HAUNTED BY MY HIGH SCHOOL HIJINKS

I had a dream about a former high school teacher of mine last night.

The teacher was Ms. O. which is what we'll call her, because if she ever did a Google search for her name, I guarantee you it'd bring her to this page and God knows...I don't want any of my former teachers seeing how rotten I turned out.

Ms. O. was a young woman fresh out of college when she came to teach at my high school. She was our marketing teacher and she was pretty nervous with this being her first teaching gig.

Being only about five years older than her students gave her an immediate disadvantage. And gave a smart-ass like me free reign to walk all over her.

Her classes quickly became lessons in "How to Destroy A Teacher's Will To Teach". Me and a group of friends looked at her class as 45 minutes of obnoxious fun. We never took her class seriously, smarting off to her, disrupting her lessons, convincing her on Fridays to let us turn the class into a disco rather than a classroom and let us dance the whole time.

Stuff like that.

C'mon ... we were rambunctious seniors. At least we weren't taking guns to classes and killing our peers like the creepy kids today.

There are two distinct memories I have of Ms. O. One was the time I pushed the wrong buttons and she LITERALLY grabbed me by the collar and pulled me out into the hallway where she gave me the sternest lecture that I had ever heard out of anyone other than my Dad.

She was sick and tired of me disrupting her class, cheating the other kids out of an education just to further my reputation as the class clown.

She also used a few curse words, which, back in 1980 at least...teachers weren't allowed to do. But I had pushed her to that limit where she had no choice but to call me a sonofabitch.

I pretty much laughed in her face, but it was nervous laughter. The kinda laughter that says "C'mon...it's a joke...don't kill me or nothin'."

The other thing I remember about her is the time we made her cry.

While she was trying to teach, a number of us guys were whizzing pennies at each other. I couldn't do it today to save my life, but it's an act where you snap your fingers with a penny lodged in your fingers and it sends the penny sailing across the room, hitting someone else in the head.

She finally yelled "STOP IT!" and burst into tears, leaving the room.

I've gotta admit ... and I can only speak for myself...but I felt like crap about that.

She was a good woman. She was just young and inexperienced, which caused us guys to just really take advantage of her teaching skills.

So my dream last night...

I was enrolling Andy in kindergarten and I saw this woman who looked familiar, but her hair was gray.

"Ms. O?" I asked.

She looked at me and vaguely recognized me. I told her who I was and she hugged me.

And I proceeded to apologize for all the rotten things we did to her and I told her that she was a great teacher and had meant a lot to me, even though I didn't act like it.

She thanked me in the dream and said it was very nice to finally hear me say that.

I dunno...it was a pretty cool dream actually. Very peaceful and nice.

After high school when I went to college, I did the stupid thing that all college freshmen do...I went back to my high school one day to act like Mr. Big Shot College Boy and go see my teachers to give them a hug.

I used to HATE when college people did that...disrupt classes to come in and hug the teacher and talk all about what they're doing in college and the teacher would beam at her former students and all that garbage.

So of course...I HAD to do it.

And I went straight to Ms. O's class and no one else's.

And I hugged her and told her basically all the stuff I had told her in the dream.

IF you're confused...yes...I really did this in 1981.

Ms. O was very sweet and let all that water go under the bridge. She told her students that she hoped none of them ever gave her the grief that I did which made the students laugh.

She was without a doubt my favorite teacher in high school.

And that dream just made me wonder how she's doing now.

I think I'll go look her up on Google.

CRAP!! I just looked her up on Google and dammit all to hell...MY page came up with this entry linked. Dammit, dammit, dammit...now, not only is she immortalized in my diary, but I've told you guys the same story twice. Cripes...I'm getting old...

Brought "Forrest Gump" home last night and popped it in the DVD player.

I decided to watch the trailors of the film since I've only seen it once and that was in the theaters.

Gawd.

Yes...I got choked up just watching the stupid previews.

When he looked at Jenny, with his head cocked and said "You're my girl, Jenny"....cripes...I about lost it.

1994 was the worst year for the Academy Awards...between Forrest, The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction, those were three movies that I absolutely loved. And while I was rooting for "Pulp" to win the Oscar...I was okay with Forrest winning.

I wanna be Forrest's girl.

You know...in a manner of speaking anyway...

I'm tired and don't have much else to report.

So I'll end this charade right now with the promise that I will see you again very soon.

My gosh...I bet that just sent your heart a'flutter, huh?

Snicker.

Yeah right.

ADDENDUM: I feel bad that I told y'all a story that I've already told you and didn't really include any humor in today's entry...so I'm sending you here ...it's a link that Schmez sent me...so send all hate mail to her...not me.