"What Up, Craven?" and other stories.

I was sad of course, returning to work and mosquitos and the dreaded stinging caterpillars of the South... but a few things have made my return easier:

1. The shuttle driver telling me to "Be careful," a New Orleanian farewell.

2. A few students telling me I can never leave again, including one girl who said "We are keeping you here- even if we have to strap you to a chair!" and an eighth-grade boy of all folks who told me "We missed you so much!"

3. In the stories they wrote about why I was gone one wrote that I was run over on my way to get a Hot-n-Spicy from McDonalds; in another I was abducted by aliens and then pirates and all the "bad kids" rejoiced, thinking I was gone for good.

Of course, I was exhausted and whined to and told that I was trippin' and what I was saying didn't matter, but so it goes. I'm getting more used to it.

Onward!