The Plod

Hear now a conversation that never happened...

My Beijing family.

Hey pale face, I've got some questions for you. Sit down. 

Ok.Nice to meet you too.

What do you do when you're not teaching, eating, sleeping, excreting or eating?

 I am in a band called, "The Plod." 

You're in a band? 

Yeah. 

What instrument do you play? 

In heaven, this will be a snack.

Guitar and vocals.*


The Plod ... who picked that lame name? Beaver Cleaver? 

Well, I'll tell you the story... Our FoC family was invited out to eat by Simon's family. Simon was the first student in our underground home school and his parents are the best in China. Anyway, they took us to a Mongolian Restaurant called, "99 Yurts." 

What's a "yurt?" It sounds like a racial slur. 

Well, a yurt is kind of like a traditional tent people used and still use in Mongolia and Inner Mongolia. It is also a crude slur for someone who wears Birkenstocks in winter.

So Genghis Kahn slept in one.

Yeah, with his brother Don. 

Got lamb?

Go one dude, we don't have all day. 

Alright, this restaurant was super classy and we had two whole barbequed lambs! 

You look like a ravenous hyena. 

I didn't not eat too much. 

Double negatives are for losers. 

Thank you. 

Stop getting side-tracked man. The Bachelor starts in a few minutes!

The Plod doing what we do at The Blue Goat Cafe.

I'll make it fast. During the meal Simon's Dad, Bing, made a speech. Bing is a wonderful human being and an honorable man who I love and respect. His English is not wonderful however. It was very cute, he prepared a speech in English even though he's not comfortable speaking it. He had it written on a note card. "Teachers, thank you for your plod." At first I thought he said, "Thank you for your blood." And I was trying to think back to the times I've bled in class. Bing could tell we were confused so he said he looked it up on his phone that morning and said, "plod - trying hard at something. Thank you for your plod." When we heard that glorious word for a third time Jeremy Seeger looked at me and with a leprochan-esc twinkle in his eyes whispered, "Band name." That is how The Plod was born. 

*  I'm only allowed to sing when we play Blink-182 songs.