The Haircut

Eventful day, peeps.  What can I tell ya?  An eventful day.

First, Little Redhead was standing about 20 feet away from me, right down the main hallway, as I talked to a colleague.  He stood perfectly still, staring at my face, rubbing his hair with both his hands.  It was clear that he wanted me to notice his new haircut.  When the colleague was done talking, I directed my attention toward Little Redhead, asking, "Did you get a new haircut, Little Redhead?"
"Yes, I went to Walmart first, but they messed it up, so then I went to the other place called the barber."
"Well it really looks nice, buddy," I told him.
"I know," he said as he sauntered casually down the hallway, back to kindergarten. This kid kills me.

So that's one of the things that happened today.  The other thing that happened is that I worked hard to reflect on ways I'm helpful to others at school, and to celebrate my helpfulness.  I got this idea out of a cheesy leadership book I'm reading.  Though the advice in the book is cheesy, it did help me to feel more positive and to stay calm til christmas.  I helped some 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade readers and a few teachers too.  It feels good to be helpful.  And I celebrated this by acknowledging it, and by having some wine with Mitzi, at the Uptown.

And here's the other thing.  I gave a reading inventory to a bunch of 3rd graders and they had to read a passage about HANGNAILS.  No one knew what a hangnail was. Not even me, it turns out.  Some thought it was a nail you hammer into the wall to hang stuff on.  Others thought it was a hanger, for clothing.  Come to find out, upon reading the passage, we all found out that a hangnail is just a piece of dry skin hanging off your cuticle.  It can get red and sore because of rubbing against fingers and various other objects. Now, I've always thought a hangnail was your actual fingernail cracking in a weird painful way, and just hanging off from where it normally should be.  But I have learned otherwise.  Just a piece of dry skin.  Near the cuticle.  Do not bite it off!  Use nail clippers, but don't do anything if you are a very young person who could hurt yourself with clippers. Just try to ignore it.
PS.  Husbandman rejects this definition, and the linked photos, of hangnails.  He does not believe that these are hangnails.  Weigh in on the controversy if you find yourself with some extra time on your hangnails.