The Beers- 13 Three Sheets- 12

Wow! Extra innings victory at Highlands Park. The Beers come from behind and win it in a 9 inning affair which was almost called because of darkness. I went 3 for 3 with 1RBI and scored two runs thanks to aggressive base running...oh, and no errors. The Beers have a win streak going and it feels absolutely amazing. Could barely get to sleep last night.

The Beers 20 - IcePak 10

Wow! First season opener victory as we throttled, yes, I say throttled the IcePak. Personal accolades: as the leadoff hitter I went 4 for 4, 3RBI's and 3 runs. Victory has never smelled better!

Elephant Sighting

Before getting slammed with the May paperwork deal I was really enjoying a book called, "Hey Mom, Can I Ride My Bike Across America." It's a completely charming account of a cross-country tour a middle school teacher and his wife completed with 5 of his students (3 boys, 2 girls) during the summer of '86. I've been eating up books of this genre as I mentally prepare for the trip I hope to make in the summer of '14 (my 40th summer.) The best thing I can do at this point is soak up other people's experiences...so I am!

With everything done, I was able to finish my read this week but it's just one of those books I wish had never ended. Endearing, heartwarming and as sweet as can be, I just wanted to keep riding with those great kids and their inspiring teachers. God, if I had been in Santa Barbara at the time, I might have been in this class on wheels.

From every bike story I usually glean some nuggets. From this one I gathered at least two:

Often in camp at night the kids used to play a game called 'Bright Side' where someone would make mention of a difficult aspect of the journey and the rest would take turns describing the inevitable bright side to the story. For every difficulty encountered this group collectively looked for the positive outcomes to be appreciated when it could have been so easy just to bitch about what went wrong. Instead they looked for the magic of the situation.

I also learned a neat pioneer expression. One of the objectives of the journey was to study the culture of the pioneers that migrated across the country in the 1800's. The class read pioneer journals and closely followed a described route. (What a class!) So when the pioneers were discouraged by weather, disaster, homesickness, many to the point of turning back, they called it, 'Seeing the elephant.'

The expression predated the gold rush, arising from a tale current when circus parades first featured elephants. A farmer, so the story went, hearing that a circus was in town, loaded his wagon with vegetables for the market there. He had never seen an elephant and very much wished to. On the way to town he encountered the circus parade, led by an elephant. The farmer was thrilled. His horses, however, were terrified. Bolting, they overturned the wagon and ruined the vegetables. "I don't give a hang," the farmer said, "for I have seen the elephant."

Ban the vuvuzela?!?

"Commentators have described the sound as "annoying" and "satanic"[10] and compared it with "a stampede of noisy elephants",[11] "a deafening swarm of locusts",[12] "a goat on the way to slaughter",[13] and "a giant hive full of very angry bees".[14]"...from wikipedia

I SAY HELL NO!!!!!!!!!

Eyeballs!

My loyal listeners get a little nervous when I haven't posted in a while. Call it a post-deadline hangover...or something. i just haven't had the heart to sit screenside since completing my marathon-like scramble to process the spirits and families to kindergarten. I assure you though, I kicked them all off the boat Thursday night and then we partied down Friday.

After Papa Joe tearing a phone book in half we enjoyed a 462 pic slideshow (movie I called it) of the children's year (popcorn and apple juice for all.) Somewhere around pic 400 the natives got restless and between the finger shadows and further shredding of the phone book, all out pandemonium became the charge. The spirits proceeded to trash the block area and turned that broken phone book into confetti. My co-teacher, the incredible Miss Linda and several parents tried to stop the spirits but I insisted we let them do it....after all, it was their day!

A massive clean-up ensued...we then enjoyed our favorite children's books (me: Aki and the Fox, the incredible Miss Linda: Where the Wild Things Are.) Fed 'em lunch. A 25 lap sprint around the climber for the restless kids (and me). And then we turned the classroom into Breakdancing Party (with only the near appropriate tracks from Sugar Hill's best of CD.) God we were white and nerdy!!

Took one last trip to the duck pond and I let Pickle push me on the swings. When we came back we were bloody hot so I became one with the garden hose and projected a rain cloud into a sky with nothing like that. Not long after I said goodbye to the children and to year 11....I didn't cry like I thought I should. Maybe this will happen later.