thank god that life is so long, and the city's so big

Friday was supposed to be the best day of inservice so far. And it kinda was. My task was to spend $400 of the school's money on supplies for my classroom in 3 hours. The day started out pretty rockin' -- I secretly love office supply stores. I don't know why, but nothing cheers me up like a new sharpie. I got this super expensive pencil sharpener that holds your pencil for you then ejects it when the point is nice and sharp. (ps, these are too expensive to buy on your own)



We were doing our shopping at The Wise County Messenger, which in case you don't know is the city newspaper offices/town office supply store. The day quit being the best day when I got a call that my friend Jackie had been hit by a drunk driver at 8:30 that morning and things were not good. Obviously, the Messenger is the information hub of the town, so I was right where I needed to be to get the updates about what was going on.

Within the hour I saw almost the whole town share the information about what they knew, and how they knew her. The next day I saw two whole hospital floors filled with people from our high school, our church, and family. I saw adult friends comforting each other like I do with my own friends. I saw people turning inward to their faith, and outward to each other.
But mostly, I renewed my ideas about community. Maybe it doesn't have to be a bunch of twenty-somethings and cute older man in a funny hat that we all love. Man, when it is, it's awesome... but maybe the people here have something to offer me too.

Things are starting to look up for her, and I hope things keep on improving.