thursday was my volunteer day at my son’s school. i start out this shift in the cafeteria manning the children, which makes me anxious as i try to keep 23 kids clean. it’s a no-win situation yet my ocd loves the challenge.
here are some of the things that happened during my time in the cafeteria, and then later in the classroom.
- two separate milk containers were spilled. first chocolate, then vanilla. i am considering bringing my own roll of paper towels from now on so i don’t have to walk a mile away to “one napkin per pull” area. in the time it took to get napkins, more fatalities would occur in my short absence.
- kid sticking his straw into a hot dog and then blew out the hot dog that got stuck in the straw. despite it being pretty cool, i had to make him stop.
- was asked repeatedly to transform into a robot, and to use my laser finger.
after lunch, most of the class lines up for the bathroom.
the teacher asked me to go ahead to the classroom with four students that had misbehaved during lunch. these are things that happened on the way back to the classroom.
- boy at the “perceived” back of the line (with me, heading back to the classroom) was quite upset for having to be last in line. i tried to explain that “last in line” was a matter of his perception. if someone was walking up from behind, he’d be first. he didn’t buy it. i later thought, maybe i should have explained “front line” people. you know in the event of a terrorist attack at school, the people in front would die first.
- one boy explaining why he and another student are not allowed to use the bathrooms in the hallways, only in the classroom. due to previous actions of one of them clogging the toilet, and the other showing his penis to everyone that walked in.
back in the classroom before the rest of the kids were there,
- one student, a female had folded her napkin from lunch into a make-shift cell phone and was walking around the classroom pretending to talk on her napkin cell phone. very cute. it reminded me of when i would tape leaves to my fingers pretending i had finger nails.
- a boy, the toilet-stopper-upper asked me to read him a book. i started reading and the other three swarmed me, and then the rest of the class came in. they are quite drawn to a person sitting in the rocking chair reading a book. it was impressive and made me feel popular.
the classroom got back into order and i started on my duties as helper.
- sharpening pencils. i was happy with this b/c it was something i could do and not mess up.
- painting one end of a popsicle sticks yellow, and then two eyes and a mouth to represent a baby chick. the two examples (templates i’ll call them) that i had to follow looked really good and were dainty. the eyes and mouth i painted on were much larger than my examples, and looked like something other than a baby chick. i always worry that i’m not going to do it right, it’ll mess everything up and they’ll kick me out of there b/c i cannot replicate the templates to the same artistic integrity as the teacher did.
after school i had to bring luke home, change clothes and head to his dental appointment and later to gymnastics. when we got home, he wanted to brush his teeth before going to the dentist (surprising to me, but the same thing i do before going to the dentist). in fact, he told me he brushed them twice.
after i dropped him off at gymnastics, i went to the store to get equipment for raising crickets. according to the internet, it’s easy (even for someone like me), and i am quite tired of going to the store every week to buy them. might as well raise them.
something else happened that simultaneously makes my heart feel glad, and break at the same time. i guess the up side to that is, at least i’m alive and have a heart and can feel, right? what do you want for christmas babe?
if only all my thursdays can be this fun.
Posted by leah 
