Jaws of Life

I own a big tough bike lock. It's one of those chains that you can put on your waist while you're riding, and it's fastened by a Kryptonite lock that is known for it's ability to deter bike thieves. It's intended to resist even the strongest of bolt cutters. It is worth far more than my bicycle.

On Friday, I was out to dinner in my neighborhood, on bike, and when I went to unlock the chain from my waist, the key broke off in the lock. The chain weighs about 20 lbs. And it was not on loose enough to slide over my butt. So there I am on Clinton and Park Aves with a 20 lb. chain locked to my waist.

My friend and I biked over to the Clinton Hill/Bed-Stuy precinct. The cops were friendly, suppressing their laughter over their corny joke "now you can say you've been locked up at the precinct" but pointed out that they did not possess the tools to remove the chain from my waist and had to phone in for the Special Emergency Unit to cut the chain off using the Jaws of Life. "It might be a little painful" they warned.

The Special Emergency Unit arrived in about 10 minutes, poking a little fun at me but being pretty friendly overall. Much better experience with cops than I have had previously. They pull out a bolt cutter that is the size of my entire upper body, rev up a motor that is larger than a lawn mower, and chop the Kryptonite lock off of my waist after the second attempt. It was slightly terrifying but overall far less emotionally taxing than I had expected it to be. And then I spent the rest of the night telling and retelling my Jaws of Life story to everyone I ran in to.

This weekend I'm at my 5 year college reunion. After a full day of P.D. at the Botanical Gardens which was video taped by a CUNY grad student contingent doing research on single-gender classrooms [a little unnerving but ok overall] I took a personal day on Friday and took the train upstate to school. There has been a steady flow of alcohol and food for the last 24 hours, and we are staying in upper classman housing which is kind of nice--I am rooming with 4 of my friends and having roommates for 2 days is actually fun. I can see them setting up the big tent for our class dinner from my bedroom window.

I will only be a public school teacher for 2 and a 1/2 more weeks.

Best teaching anecdote of the week:

Chanya to Cammy during Advisory:

"When [another ELA teacher] disses you it's mad obvious and you're like OHHHHH she dissed you baaaad. But when Ms. _______ [me] disses you you're like Wait, What Did She Just Say? And you have to think about it for a minute and then you're like Oh She Did Not Just Say That! She totally dissed me!"

I laughed for five minutes. I'm so proud.