Humpty Dumpty

I'll start with what has been my favorite recipe in the challenge contest. Mr. Merry will always go for the sandwiches. 

And I have a funny at the end. 

Oh, Miss Merry. Last night my friend Greg picked me up for a school board meeting at a small rural school in our county. I don't like to drive at night and I especially don't like to drive in the country at night. Greg (and my husband) both possess that power where they can spot deer in the fields. 

I knew the framework of why I was going and I knew I had to wear a red shirt (I am the only person in Ohio who doesn't own a red shirt, if you know, you know), but I did have a red corduroy jacket in the back of my closet. 

I wondered how this was all going to go, especially when the parking lot was filling fast as we arrived. We went inside and sat on the bottom row of the bleachers due to my clumsiness.  The bleachers were filled with a sea of red. A young woman walked over and hugged me and said she was happy and surprised to see me.  It was one of my former Sunday School students (I swear everyone between 20-50 in my county was either one of my Sunday School, 4-H or Girl Scout kids). She is now the parent of three teenagers at this school and is very active in all the schools activities as a volunteer.  She told me she was the pot-stirrer and filled me in on the actual details. 

The longtime choir teacher had retired in late 2023 and the board interviewed and hired a new music teacher. The students love him, he has revived the program, which even offers musical dinner theaters, and the choir won district honors last month and competed and placed in honors at the state last weekend.  

Meanwhile a group of residents affiliated with the "Lifewise" program did some investigating and found out he is gay and lives with his husband outside the county.  At the last school board meeting, they presented a petition opposing renewal of his one year contract based on lifestyle "choices". 

I was so happy (but not surprised because this is a community steeped in 4H and FFA) that the meeting was run strictly by Roberts Rules of Order, followed an agenda and allowed public participation at the end of the meeting by prior registration. They had invited their lawyer who read portions of the law concerning contact with the board members outside of the meeting concerning issues and also the process of public participation. The capacity audience was respectful and quiet during the meeting and while speakers from both sides presented statements. According to school board policy, the meeting was adjourned and the topic of renewal of a union employee will be done at the next meeting during a private executive session. And then we all drove home.  

And this is how things should be. Respectful, listening to each others views.  A "protest" of people sitting quietly in red shirts with sports teams and plaids silently attending the meeting. In huge numbers. I am horrible at guessing crowd sizes and the article isn't in the local paper yet, but I would say there were well over 100 red shirts and about 12 in favor of the petition. 

But the fun story is after the meeting. I will start before.  My male friend picked me up. We drove the the meeting. He brought me home in the dark.  And, because I am me and it was dark, I fell out of the car while exciting. Flat in the driveway. At least I landed on my knees instead of my face this time.  I almost hit a bush, but was able to use it to get back up. My friend was hysterically worried and felt so bad.  I staggered to the house and put on Neosporin and band aids. It was a classic Miss Merry episode. 

This morning I am wondering how many of my neighbors have ring cameras and saw me leaving with a strange man and coming home in the dark and falling out of a car. I will be the talk of the neighborhood! I am hoping I don't show up on one of those Facebook reels!!!!   

Tonight I am going to another meeting and my husband is leaving his recliner to go with me so he can try to keep me vertical.