School Spirit

We have a theme this year at my school. It's "Huntin' for the 4th A" as we have been an A school three years in a row and want to make it 4. We get letter grades from the state based on our standardized test scores.

Anyway, last year we were "surfin' our way to our 3rd A." That was an ok theme. We could wear brightly colored flower shirts and claim the school spirit had touched us. This year, since we are apparently hunting, we have a free pass to wear camouflage shirts every Friday. It's actually more than a free pass, as my principal has declared every Friday to be Camo Friday. He hunts. He's thrilled he can wear camo to school and call it appropriate principal attire. I, on the other hand, have never hunted. And I've never been in the military. You can probably see where this is going.

I did not own one single piece of camouflage attire. So the first Camo Friday came around, and I did what any school-spirited teacher would do. I went to the hunting and gun section at Walmart and made my first camo purchase. I went with a nice pocketed t-shirt with a very fetching branch, leaf, and possibly bird motif in the lovely colors of brown, gray, and tan. I wore it proudly to school. I got several comments (which I decided to take as compliments) from other teachers.

The next Thursday, there was an announcement after school. The Army Surplus Store (the name is kind of misleading as they sell many, many things not related to the Army... or Surplus...) decided to stay open an extra half hour so we (the teachers of my school) could purchase... PURPLE CAMO shirts. I raced to the store. I made my purchase. I wore my purchase at school the next day. Somehow, I did not feel quite as ridiculous as when I was wearing hunting camo.

The next week I ran into a sort of situation. It was going to be hat day. And Camo Friday. At the same time. I had some choices to make. Do I wear a camo shirt and forget about a hat? Do I try to find a hat to match a camo shirt? Do I get a camo hat? What kind of shirt do you wear with a camo hat? The last question reveals my choice. I made another trip to Walmart on that Friday before school. I found a nice camo cap in the hunting section. It was a bargain at $2.50. (Hunting clothes at Walmart are cheap... maybe to offset the price of the gun and ammo?) I thought that maybe a camo shirt and hat at the same time would be a little too much for me so I settled on a compromise.

I wore my camo hat. And I wore a purple school shirt. I had my school name proudly displayed on my shirt and a camo hat on my head. I just wanted to repeat that for effect. I was the epitome of school spirit that day.

I almost feel the need to buy more camo so I can continue to mix it up on Fridays. Almost.

Monthly Update?

So much has happened in the past month. I'm actually not joking.

We started school on August 18, then due to lovely Tropical Storm Fay, we had two days off school. The storm was actually worse than everyone thought it was going to be, because it sort of stalled over my area and dumped a ton of rain on us. There were a lot of roads that were flooded, but the coastal areas near me had it much worse. One town had over 200 of its roads closed due to flooding. There was some flooding my yard, along with a lot of fallen palm fronds. I took some pictures on my cell phone, which is why they're a little on the blurry side.

Luckily, I have amazing yard people that mow, weed, etc. and one day I came home from school to find the yard cleaned. It was actually on the Thursday right after the storm. They are pretty much great, and because apparantly there is a lot of competition for lawn business, the price is right. As in not very much per week for all the work they do. Anyway. I digress. I did lose cable and internet for a few days, but all in all, it turned out ok. There were even a few restaurants in town that were open. Of course all the bars were as well. "Hurricane parties" seem to be a pretty popular way of passing the time.

After the storm, school continued as scheduled, and I'm starting to get to know my students. One has already been expelled for bringing brass knuckles to school. I just hope that doesn't set the tone for the rest of the year!

Skip ahead to Labor Day weekend: Emily came to visit! It was really perfect timing because the rodeo was here, which is obviously a big deal. I had to go to Eli's Western Wear to get advance tickets. That's serious. I think her favorite parts were Mutton Bustin' and the Calf Scramble. Both involve children, so it's got to be cute. The first event is where mean parents sign up their children to right sheep, and the announcer makes fun of them for crying when they fall off. Highly entertaining. The second event was open to any child under 10. The kids gathered in the arena (there were probably 100 or so...) to chase around 5 baby cows with ribbons on their tails. The kids who get the ribbons first get a prize. It's pretty great. There was also some pretty feirce roping and bull riding. The bull rider from Okeechobee qualified for the finals, which were held the following day. What a great, proud day to be from Okeechobee.

Another highlight of Emily's trip was being able to go around to all the local hot spots. And by hot spots I mean bars. I even dragged her to 8 Seconds, even though she didn't really want to go because she was tired. I think she's secretly glad she went though. It's an experience. We did stay just long enough for beer to get spilled all over my feet, then I felt it was time to go.

I also started my classes at IRSC (Indian River State College), but more on that another day. It's way past bedtime.