Lock Down

Yesterday was Monday. Monday after a very busy weekend. I worked all weekend and took some time to sleep in a bit before work yesterday. Because Grace was with me all weekend and we didn't get home until late Sunday night, we didn't rush her in the morning. AJ took her to school a tiny bit late. And he emailed me later in the morning...

Are you at work yet? You're probably still sleeping. I went to Grace's Monday meeting, saw her play a mean xylophone. The best part of the meeting was the "Lock Down Procedure" they went over with the kids. Gather in the corner, sit on the floor, turn off the lights, close the shades, lock the doors and be very quiet. This is in place in case a crazed gunman invades the school. They even had a video. It reminded me of those vintage videos from the sixties telling kids to hide under their desks if we have a nuclear explosion. I wanted to raise my hand and ask "Why would we need to do a lock down?" just so I could her the women in her fake sweet tone stutter her way through some explanation that wouldn't cause the children to cry. The truth would be way too awful; "Well, one of your parents or a mentally deranged child or even a disgruntled employee would enter the school with a loaded weapon looking to kill or cause great pain. We lock the doors and turn off the lights so that the person thinks we are not in the room, faking them out, and in turn saving us from being shot." You would definitely here a few whimpers in the audience if the true story was told. Crazy friggen world we live in.... after that little drill they gathered some kids in the middle and sang Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline." Not me, I was humming the tune from the twilight zone, because that was way too surreal for me. All this before my first coffee.