Look At That Mug

I’ll be the first to say that my colleagues can get on my nerves, as well as I am a nuisance to them. For every teacher who sends a kid to ask for an entire ream of paper that I bought with my own money, there is a teacher who is furious with me about leaving a caffeine puddle at the bottom of the coffee pot in the workroom and not brewing a fresh batch. What can I say? A family as close as we are is going to get a bit fierce. And like a family, we also do things that endear us to each other.

This morning a teacher sent out an e-mail, “If any of you run across a beautifully hand-painted pink and brown coffee mug, let me know. Although I use it, I consider it a work of art.”

Soon after another teacher e-mailed, “I would give you the mug my kid made for me. I drink out of it, but it looks like a piece of crap. This kid is going to be a banker because I don’t see art in her future.”

This started a flood of e-mails with similar messages.

My kid gave me this tie I’m wearing. It’s horrible. We can make it look like a mugging if someone is willing to take it off my hands.

I’m willing to child-craft-trade this paperweight my daughter made, sight unseen. I don’t care if yours has an odor or not.

Does anybody want a dream catcher made with love? If you ask me, it looks like it was made with boxing gloves.

The e-mails just kept coming and coming, until we were notified that the teacher found her mug. She got on the joke train herself, “After hearing you guys I’ve decided to leave it in the workroom during third period. If I come back and it’s gone, then oh well.”

These guys make me laugh sometimes.