Stereotypes

It turns out that our kids have it toally backward. I chaparoned the EOP trip to Hershey Park (for those of you out west, it's an amusement park in Hershey, PA...chocolate themed, of course) on Thursday and I noticed some stark differences between our kids and the mostly suburban white kids who were there. Once our kids got over the initial excitement of being there (one little roller coaster line cutting incident, which pissed me off because they were just proving stereotypes), they carried on like mature, respectable human beings. Meanwhile, all the other groups who were there were screaming and running around like maniacs! To prove my point: We told the kids to be back at the gate outside at 5:30. All but two of them were there by 5:32. Ms. Garrett and I waited for the other two, only to find out that they were just confused and had gone back to the bus, and had been there since probably 5:15. Meanwhile, all the other groups were running around, in and out of stores while their chaparones screamed "We're already 30 minutes late!" It was awesome. The other awesome part of the trip is that it took us nearly 4 hours to get there when it was only supposed to take about 2. Our bus driver took a wrong turn (the turning part was wrong...he was supposed to just stay on 83 but we somehow ended up on 81). We ended up doing a U turn in a Motel 6 parking lot, then stopping to ask for directions at a truck stop (the kids wigged out because we went all the way around to the back side and they thought it was shady, especially when the army convoy showed up...), then just after pulling out onto the road, stopping to ask a homeless guy for directions (the kdis thought we were going to run over him when we pulled over to the shoulder he was kicked back on...they screamed. Garrett and I laughed.). It was totally comical.

 
  

The rest of the week was pretty low-key. I had to leave early for an appointment on Tuesday, so that was a laid-back day for everyone. Friday was a fun day...we did HSA prep, and I talked to my kids a lot about why Baltimore City kids do poorly on tests. It was really interesting how insightful they are, and great to get them worked up about something...hoping maybe they'll become revolutionary and pull out all the stops to pass the HSA this year. We'll see.

On Friday night, Matt and I saw Over the Hedge with our friend Taylor. It was the funniest cartoon since Shrek 2...see it. The unfortunate thing is that we came home to find my car vandalized. I was pretty much devastated, though the paint came off easily with nail polish remover for the windows and WD-40 for the body of the car. The next morning Matt came out to find that his car had been broken in to. We're feeling a little targeted here, and not liking it so much. Lots of privelage to unpack there.

 
 
  

Saturday was spent with Carla for a jewelery-buying, phone-breaking expedition and my first experience with Bubble tea, followed by dinner at Holy Frijoles and games with Tim, Justine, and Aya. Matt and I went to the Science Center today. I am now in the midst of cooking Frickin' Chicken and making 5 dozen scrambled eggs for my kiddos before their big, giant test tomorrow. From then on, it should be smooth sailing for them...and for me. 16 school days remaining!