Imagine a sheepish look on my face. Imagine, even, that I’m on my knees, humbly bowed in an act of contrition. Even better, imagine this:

There’s a scene in the movie “Forget Paris” where Debra Winger is trying to free a pigeon that has somehow managed to get itself stuck on one of those adhesive rodent traps. Have you seen it? The movie as a whole is not that great, but it’s worth watching just for this scene. She approaches slowly and tries to pull one of its little pigeon feet out of the glue, but if you’ve ever gotten your fingers stuck in a fly tape you know it’s impossible to get near one of those things without getting stuck in it yourself. Anyway, to make a long story short, the pigeon starts freaking out and flapping its wings, which are still quite free; the trap, now hanging in midair below the pigeon, gets stuck in Debra Winger’s hair. The sequence of scenes that follows is made up of her trying to get out of her apartment and drive to the veterinarian’s office with a mad pigeon stuck to the side of her head.

That’s been me for the past three weeks. More or less.

I hate to use this tired excuse again, but it really is this time of year. Last year I went from April 14 until May 25 without blogging. Of course, there were two people reading my blog then. There are more of you now. You noticed, and I appreciate it. You should know that I’ve actually opened the “new post” page in Blogger about 6 times in the past two weeks; once I even typed a title. But at the end of the day other things took all of my time and energy, and I ended up closing the page and hoping there would be time for blogging another day.

Don’t think I haven’t blogged because I’ve had nothing to talk about. Au contraire. Sadly, I’ve forgotten most of it. Here are a few things that remain in the miasma that is my brain at the end of the school year:

1. I feel pretty guilty about missing the last, what, 4 Photo Fridays, but when I get home I am pretty much a zombie (with a pigeon stuck to my head), and by the time I start feeling like a human again it’s Sunday night.

2. I also feel horribly guilty for not yet sending out my Crazy Mixed Up mix CD. I have a tentative song list, the blank CDs, the mailers, the computer with which to burn the CDs. It’s like a box cake that hasn’t been mixed and baked yet.

3. I have been offered a new job. (I’m whispering because I don’t want to jinx it.) The principal–we’ll call her Principal Divine–wants to hire me. I very much want to work for her. Right now it’s in the hands of central office personnel, who could drop a big fat NO in my lap at any moment. Or they could hit me with a YES. Please, pray or chant or sacrifice or burn something or meditate–whatever it is you do. I really want this position; mostly I really want NOT to be in my CURRENT position. I’m counting on your good vibes.

The good news is, today is the last student day. It’s not even a “real” school day, just a catch up day for anyone who missed an exam or needs to make up unexcused absences. I had four students 1st period; there’s one kid in the room with me now. The halls, of course, are full of gypsies and wanderers looking to make trouble, but there are probably only about 100 kids in the building, so I’m calling it a day. I don’t think I could have made it another moment. The next three days are workdays, but I can handle those. By next Wednesday I’ll be free to cut the pigeon out of my hair, allow my brain to recover, and do fun things like blog and take pictures. Until then, don’t give up on me.