Other Happy Endings

Our decision to get married in Vegas -- BY OURSELVES -- was a decision we decided to keep secret.

And I kept it a secret, which means I didn't tell my mother, and I didn't WRITE ABOUT IT ON MY BLOG.*

Believe me, that one was hard. In fact, the last fight we had before we were married had to do with whether or not I could post an entry about it on my blog last Thursday. **

I was all inspired to, because I got a wedding card from my SAT students. Really it was from the math instructor, who bought the card and asked the students to sign it during the last diagnostic test. This apparently led them to have a whole little debate about my wedding, while I wasn't even there. (Thinking about this makes my cockles glow.) I had already told the students -- I can't remember how it came up -- that I was getting married in Vegas over Spring Break. The class ended right before this, so maybe that's how it came up.

Anyway, the reactions in class had been predictably cute and predictably split. A couple of girls squealed and said That's so sweet! A few were shocked, because I wasn't going to tell my parents. This was a class full of Asian kids who contintually referred to their own ethnic identification -- "That's not very Asian," they'd say. I'm not sure to what extent this has anything to do with the horror some of them felt over not telling your parents, but it kind of seemed to.

This is also the class that began, first day, with three or four of the uber-bright Asian boys in one of the sections writing to each other on their class manuals: "She seems very not qualified." In the end, though, these very same uber-bright kids turned into my biggest supporters. I think they were impressed partly because I said "bullshit" during class (I meant to say "BS"), and partly because everyone's reading scores went up 100 points between tests. ("How come all our reading scores went up 100 points?" they asked. What would you have said? "Because I am the BEST TEACHER EVER!" was my own giggly response.) But, it turns out, one of these boys was also a romantic. "When people are in love, they have to do what feels right to them!" this boy insisted, when one of the girls was expressing dismay that I intended to ELOPE.

On the last day of class, then, after they'd given me the card and as everyone was leaving, the students all said thank you, this class was fun. The romantic uber-bright boy came up to me shyly. "Miss B., I want to say one thing." "Yes?" "I hope you have a very happy wedding. I really do." "Thank you, thank you very much."

Happy ending? Sure.

The other happy endings were my evaluation scores. Now, the test prep company teacher evaulation form is way different from a college evaluation form: there's basically one tiny section devoted to each teacher. Would you say this teacher is outstanding? Did this teacher make the class interesting? Did this teacher demonstrate mastery of the material?

My scores, for both classes, including the TOTALLY CRAZY class, averaged to 3.4 out of 4.0. You have to average 3.0 to keep working. And as anyone who's read much of my blog realizes evaluations make me TOTALLY CRAZY, so I was relieved.

The other funny thing. One of the students -- a really uptight girl who liked me but who was freaked out by not having your mother at your wedding -- wrote this in the card.

Hey B.!
How are you? I'm guessing you have a very strong stomach cuz'
you're eloping! Though I don't contain your behavior, I wish you a wonderful wedding!
Go Vegas! I [heart] you, have fun, Student

You might be wondering, as I was, about the word "contain," which her test prep training should have taught her was a diction error. The math instructor explained to to me: The student started out to write "condone," then decided midway through that this was kind of rude, so changed it to "contain."

Which has the same exact effect, only now with a diction error! Aren't students funny?

And now I unfortunately must go work at the bagel shop.



*Although, people I did tell include:

my dentist
my hairdresser
my therapist
my exam director
my fellow SAT teacher trainees
my SAT students
my ex-boyfriend
CV's ex-girlfriend
most of my friends
some random shopkeepers downtown
a woman at the dogpark
fellow bagel rollers
the woman who owns the bagel shop
anyone who happened to ask me "What are you doing over spring break?"
my brother, though that was an accident, but he didn't tell mom either -- thanks Tony!

**Let's acknowledge right now that in my case, the "pseudonymous" aspect of the blog means "pseudo-anonymous." CV's argument was that some family members know about our Flickr sites, and from there you can find the blog, which is why I should wait a few more days to disclose it all to the blog. I said the chances were slim, who cares? But this is also the attitude that makes me TOTALLY SURPRISED when I'm the subject of any gossip. That person? Cares about what I do? And told other people? Weird! So anyway, CV was probably right.