Teaching Chronicles - Inevitability

I have a class period that I don't totally jive with.  At all, really.  But that is a different story.  Today I made them stay after the bell for the amount of time I had to wait for them to settle down during the class.  I made them sit in total silence and just as they are on the edge of frustration - all their friends being out in the hall and total silence in the room - with their eyes boring into me as I keep an eye on the clock and straighten up, I trip over the overhead cord.  They all see it.  I don't fall but the overhead tips over and I catch it as it falls and I'm trying to keep my balance.  The odd thing is that they don't laugh because of their fear of staying longer.  So this odd tension spikes in the room.   I force the seconds to work double time and let them out.  As embarrassed as that leaves me, don't get me wrong, I sing my gratitude every night that I haven't tripped and fallen all the way to the ground in class.