With Apologies To Paul Simon

I met my oooold lover on the street last night.
He seemed so glad to see me I just smiled.
And we talked about some old times,
And we drank ourselves some beers...
Still crazy after all these years.

Yeah. That's what I did. Except it wasn't my old lover, it was an
old student, and we weren't on the street, exactly, but I was in
the car at McDonald's drive-thru, and it wasn't actually night, but
more like 4:30 in the afternoon. Oh, and she wasn't a he, but a
she, and she really was glad to see me, and we both smiled. We
didn't have time to talk about some old times, because unlike
the usual workers, she had our stuff ready quickly. Nix on the
beers, because I don't drink, and I think that behavior is frowned
on at the McDonald's drive-thru window, because I had another
old student who was fired from a Hardee's drive-thru window
because she put a beer in a Hardee's cup and drank it while she
worked, which was not very smart because she put the actual
CAN of beer in the cup instead of just pouring in the liquid beer,
but what did you expect, anyway, because she was no rocket
scientist, who is probably smart enough to drink on the job and
not get caught, she was a freakin' teenage fast-food worker soon
to be unemployed. But this student and I are definitely both still
crazy after all these years. I think it has been 4 or 5 years since
I have seen her. That would make her 20 or 21 now, but I
recognized the smile instantly.

She turned to slide open the window and said, "Well how are
you doin'?" Which is a pretty common greeting around these
parts, and I followed with the correct response of "Girl, I haven't
seen you in a coon's age!" We chatted for a minute about some
of her relatives who are/were students of mine, then we had to
pull through, and she said, "See ya, sweetie!" which is perhaps
not so appropriate for the classroom, but did not offend me in
the least, and made me think that perhaps she has been working
in the waitressing profession.

I'm not sure, though, because when she was in my class, she
liked to tell everybody her career goal: stripper. In fact, she told
us every day. Not in a hoochie kind of way, but matter-of-factly,
as in: "I know I have a good body, and I don't mind to show it,
and I can make money doing that." Well. I suppose it's good to
have a goal in life. Anyhoo, she missed too much school, so was
dropped from the roll until the end of semester, and just never
came back. I think it was her junior year.

She also entertained us with her plans for Thanksgiving dinner.
"We always have people come to our house. I started calling the
relatives last night. At the end, I told them all, 'Don't forget to
bring the deviled eggs'. I love deviled eggs. I hope that's all
anyone brings." I think it ended up that three people actually
brought deviled eggs.

There are some kids you can't help but like. Not in a creepy
inappropriate way, but in the way that they share your sense
of humor, and might be the devil to some other faculty, but are
always polite and respectful to you. You worry about what is
going to become of them. This was one of those.

I hope she has her life on track. At least she has a job.

Now I suppose I must edit my little song to meet the truth-in-
blogging criteria.

I met my old student in McDonald's window yesterday evening.
She seemed so glad to see me we both smiled.
And we talked about her relatives,
And we had ourselves some cheeseburgers and Diet Coke...
Still crazy after all these years.

I hate to admit it, but I think Paul Simon's version is better.