Beautiful Day
It's been a nice day today!
It started out rainy, but luckily, the rain tapered off, and sunny skies took over. We had 1/2 day of school today, due to the Boys' State Basketball Championship Semifinals. That meant 30-minute classes, which aren't really long enough to get out the supplies for our long-term project (altered books!) I got the kids to play a game called "Apples to Apples." If you haven't played this game, you're missing out. It's a really fun game! There are two types of cards green and red. The green cards each have an adjective on them, like "creepy" or "feminine" or "outrageous." The red cards have nouns on them, like "bubbles" or "a high school bathroom" or "George W. Bush." To play, one person (the "judge") places a green card down on the table. Everyone has to play a red card face down that they feel most applies to the adjective on the green card. (So if your green card was "amusing," you might play the red card that says "Mamallama's blog." Just kidding.) The judge gets to pick the best re card played, and the person who played that card gets to keep the green card and be the judge for the next round. Person with the most green cards wins. It's way more fun than it sounds, especially when people start explaining why they chose the cards they played.
After 3 class periods in a row of laughing myself silly (no, really -- my sides and abdomen still hurt from all the laughing) we walked the students -- all of them, the whole school -- all the way from the school to the Civic Center, which is kind of a long walk for a group that big. Still, we got from point A to point B without incident, and the kids were good throughout the entire game.
I sat with my teacher buds at the game. I've gotten to be really good friends with Alissa, the first-year teacher across the hall. She is a trip and there is a whole group that just sort of hangs out together now, so we all really had fun at the game. Somehow we got on the conversation of "random" targeting of searches at airports (her husband is Peruvian but looks Arab and gets targeted almost every time) and by the end of the game, I thought I was going to die from laughing so hard at her tales of random searches. It's really not a funny subject, but to hear her tell the stories was like watching a movie about it. Her husband is a funny guy, too, so his reactions were hysterical.
There is something about belly-holding, gasping-for-air laughter. It's cathartic. It's almost like a really good cry, or like throwing up with you're sick. It hurts. It isn't completely pleasant. And yet, it feels sooooooo good! After a really hard laugh, you feel cleansed of all the crap that makes your heart feel heavy. You feel free again.
Oh, yeah, the game -- we won. It was a runaway victory. It wasn't even fun to watch because we beat them so badly. I kind of felt guilty.
Now it's gorgeous outside, and the kids are playing in the yard. I can hear the "spring peepers" loudly chirping in the woods. All the neighborhood kids are out on the basketball courts, and I can hear the squeal of bikes breaking as they go around the bend in front of the house. The air is still slightly cool, but the promise of spring is in the bright green making its appearance again in the trees. I love spring!
And now it's time for me to drag the baby in for his bath. He is NOT going to want to come inside! I don't blame him. I want to sit on the porch and read until the sun goes down. Actually, I don't want the sun to go down at all. I want to enjoy this weather longer, because it's supposed to get chilly again this weekend.
It started out rainy, but luckily, the rain tapered off, and sunny skies took over. We had 1/2 day of school today, due to the Boys' State Basketball Championship Semifinals. That meant 30-minute classes, which aren't really long enough to get out the supplies for our long-term project (altered books!) I got the kids to play a game called "Apples to Apples." If you haven't played this game, you're missing out. It's a really fun game! There are two types of cards green and red. The green cards each have an adjective on them, like "creepy" or "feminine" or "outrageous." The red cards have nouns on them, like "bubbles" or "a high school bathroom" or "George W. Bush." To play, one person (the "judge") places a green card down on the table. Everyone has to play a red card face down that they feel most applies to the adjective on the green card. (So if your green card was "amusing," you might play the red card that says "Mamallama's blog." Just kidding.) The judge gets to pick the best re card played, and the person who played that card gets to keep the green card and be the judge for the next round. Person with the most green cards wins. It's way more fun than it sounds, especially when people start explaining why they chose the cards they played.
After 3 class periods in a row of laughing myself silly (no, really -- my sides and abdomen still hurt from all the laughing) we walked the students -- all of them, the whole school -- all the way from the school to the Civic Center, which is kind of a long walk for a group that big. Still, we got from point A to point B without incident, and the kids were good throughout the entire game.
I sat with my teacher buds at the game. I've gotten to be really good friends with Alissa, the first-year teacher across the hall. She is a trip and there is a whole group that just sort of hangs out together now, so we all really had fun at the game. Somehow we got on the conversation of "random" targeting of searches at airports (her husband is Peruvian but looks Arab and gets targeted almost every time) and by the end of the game, I thought I was going to die from laughing so hard at her tales of random searches. It's really not a funny subject, but to hear her tell the stories was like watching a movie about it. Her husband is a funny guy, too, so his reactions were hysterical.
There is something about belly-holding, gasping-for-air laughter. It's cathartic. It's almost like a really good cry, or like throwing up with you're sick. It hurts. It isn't completely pleasant. And yet, it feels sooooooo good! After a really hard laugh, you feel cleansed of all the crap that makes your heart feel heavy. You feel free again.
Oh, yeah, the game -- we won. It was a runaway victory. It wasn't even fun to watch because we beat them so badly. I kind of felt guilty.
Now it's gorgeous outside, and the kids are playing in the yard. I can hear the "spring peepers" loudly chirping in the woods. All the neighborhood kids are out on the basketball courts, and I can hear the squeal of bikes breaking as they go around the bend in front of the house. The air is still slightly cool, but the promise of spring is in the bright green making its appearance again in the trees. I love spring!
And now it's time for me to drag the baby in for his bath. He is NOT going to want to come inside! I don't blame him. I want to sit on the porch and read until the sun goes down. Actually, I don't want the sun to go down at all. I want to enjoy this weather longer, because it's supposed to get chilly again this weekend.