew, because when I arrived at the college, nobody was trespassing in my Personal Stall.

Of course, after I got in there, and after it was too late, I realized there was no toilet paper. Fortunately, the lady in the Next Stall Over had never seen any episodes of Seinfeld and was happy to Spare a Square.

As we were standing side-by-side at the sinks, I noticed that she had a Superman pez dispenser hanging from her bookbag. A double omen of positive karma. Triple, if you count the spared square. Quadruple, counting the unoccupied Personal Stall. It could only have gotten better if she'd given the pez dispenser an assigned seat. Or put it on someone else's.

Yes, a happy and productive evening was had by all.