Yes, Jazz Fest is Really, Really Fun...

This is what Jazz Fest looks like:

And, yes, Jazz Fest is really, really fun...

... but then when you have Jazz Fest split in half by the last week of classes, and when your students are having to prepare for a high-stakes writing test in which they have to write an essay on the subject of "racism and the media," and when you have conferences every day with these students and you hear things like, "Well, I just don't get why it's okay for black people to say the N-word and not white people," and you have to say, "Is it okay?" and when your students ask you to define "race" and you're like, "Um, according to Webster's dictionary" (thinking to yourself, wait--I am a writing teacher, right, so it's okay that I have a hard time defining race), and when you have to give these very same students (who are looking at you like, You Don't Know How To Define Race And You Are Our Teacher!?) an evaluation form that asks them to assess your performance according to criteria that you're realizing you'd not thought of (you were Just Teaching, after all!), and that their responses determine your fate, and when this position makes you more like some Customer Service Agent than a teacher, and when you still have thirty some-odd papers to grade, and committee meetings, and extracurricular Whatnot that you should have said No to...

...well, it makes the second week of Jazz Fest that much better to look forward to.

Now, if I can Just Get Through This WEEK!!!!!