Cops and a Concert

---

Not a whole lot going on in my life at the moment, except of course for all the stuff I've always got going on--work, school, and buying a house. This week I had a break from school work and loved every minute of it. On Thursday, I went to meet the therapists who work at my next place. I haven't heard yet whether the therapist that I'll be filling in for has had her baby yet, but she was due on Friday. Her birthday was Saturday so she was hoping that the baby would be born then. As I pulled up to the school I was a bit worried, but it turns out that the whole thing was just a misunderstanding.

I walked into the school with no problems, but did have to pass a group of cops standing by the doors. I went to check into the office and the therapist was there to meet me. She said that the school was just under lockdown but that no one really knew why. Didn't really matter either as we went out to the speech trailer and started to talk about what my job would be when I started at the school.

A while later, I got a phone call in the office and had to go back up to take it. While I was there, conversation in the office was of course centered around the lockdown. One of the assistants happened to be on another phone and she was able to solve the mystery around the lockdown. Sometime in the late morning, the office staff received a phone call with a pre-recorded message saying "This is a lockdown. I repeat, this is a lockdown. Please follow all known procedures for a lockdown. To hear this message again, please press *." The staff member tried to press * and the system booted her out and hung up. She tried to call our administrative office to find out if the message was from them and it wasn't. So the whole school went into lockdown. Turns out that it was a message that started out "This is not an emergency. I repeat, this is not and emergency. This is a lockdown...." The assistant got the same message on her cell phone and was able to give this detail. Turns out that it was the assistant's daughter's school that was having a lockdown drill--similar to a tornado or fire drill--and part of their procedure was to actually call the emergency contact numbers listed in the computer system. The school was listed as the assistant's first emergency contact number and that's why it got called.

The only thing that I have to seriously question is who actually decided that making real phone calls was the best thing in a drill?

That's been about the only real excitement in my life. Friday consisted of sitting in 4 hours of IEP meetings and then going out to have supper with my friend Lauren. Then I got to go measure my townhouse so that I knew how much Pergo to order and I got to give Lauren the tour. Lots of fun! It's only 2 weeks until I close and I'm starting to get excited about all the little projects I have in mind.

Last night I went to Charlotte, to see James Blunt in concert, with Lauren and her friend Martha. We went to a really cute little shopping village and had wonderful pizza--very similar to Pizza Express in London. Yum! Then we went to uptown Charlotte to the Bobcats Arena and saw the concert. Starsailor opened and then it was James Blunt. Very good concert and I'm now looking forward to his new, happy album. His first album, in his own words, was filled with quite miserable songs. He'd just split with his girlfriend and his songs definitely reflect those feelings. His new songs are definitely more up beat.

Now I'm getting ready for my week --not much happening this week. Gotta get my dissertation figured out and I've got lots of IEP meetings this week so that the girl I'm filling in for isn't completely overwhelmed when she returns to work. Hope y'all have a great week! Take care, Mary

---

Photos

All kind of cops
I wasn't completely sure about my next assignment when this was the sight that greeted me.

Outside the arena
Me, Martha, and Lauren before the concert.

Gotta love the Brit!
He's a cutie!

Starsailor
If you're looking for a new band to check out, this is a good one!

Performing
During the concert.

James
Little James and Big James.

Ending the show
It took about 30 seconds for the gong to lower, then he hit it, then it took just as long to go back up. Not really sure how the gong fit into the show....

Comments

[carolyn]

So WHEN are you coming to Gibson?????????????

[Diane]

Tell me more
where is the new house? new school? did not have a chance to talk with at the slp mtg--was too busy complaining about medicaid!

[anonymous]

you always have fun dont you! I owe you money...send me an email Doug