My pal Loosh became unable to move and friends had to break into her house. She went to the doc and apparently she has staff, which must've sapped the little energy she has. Eeks, very traumatic. My friend Annie had to put her dog (my erstwhile dog-stting companion, Barks) down. I remember when she got Barks from the pound a million years ago -- a fluffy little double-handful. She grew into an elegant, loose-limbed, terrier-cross, and used to lie on the floor all day at Annie's store. She rode in Jon's Datsun convertible. I had to train her to the invisible fence while Annie was in China. That was an ordeal, although not very difficult. It was good-cop-bad-cop -- and I was the bad cop. The good cop went to China. We had to dog-walk as part of our employee duties, and I'd be all strict with Barks -- she was perfection itself. I was trying to get her to behave because she dragged Annie in front of cars and nearly killed her -- going after dogs. It didn't work -- Barks was good with me and bad with Anne. I'll miss her -- she was a perfect dog. Today I had Deshawn and Lee Michael and Christina working on pastels. I always make them laugh a lot by saying things like, "Your little head is good -- now do your big head. I want you to put your eyeballs on the paper," etc. -- because I want them to work, but having a laugh whenever possible is absolutely necessary. Deshawn said, "Miss Kendall should be our teacher." I said, "No way -- you wouldn't learn anything." Lee said, "Yes we would," and Deshawn said, "We'd learn how to have FUN." I said I figured they already have that covered. Later Lee left the room for a moment and Christina said he'd gone back to his classroom. I said no, she said, "How do you think you know that?". I said, "I've known him since he was a little kid." Deshawn said, "I've known him since he was a BABY." I said, "Yeah, well, you were a baby, too, so that doesn't count." "Unh-uh," he said. Lee comes back in. No wonder he's slow to get his pastels done. I have to beat on him every minute. A magazine for teachers may put his last year's drawing on the cover -- so his work is good, just slow to materialise. I do enjoy the time we spend together -- although I'm yelling at them most of it. They don't take it the wrong way -- they get to work, laugh, know I love them. Their drawings will be all right. Christina wants me to help her too much -- I said, "What, am I supposed to follow you around your whole life saying 'go in the direction of the hair, delineate your drawing, observe the subtle color changes'?" I said, "I want you learn how to do it, not depend on me." Sometimes kids are so funny. But, too, sometimes what kids want is me, not the knowledge. Who even knows.