Happy??? Halloween

Happy Halloween! It's been quite a day.

There was a terrible event here in Philadelphia today- a police officer was shot in the head. It happened near the school where I teach and the police put our school, and 54 other schools in the area, on lockdown. No one was allowed in or out all day. The kids were fabulous!!! There was some nervousness, and a few kids called parents, but mostly the kids just followed the rules and we had an almost normal day at school. It was a bit stressful for the faculty- we had to remain totally calm while police cars could be seen regularly outside the building, and the non-stop noise of helicopters directly overhead started as a background annoyance that became ever more insinuating as the day went on.

Later in the day I learned that the officer was a classmate and teammate of John's and the liason for the school with the local police district. The members of the staff who worked with him, and especially those who also went to school with him, are all very upset and saddened.

I am not "doing" Halloween this evening. I am simply not up to being nice and cheerful with a bunch of little kids banging on my door. So, I have retreated upstairs and the lights downstairs are off. I know it's not "nice" but I just do not feel able to deal with it tonight. To show how nervous I am, someone just turned on a lawn mower down the street. My first thought was that it was a helicopter nearby and that the still-on-the-loose gunman was now in my neighborhood.

I am anxiously awaiting John getting home- I think I need a little TLC tonight.