"And What Rough Beast...

...its hour come round at last / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?"

-- "The Second Coming," by William Butler Yeats

(Which you should read -- aloud (all poetry should be read aloud) -- for the strange juxtaposition of the beautiful cadence of the language and the images they're portraying.)

In any event, I've begun to sense impending Drama lurking just out of sight from my classroom, "slouching" towards us to be born in a day of utter insanity, even as Bulldozer has better and better days. Why?

Well, for one thing, I may snap and descend into blissful loopiness after the four hundred thousandth time in ten minutes Bulldozer says, "Bathroom? Eye?" (translation: Can I go to the bathroom and clean my artificial eye which is really not dirty but provides a reasonable excuse for the two minute walk/break I really need?)

Or, Boy J (henceforth known as PH for reasons known only to Cat and myself...these are not his initials) and his laugh may send me over the edge to rock and cry in a corner.

Or, the wrong person will be walking by my classroom when M, having been asked if her stomach hurts, will shriek, "Ow, you hurt me, hurting me, bleeding!"

(Translation: "I've got whole impaction constipation issues that make my BMs so hard and big that they hurt terribly and make me bleed." But, yeah, passersby don't know that.)

Or, Aide J will turn just that little bit more green with envy that E (henceforth known as Elastigirl because her arms seemingly stretch to gigantic porportions if you have placed something seemingly out of reach) smiles at Aide T or, you know, works for me and doesn't hit or scratch me.

(Aide J has taken another job at a group home. It is not good. She's burning out but quick. What I thought was her "A ha!" moment has gone away quickly; she has forgotten that Elastigirl is trying to get her attention and, I think, is jealous that Elastigirl seemingly loves Aide T and is hitting and scratching her.

Except, of course, that her reaction -- which has become the appropriate ignoring and moving away last week -- has reverted to "Ow! Elastigirl, that hurt!" Which, you know, just encourages her.)

And that, I think, is really and truly where I sense my impending doom. Aide J is very territorial and very jealous when it comes to Aide T -- because when she first started, Elastigirl and Aide T had been joined at the hip because there was no other option, and because, you know, Aide T is good at her job. So, like I had with the aide before her who lasted exactly two days, I said that she should just observe Aide T and Elastigirl for a week to get the idea.

Since then, she has resented Aide T.

(Which, of course, is one of the main reasons I am leery of one-to-one aide support. Aides -- especially the motherly types -- get too attached and begin to think of the child as "theirs.")

Problem is, with Superhero and Bulldozer and M all having issues right now, and PH and The Boss having minor ones occassionally, I can't afford the tension in the room of having adults fighting with each other...or even, as is the case here, one deciding the other is not good.

So we're "turning and turning in the widening gyre" and hoping the "rough beast" can still be turned away.

Meanwhile, here's a little tidbit: the word "wherefore" means "why" -- as in the saying "the whys and wherefores."

So, in every sitcom in television history, when the teenagers do the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, EVERY SINGLE ONE of them inflects the balcony scene wrong...because they say:

"Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore ART thou, Romeo?"

(As in, "Oh, Romeo, Romeo, where are you, Romeo?")

When in reality, it should be:

"Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?"

(As in, "Oh, Romeo, why are you Romeo Montague?")

Pardon the pronunciation -- and, yes, I'm doing this by memory to all you Evil Leprechauns out there -- but the scene is:

Oh, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou
wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I'll no longer be a Capulet.

(So if you read the rest of the speech, Juliet is actually saying, "Romeo, why are you who you are? Why are you a Montague? Disown your father and leave your family. If you don't, just tell me you love me, and I'll disown my family.")

I have no idea why that rant showed itself now -- I've been wanting to write it for a while -- but I suspect it was the poetical bent of the post. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.