I Wish The Circumstances Were Different

Third grade boy- "You look like that actor." Me- "What actor?" Third grade boy- "He's in that movie, uh I can't remember the name of it, but he got shot. You look like him." Third grade girl- "Yeh he does." It's been a couple of months, since I've done any substitute teaching. I wasn't in the mood to teach today. The teacher didn't leave a lesson plan. I let the kids draw for a few hours, while I tried to stay awake. One girl said, "Mr. Greene, so and so said you are falling asleep." I said. "Tell her she's only imagining it." The two stared at me, and didn't respond.

I worked at Nickelodeon from 1994-2001. I did have a year in between in Seattle. I used to say Nickelodeon was a studio of has beens along with up and coming or likely to disappear types. All kinds drifted in and out the studios. One day between shows, a couple of guys were on the sound stage doing some measuring, talking about where sets would go and some other stuff that I didn't catch. I noticed that one of the guys was a grown up Malcolm Jamal Warner, of Cosby Show fame. My friend Steve R. was staring at him, and finally says, "You look so fucking familiar." Warner replied, "Maybe from the Cosby Show." Steve replies, "No, what high school did you go to?"

Another time we had some magician on the show. He was supposedly famous. I don't know. He asked for a couple of prop guys to do something. Steve and I were sent over to help. The guy was very anal, I wanted to leave. He pulls out a bunch of paper work, and asked us to sign a release. Steve R.- "What's this for?" Magician- "I want you to sign this so that you don't give away any of my secrets." Steve- (laughing) "I can't even remember what I had for breakfast."

Tonight I may run into Steve at Taste restaurant along with some of the crew from Nickelodeon. It's the scene of a fundraiser for Brian our friend, who also worked at Nickelodeon and is still hospitalized. I don't want to be overly speculative on his condition, but I'm hopeful. There are signs that seem good, he's opened both of his eyes, but still in a coma. He has slight fever too along with pneumonia. I don't know what all of this pieced together means. I feel like the assessment must be much more complicated than that.

It's nice to see the old crew, but I wish the circumstances were different.