God I just dozed off and had one of the most vivid dreams. I t was another dream involving school. Why is it I have these dreams about school? A lot of those dreams involve me missing large chunks of class in college and then realizing the final exam is coming.

This time, I was on a field trip with a class led by my sixth grade English teacher, Phyllis Marsolan. Somehow, one of those classes landed in the Minnesota Vikings’ new stadium the day after the Super Bowl, and on this field trip, the band from Osborne, Kansas, one of the towns I cover for my job, was playing a concert. I recall when it was all over asking Mrs. Marsolan for help because I had to walk across campus to my next class and didn’t have a lot of time. She agreed to help me.

I had a childhood crush on Mrs. Marsolan at Arabi Park Middle. She was a gorgeous redhead. A lot of the kids did not like her because they thought she was too tough, but I loved her class. It was my first class every morning during my sixth grade year, and it was a great reason to get up and go to school. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to say goodbye to Mrs. Marsolan before I left Arabi Park to go to Brother Martin, because she took a sabbatical during the second half of my seventh grade year. I don’t think it was to have another baby, because she already had two boys.

I got teased mercilessly about having a crush on Mrs. Marsolan. It was hard to handle then, but now I realize they were having fun with it. I’ll never forget one of the girls i had classes with, Tina Calabresi, teasing me about it when she saw me in a video arcade at a shopping mall.

As for my classmates at Arabi Park, the only one I’ve had any contact with recently is the most important one to me, Stacie Dauterieve Seube. We’ve kept in touch on Facebook, and that has been gratifying. The only one I’ve seen in person in the last 20 plus years was Toni LaRocca, which was in 2000 when I was working my internship with the New Orleans Zephyrs Triple-A baseball team and Toni was a waitress at Hooters in Metairie. Toni didn’t hit her growth spurt until later and she was gorgeous all grown up.

The next part of the dream somehow involved me crashing a bunch of 18-wheelers as I drove along country roads in Nebraska. I also recall being in a large travel center, like a Pilot or a Love’s, and needing to find a pop machine which accepted dollar bills. And yes, I skipped out on class.

Okay enough about these strange school dreams. Gotta get going to get that nail out of my tire if I ever hope to get out of here.