Much Ado About Nothing

The last week of school was always an exciting time for me. I remember how much fun it was to finally be winding down - to feel the warm breezes and to finally get the sense that my teacher(s) was finally relaxing and looking forward to summer vacation. Teachers do stress out sometimes and as a student it was hard to deal with because just growing up and dealing with day to day changes we were going through was hard enough. But that end of the year celebration was something that teachers and students had in common and for once we all kinda meshed. The final days were fun. In elementary school those last days were the best. We had field day and we competed with other classes and our teachers even got into the competitive spirit. I LOVED field day. Michaela will have her first ever field day on Thursday. The class needs volunteers to help out and I am sad that I won’t be able to help. I’d get a kick out of participating in Michaela’s first field day. But I know she’ll have loads of fun. I am excited for her.

Tomorrow is her final field trip of the year - a trip to Hogle Zoo. I am all about the field trips! So, I managed to get the day off and will accompany her and the class on their trip to the zoo. Field trips were also a great love of mine. Riding the school bus was a novelty for me because it was the only time I got to do it. I loved the excitement of all the kids and getting to leave the classroom for some “real” learning. Some of my favorite school memories were those field trips. One of my most favorite memories was going to the aquarium in Golden Gate park in San Francisco. My mom was a chaperone and when we took a break to have lunch, we ventured outside to dig into our sack lunches. Seagulls are plentiful in San Francisco and there were many flying over us that day. Just as my classmate, Amy Chelamedos was about to bite into her sandwich, she got pooped on - right on the hand that was holding the sandwich up to her mouth. She screamed and was complete horrified. And my mother let out a huge laugh. She couldn’t help it. It was hilarious to see a 9 year old get pooped on. I was a little mortified that Mom could be so callous but at the same time, she was right to laugh. Seagulls poopin’ on a kid is priceless. I wonder what wonderful animal antics we’ll see at the zoo tomorrow. The last time I went to Hogle Zoo was about a year or so ago. Mike, Michaela and I went. One of the zebras was “extra happy” if you know what I mean and Mike just had to have his picture taken with them in the background. Yeah. He was a little weird.

Anyway, I am looking forward to tomorrow. I’m kinda hoping that Mike “tags along”. I’ll be “looking for him” near those zebras or at least someplace near the monkeys for sure.