Today at school there was a lockdown, a "code red," which I'd never experienced before, and I guess I could write about that but it turned out to be a false alarm, and I don't feel like saying much else about it.


Instead, I've got another anecdote:
The kids were in line, waiting outside the music room for their music class, when one girl turned to me and asked, "Are you really an elf?"

She was referring to a conversation we'd had, let's see, maybe before Christmas? When she had also asked me out of the blue if I were an elf.
"No," I told her.

"Then why did you say you were?"

She has been thinking, for months and months, that maybe I was, and maybe I was not, an elf. This might be one of the most enjoyable things to happen to me.
"I thought it was funny."
"Oh. Then why do you have that pointy thing on your ear?"
"Because my dad has it. We all look different, we have different things about us. Like, you've got blue eyes. And freckles."
"Ahhh, I hate freckles!"
"No, they're cute."
etc.