kleenexwoman: A caricature of me looking future-y.  (Turkey vultures are awesome.)
[personal profile] kleenexwoman
Mom woke up me up at 5 AM to take me to her classroom yesterday. She teaches 4th grade. I've been there a few times, mostly to help out in the library, and apparently I'm a favorite there; the librarian loves me, and the principal was actually psyched to see me.

So were the kids. I told them about what college was like (Me: "You can go to class in your pajamas every day if you want!" Kids: "Oooooooooh.") I helped them proofread their essays about their "favrid wenter atitivites" and do word analogy exercises, and then I walked around and helped them with their ecosystem dioramas. (They're doing ecosystems in science, and I guess this semester is Antarctica. Mom wanted to do the tropics because she had a bunch of flamingos she could use for the big display in the lobby, but she was outvoted by the other science teacher, who had a large stuffed penguin and seniority. This is how things get done in schools.)

The kids were adorable. There was one child who spent a lot of his time telling me about all the bugs he had in jars in his room and how he'd climbed into a yard with a real mean dog and tamed it with a "bisect" (his essay topic, despite the theme), one girl who told me she was the "best drawer in the room" and then drew me a star and a teddy bear (and later sculpted me a small starfish), and one girl who got upset that her diorama partner was telling her what to do and later went around the room with a feather duster going "HIYAAAAH!" at anything that had dust on it (unfortunately Mom's school doesn't seem to endorse feather duster ninja-ism as an appropriate form of conflict resolution). The kids hugged me and wanted to hang out with me and kept coming up to me to ask if they could go to the bathroom.

I was particularly glad I'd gone that day, because they had a special assembly in the art room. Nelson, the Animal Guy came by to show us:

--Griffin, a Great Horned Owl with an enormous wingspan, who turned his head around 270 degrees to stare at the assorted children;
--Three emperor scorpions who were very nice and did not sting us;
--One sugar glider, who GLIDED! and was very furry (he told us a story about how for a long time he was afraid to work with sugar gliders because one bit his face);
--One chinchilla, who was SO ADORABLE and who prompted a discussion on how if you're going to be crass and wear fur you should at least know what the fur is coming from (and prompted most of the girls in the class to declare that they wanted chinchillas for Christmas);
--A small American alligator, who Nelson held by his tail and who kept staring at the fattest girl in the class;
--A WALLABY. It hop hop hopped all over the room and inspected all the art supplies, and then Nelson got it to hop into a backpack and brought it around so that we could pet it.

I think I was actually more excited about the animals than the little kids were. Anyway, the kids were good, and it was surprisingly easy helping them and hanging out with them, mostly because I didn't have to deal with their homework or their parents or discipline problems. TBH, just being around small children for more than an hour without getting exhausted and confused by their energy and modes of interaction is kind of a triumph for me.


And then I came home and discovered that Mom had gotten a Wii, and I kicked everyone's butt in Wii Bowling. So in general it was a pretty good day.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-19 10:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] drworm.livejournal.com
*wants a sugar glider* :(

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-20 02:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kleenexwoman.livejournal.com
We should get one! Or a pair! Except they make very annoying pets, because they can bite you and it will hurt, and apparently they start screaming after 10 PM and don't stop for a while. But if we can put up with that, we're good to go.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-19 10:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beetle-breath.livejournal.com
Wallaby!! There was some special on bebbeh marsupials and it featured a bebbeh wallaby. They're so cute.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-20 02:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kleenexwoman.livejournal.com
I knooooooooooow, they're like little kangaroos but littler!

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-21 05:15 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] josephwaldman.livejournal.com
My mind is really going. I read "littler" as "Hitler". Or maybe I've actually got some sort of FBI/CIA ESP going on and have cracked the code: all those escaped Nazis didn't go to South America like everyone thought, but to Australia. Actually this makes a great deal of sense. If you were a German expatriate, wouldn't you want to head for a place where the standard serving size for beer is about five gallons?

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-19 11:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] woodburner.livejournal.com
*also wants a sugar glider* :(((

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-20 02:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kleenexwoman.livejournal.com
Everyone needs a sugar glider! Ohmygod they are so cute and fluffy and also they scream at night. A lot.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-20 12:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sir-dave.livejournal.com
Something unique for a poet to assess:
My latest post

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-20 02:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kleenexwoman.livejournal.com
Oooh. I will listen to it when I can turn the speakers up :)

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-20 02:31 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sir-dave.livejournal.com
I've got some things to ask when you've heard it, I am getting ideas :D

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-21 05:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] josephwaldman.livejournal.com
You're back in Detroit! . . . I think? Well, ring me up sometime, damn it. It's gettin' on toward holiday time.

Huh. I didn't know your mom was a teacher. Or maybe I did and my memory is melting. Oh well.

Buuuuuuuuuut . . . you totally missed out on the chance to warp their tender little minds. Rachel, Rachel, Rachel. I'm disappointed in you. "You get to go to class in your pajamas", what the fuck is this? What about the sex? the drugs? the rock and roll?

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-22 09:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kleenexwoman.livejournal.com
Sterling Heights, without a phone. Sigh.

To be honest, the minds of little kids are warped enough. No, seriously. You don't remember being a little kid? They're the weirdest beings in the world. Anyway, I don't think most of them would have been interested in sex or drugs or rock 'n' roll (which, to be honest, you can get just as well if you never go to college), but they were all interested in pajamas.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-22 09:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] josephwaldman.livejournal.com
No. I seriously don't. When I was four years old and in United Hebrew School I fell off a chair and sustained a goodly amount of blood loss. (This happened again, in SLC, when a buncha badazzniggaz from wherever decided to pound my head into concrete about a year ago.) This is, I think, why I'm kinda loopy. (Happened to Lenin, too. Ditto Pete Townshend and Sam Phillips and all of my other shamanistic heroes.)

We must get together at some point of course. Have ye any New Years plans? I could cook up an awesome party at me friend David's place in Ann Arbor if everything goes well . . .

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-22 10:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kleenexwoman.livejournal.com
And that erased your memory of being a small child? Figures. Anyway, they're the most warped little creatures in the world, they truly are. We straighten up as we get older.

No New Year's plans yet, I'll let you know.

(no subject)

Date: 2008-12-22 10:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] josephwaldman.livejournal.com
Well, it was that hinge-of-history year 1984 . . . (dude, if personae were tradeable like stocks? I'd so have you cornered. What would you pay to be alive in 1985?(

Profile

kleenexwoman: A caricature of me looking future-y.  (Default)
Rachel

April 2015

S M T W T F S
   1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
26272829 30  

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags