Playing Possum

Last week I finished up my semester at HBU.  I gave the final, got the grades turned in and my summer has started!  They told me last week that they are no longer requiring Communication to graduate (huh?) so I will only have one class at most next year.  As much as I’ve enjoyed it … I’m really glad for a break.

When one of my students was turning in her final she said … “Mrs. Baerg, I want you to know I really enjoyed your class.  I will always remember …. _and this is where I thought she was going to say … what you taught me about Communication, that you were fair, something along those lines …. instead she said “_the day you told that story about the possum.  I was having the worst day and I ended up laughing all day long thinking about it.”

Almost makes me wonder if my students might have mentioned to the dean that their most memorable experience in my class was the possum story.  If that’s the case …  HBU, I totally understand you cutting communication.

Really I do.

Anyway … I had completely forgotten about the possum story and realized I had never told that story on the blog.  I really need to tell this story (I’m gearing up for my first video blog - vlog soon) instead of writing it but writing will have to do for now.

So here is what happened … SCARED ME TO DEATH.

I was taking Caroline to school one morning and as I rounded the front of the car … standing there, right next to the front tire was a baby possum.  Hissing at me.  HISSING.  HISSING BAD.  AWFUL noises.  And kind of shaking which made me assume that he had rabies and was about to bite my feet and require me to suffer endless rounds of awful rabies shots.  I just knew it.

So I did what I do in situations like that and screamed and practically jumped in Caroline’s arms yelling .. “WHAT DO I DO?!?!?”

Caroline told me I was the parent and I had to do something and she explained I should probably enter on the passenger side of the car.  (You see, I lose ALL ability to think rationally in crisis situations … which is SUCH a story for another day … thankfully my kids didn’t seem to inherit this character flaw though).

So, I gathered all my internal fortitude and highstepped …. literally HIGH STEPPED (protecting my feet from rabies) into the passenger side of the car.  She jumped in right behind me and I can’t imagine that we didn’t wake people for blocks with our screaming.

But rememeber …. there was a baby possum HISSING at us.

We s-l-o-w-l-y backed down the driveway to avoid hitting it … but it just sat still.

In the driveway.

Not moving.

You know … playing possum.

And when I got back home he was gone.

Afraid he was close by or perhaps had relatives lurking in the bushes, I parked in the front of the house instead of the driveway and came inside and got ready for HBU.

Shook me up that little morning adventure.

I made it to class and told my students all about the hissing possum.  Apparently at least one of them thought it was funny.  I was just glad to have made it out of the driveway alive.

When I picked up the younger kids from school I told them all about it.

We parked at the end of the driveway when we got home and they said they wanted to look for it.

I started up the driveway with them and Jacob thought it would be funny to stand behind me and make hissing noises.  Totally not funny.

Anyway … not far up the driveway we spotted a ball of fur … and Brittany asked if that was it … laying there with flies all around it.

I think I might have scared it to death.