Saturday, June 18, 2011

Feel Good Friday Hosted By THE SLACKER

Geez you host a few Feel Good Fridays and you skip one and all hell breaks loose.  My aunt s-ster did two week's worth and melanie did hers early.  I just didn't do one.  I didn't have a bad week.  I was just busy and things got out of control and time marched on.

I pretty much think I outdid myself with this post and this one, so I wasn't too worried that the 3 readers who like my blog would be missing me too much yesterday.  

But, I was wrong and caught holy hell, so you can be sure I'll never miss again!  I hate missed opportunities!

So......  here's the recap of the week, brought to you a few days late.

*I started the week by taking a pole dancing class and I just got rid of the bruise today.  Not sure I need to try that again.  A part of me WANTS to be able to do some of those exercises requiring lots of strength, but part of me just says "go lift some weights instead of bruising yourself and pinching your thighs on that pole!!"  But, I satisfied my burning curiosity, so that is a great thing.

*Everything that needed to be done for the Run For the Arts went smoothly this week.  At the same time, scholarship applications are due for ABWA, so this week, the mailman, the fedex guy and UPS were wearing out my driveway with all of their deliveries.  I love doing the run and I love giving out scholarships, so this is a fun but crazy week every June.

*Field day was Thursday and if you remember field day, it's really just for the athletes.  Yes, we try to make everyone feel good about completing something, but when Susie is running the 880 in like 2 minutes flat and Johnny just jumped 75 feet in the long jump, your ability to roll a tire 20 yards or catch an egg in the egg toss doesn't really matter, does it?  

In my elementary school, we had field day every June.  I wasn't an athlete in those days.  I'm not sure I'm one now, either, but I think some people think I am, so I let them believe what they wish.  As I recall, we all had to do every event because we had such small classes and it was feasible to do them.  My sisters will have to chime in here, because I may be wrong on that.  I just dont' remember selecting an event the way we have our students do now.

I remember thinking I was really dashing during the 50 yard dash, but there was no speed in me in those days.  And it was on the tar parking lot of the church, so I think I feared crashing to my death on that tar.  I also remember the high jump, which we don't even do at my school now, but no one knew the word "liability" back then, so everyone did the high jump.  I had such visions of the heights I would achieve.  An ant could have jumped higher.

One of the most vivid memories for me at field day in my youth was actually two fold.  A)  we got to wear SHORTs.  TO SCHOOL!!! and B)  we had LUNCH served to us AT SCHOOL. 

I know you wonder what sort of Amish life I must have lived.  We went to a small, Christian school that didn't have a gym or a cafeteria.  The good old basement of the church was our gymnastics center in the winter, in which everyone had to run around in socks because it was gymnastics time and there were mats on the floor but I was afraid to breathe because I was afraid of smelling feet; and the basement of the church was also the cafeteria in my early elementary years.  My sisters probably dont' remember this because I think it had stopped when they came through.  But, in 1st and possibly 2nd grade, we traipsed to the cafeteria with our lunches every day.  Except Friday, most people didn't bring their lunches because they would serve hot dogs on Fridays.  But I never bought lunch because I was weird.  Eventually, we just ate lunch in our rooms and no one served lunch to anyone but on field day?  Someone made hot dogs and we had watermelon.  That was a big deal.  Watermelon at school.  In shorts.  (we had a strict dress code)

So, when I first got to the public, middle school that I teach in, and they said that field day was June whatever, I was thinking:  50 yard dash on tar, high jump with a bamboo pole, watermelon, hot dogs and SHORTS.  Of course, being a public school in 1997, anyone could wear shorts any day they chose as long as they were long enough (no so much a problem in 1997, but today?  Long enough shorts have been the source of many a battle in the past few weeks).

I arrived on field day to find:
- there is no high jump
-50% of the kids HATE field day because they aren't good at any of the events we do offer, not even the sack race, tire roll or egg toss
-those kids who are not doing events and looking like star athletes were constantly in trouble 
-there was a special "cookout" that involved a hot dog, chips and watermelon, but it wasn't FREE!  our was always free!
So, after my first field day in the real world, I too HATED field day.  I would often take a personal day on field day just not have to deal with the bad attitudes of the kids and the lack of teacher support.

Fast forward a lot of years and we have different gym teachers.  While there still isn't a high jump or free lunch, it's not such a nightmare anymore.  Yes, everyone has to participate and there are some who can't even do the sack race, but there's something different.  We have our roles down to a science, we are a well oiled machine.  Kids are allowed to sub for their classmates if they are absent- this used to be a major issue and if they hadn't notified the queen of their subs by a certain time, they couldn't change and it would pit kids against each other and ruin the day.

So, though I took a personal day the day after field day so I could welcome 300 containers of Chobani yogurt to chez sparkling, I did not take on on field day and it wasn't bad!  In fact, we had some great laughs.  At ourselves, not the kids.  Because they just aren't that funny.  

Oh, and I got to wear my cowboy hat on field day and no one made fun of me.

*I feel like I am forgetting something.  Something major.  Something that made someone else feel good and then I felt good because of that.  What was it?

Oh yeah.  The Bruins won the Stanley Cup Championship!!!  WOOOOO HOOOO!  K-ster is beyond excited.  He got to go to game 6 and then watched game 7 on tv.  Which is good because those butt heads in Vancouver did some very bad things and k-ster would not have liked getting caught up in a looting riot mob.

1 comment:

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