Awkward and odd and miscellaneous

Last night my wife and I were sitting in the office and she was reading something about one of my kids' teachers. She started reading them out loud and I realized that it was from that site ratemyteachers.com. So I'm sitting there thinking, "Please don't please don't," but of course she finally got to "Hey, let's look at yours!"

I am aware of the site and looked at it once a few years ago, but I had decided at some point that I'd rather not see it, but I got to hear the 10 or so comments, good and bad, read to me. For some reason, this was uncomfortable for me. It's weird, because I'm not someone who tries to avoid getting feedback. Usually, I want to know everything. In personal relationships, knowledge is power, in that knowing how the other person or people feel about you and things you did or said can help guide you. I remember one of my high school friends asking me, "Why do you always want to know the worst?" I didn't know how to reply at the time, but the answer is, of course, that if you know the worst you at least have a prayer of making it better.

(On a totally unrelated note, this same friend said one of my favorite things that anyone's ever said about me. I'd said or done something that had disrupted a group activity or class, I don't remember, and seeing what had happened I muttered, "Well, there's one in every crowd," to which my friend replied, "Yes, but why does it always have to be you." I cherish that.).

I was in the supermarket yesterday getting some stuff at the deli counter. I like getting things at the deli counter because they slice them really thin. The deli people have a dress code of some sort. They have to wear a cap with the store brand of deli products and an apron. They men need to wear ties, even under the apron. They guy waiting on me had his purple and grey-striped tie done in the same way they show a stereotypical roaring drunk man in a suit, loosened about 4 inches below his neck, with the back and front twisted over each other and turned at a right angle so the end is much closer to his armpit than his belly button. And I'm thinking, what is the objective of having the guy wear a tie in the first place, and is this particular arrangement meeting that objective? It's like the speed limit. If you make a speed limit but don't actually enforce it, it's at best the same and possibly worse than not having a speed limit at all. Personally, I think having a rule that's not enforced is worse than having no rule at all, because it trains people not to follow rules, and not just stupid rules like wearing a tie under your deli apron, but important rules like don't speed (and by extension, don't run red lights).

The school has now instituted a system where they interrupt classes once a day to remind teachers to take attendance. They also posted huge signs in the lobby to remind the kids to check in when they arrive at school (they don't say, as I have intimated, "Swipe in or die!" but the idea is the same). All I have to say is that it's good to have the functionality of knowing which kids are in school and which kids are not to be fully operational by the time it's two-thirds of the way through the school year.