The comings and goings of the dance commune

Last night, all of the roommates were home. We had a guest and her dog. One of the other roommates had a guest. Life is crowded when you look at a house with 3 dogs and 7 adults. 

We ordered pizza and watched TV and hung out.  While we were hanging out, so were the dogs. They had to play right on top of us. They were running around the living room, slobbery and loud.  So, we put them outside and they immediately laid down and relaxed. I let them back in thinking that they would relax inside. I think that they wanted an audience because they were right back to acting like fools. 

One of the roommates has little experience watching dogs at play and really thought that they were fighting. He was vigilantly watching for bloodshed, convinced that something soon would Go Horribly Wrong. It never did, but it reminded me of teaching.

Here’s why: a new teacher with new and different ideas is in the classroom.  She or He has a new style and it looks a little out of control.  The kids are loud, chaos tends to reign and there is paper everywhere.  There may even be rats. Before long, there are whispers up and down the hall and administrators get nervous the something will Go Horribly Wrong and the rating, the test scores and these Children’s Futures will be ruined. 

My roommate eventually calmed down and even believed that the dogs were having fun.  He learned something, the three dogs learned something and all was right in the world.

Of course, then the extra dog went home and the roommates started playing some dice game that required the RA (me) to go up and enforce quiet hours. (11:45 pm) Did I mention that these are all adults?