2009-11-02 - 6:58 p.m.
Babies and deer! Seriously!

Today was actually a pretty fun Monday. I was running around for most of it like a chicken with my head cut off because of our snow day last Wednesday. Because my school does alternating block schedules, my entire semester was off one day. Good thing I went to the school library last week and reserved about 15 classes. That took me forever to change all those reservations. Augh. That's what I get for planning ahead.

It sure kept me focused, though, moving everything around and replanning several lessons. And I like being focused and productive all day. It's a good feeling.

The fun part of the day was that Converse, my work friend/desk mate, was harassing Ras, the health teacher, all day. Ras was my assistant coach for softball last year and is just a hilarious guy. So he can take the teasing, and dish it back out. See, we found out two weeks ago that Ras really does not like mice. We had a small infestation in our office at school and Ras apparently witnessed one get snapped in a trap. He bolted out of the office and got a janitor to clean it up for him. Converse witnessed his freak out and has been razzing him ever since. I joined in a little bit last week, to which he responded by throwing my football team's latest loss in my face. He called me "Miss 8 Turnovers" all week.

Anyway, Converse decided today to bring in a whole battalion of fuzzy, fake mice to mess with Ras. She started out the day by putting a fairly realistic looking one in his desk drawer. He about flew across the room when he opened that drawer. Hilarious. He just kept finding the little mice everywhere - in his other drawers, under piles of paper, behind his laptop screen, in his lunchbox, in the pocket of his sweatshirt and so on.

We all laughed when he kept finding the mice. He wouldn't even touch them even though they were fake! So he's flinging them across the room at me using pieces of paper and goes, "Babies and deer, Ninja! I'm going to get you back!". (My coworkers are convinced that I am terrified of babies and deer) He thought it was all me! I professed my innocence, which no one but Converse bought.

They eventually started to believe me, but once they found out I knew about the plot before it happened, I was no longer cleared. I figured if I was going to be blamed anyway, I might as well participate. So, I scooped up on the sly some of the mice he'd thrown at me and stashed them in various places around the classroom we share during my next class. I had the room 6th hour and he had it 7th hour, which was my plan period today.

And lo and behold, about halfway into my plan a couple of boys knock on the office door and waltz in with a present for me: all the mice I had hid in our room sunk in a half full bottle of lime Gatorade. The good thing about Ras is he can take a joke. Some men might be sensitive about being afraid of mice, but he's doing a great job with it.

I don't know why, but watching Ras freak out today was so hilarious. I don't think I've laughed that hard at work in a long time. The way he just kept finding the mice and freaking out! You would think he'd be desensitized to them after a while. He's going to get me and Converse back - never mind the fact that Mackie was in on the action, too. I would leave Mackie out of any revenge plans anyway, she has bi-polar disorder and you never know how a prank will fall with her.

Ras is going to have to get up pretty early to get me, though. I get to school before anyone else every day. I suppose he could just stay late one night . . . we'll see. No one pranks a ninja and gets away with it. Especially when you think ninjas are afraid of babies and deer. Ha!