Definitely needed a break on Friday. The day started off reasonably well, my homeroom kids finished an astonishing 9th day in a row of State testing, and the kids were figuring out the difference between knowledge they create and knowledge they consume. Maybe it was due to the Friday-ness, the end of testing, general squirrelyness, or whatnot, but everything went to hell after lunch. Within three periods, I had a student walk out of class (she showed up 5 minutes late, and then spent the next 10 asking repeatedly to leave to go to the restroom, which I was not inclined to allow), a condom placed on my chair, and various other difficulties, culminating in a disastrous attempt at detention at the end of the day, the details of which are too traumatic to put down in words.
Fortunately, got some relief that evening. Went with my indie-loving roomate BL to see The Pattern, a white-stripes knockoff who were actually damn good. Started out at the SpaceLounge in Silver Lake, which was a really entertaining retro-futuristic 80s joint, replete with a sit-down Ms. PacMan table and spaceage chairs. Unfortunately, the firemarshalls shut the place down after the opening band, possibly due to some illicit smoking in the back room. Despues de las problemas, we were outside on the sidewalk conferring with the band on where they should go--BL tried to offer our place, which I reminded him had had the cops called on it two weeks ago when nine people were talking loudly in the garage past midnight--they opted for somebody's loft on Santa Monica & Hoover. Awesome place and definitive hipster hangout, also handily close to a 7-11, where we rolled down to buy some beer along with about half of the crew from the Space Lounge. All in all a good night, just what I needed to recharge and tackle the 12 year old menaces tomorrow.