So my mother recently went to her 40th(45th?) High School reunion and had occasion to speak to an old friend of hers who was also my 7th grade English Teacher.

Mrs. Galiette has the distinction of being the only education professional in my entire run of 6th to 8th grade who ended up liking me and not seeking to actively destroy me.

Seriously. I had a science teacher who would routinely kick me out of class for future crimes I may commit against him. The exchanges went something along the lines of
HIM: “Dobbin! Out!”
ME:”But Mr. P—-; I’m just sitting here. I haven’t done anything.”
HIM: “Yet.”

Blogging has been light-to-non-existent for a bit, since I’ve been squirreling away any free writing time to finishing the novel (I’ve got, like, 4, maybe 5 chapters left and the 1st draft is DONE.) so I’d like to at least point you, Mrs. Galiette, if you’re reading this, to some highlights of stuff that’s been here:

In which I recount an epic ninja battle

and

something I wrote about my dad and the process of living through a death

and

something people actually paid me money to write.

I also want to go on record as saying you were totally my favorite middle school teacher, closely edging out Craig Blanchard who, while awesome, was a co-conspirator and aider and abettor to the dreaded Leaf Report. And also, I honestly was scratching my nose and was not attempting to give you a crypto-middle-finger in Homeroom.

In other 8th grade news, I recently found an essay I wrote on Tale of Two Cities from that time period, when I was cleaning out my mother’s basement for her. I will scan and post it soon.