Joe Public

Well, our 13-year-old daughter has finally reached the point where we have to start looking at high schools. Since my wife, for the most part, attended a private parochial school, our kids were going to have that same advantage. I don’t know what that says about me – Mr. Joe Public School.

Anyway, one of the schools she was interested in had an open house this past Sunday. Since it matters not what I think, I dropped mother and daughter off at the school.

What I didn’t expect was that I’d be waiting for nearly two hours. I drove to the nearest Coffee, Bean and Tea Leaf to get an iced coffee. Then I drove back to the school parking lot and waited, nursing that iced coffee. Near the end of my wait, I removed the straw and lid from the cup.

In trying to get at the ice to chew on, I tapped the lip of the cup to the front of my bottom teeth in an effort to jar it loose. Like a mini avalanche it all came tumbling out over my cheeks with iced coffee spilling out all over the front of my white shirt. I got out of the car to look for a bathroom.

Apparently the open house was letting out and I found myself walking against the flow of participants. I spotted my wife and daughter and walked toward them. Just as I was about to ask my daughter how it went, she breezed right past me as though she didn’t know who I was.

I’m sure it was because I looked like I’d been lying face down in a sewer, but when I exclaimed to my wife, “Can you believe that she just ignored me?” she also walked past me like I was invisible. I guess I just proved the difference between attending public and private school.

Traci Haleamau sent in husband Brandon’s custom jigsaw puzzle business site: thepuzzlemakers.com Piece together your Web sites and send them to me at rnagasawa@midweek.com