Middle School is very unpleasant

Today was the first day of Mommy & Me swimming lessons for Chazzy Chazz and I. The class itself was great. Charles was the biggest kid there, but he was also the best. He blew bubbles and splashed and laughed and had a great time.
However, this class takes place at a Scarlett Middle School. It has been a long time since I have been in a middle school. They are dingy and old and small. They have little tiny bathrooms, little tiny lockers, and the showers are low and have no privacy. The pool itself was nice, but it was badly lit. I don't think my Middle school locker room was so much better or anything, but at the time I didn't expect much more. It is bad enough that the Middle School experience was the worst two years of my life, but to also force those poor kids into such nasty conditions is just not fair.

Since then, I have gone swimming at very nice, adult gyms. Gyms that have family changing rooms, saunas, private showers and changing rooms. Middle Schoolers get none of these things. I have moved up to pools with water slides, hot tubs, and lazy rivers. It was very difficult to go back to a small dank pit of a pool.

To make matters in the locker room worse:

• Charles peed on the floor through his swimmy diaper.
  
• We walked in on a whole family using the only real bathroom.
• We couldn't find the door that lead from the locker room to the pool. I was sure we would never be allowed to leave.

Maybe this is a good transition for me. In a few years Charles will be in the public school system and I have to have my expectations lowered by then. And to all my Middle School blog readers: Good News, the real world is MUCH better than Middle School.

What goes around comes around...even 25 years later

I had a wonderful childhood full of great memories. Many of these memories come from my years and Pierce Elementary. One memory is at the front of my mind because of a little incident from yesterday.

Yesterday I was training a class at work. Luckily, this class did not include any summer interns. Anyway, I turned around to face the computer. My butt was facing the class, when I let a little toot slip. I tried to pretend it was the sound of me clicking the computer, I hope that no one noticed.

Well, I probably deserved such embarrassment. The memory from Pierce Elementary rushed to my mind. All the kids were in the gym listening to a slightly overweight, yet very dignified, man tell us about the latest fundraiser. Right in the middle of his pitch, he farted. It was the loudest fart I have ever heard in my life. Maybe it was worse because it got picked up by the mic, I don't know. Anyway, at the same time, every single student figured out that the dignified man was the culprit, and each one yelled out "ewwwww" and scooted back two feet away from the fundraiser rep simultaneously. He was so embarrassed that he couldn't say a word. The vice principal had to get up in front of everyone to get them to calm down. I think the fundraiser rep had a hard time finishing his pitch after that. I hope that he didn't go home and cry.

Do you have any toot/fart stories? Did you ever call them barfing spiders? I did for a while after my cousin called them barking spiders and I didn't get it. I didn't get it for many years.

oh, and telling this story reminds me of a mini story:
Catherine to her young friend Kayla: "Do you know why they call them fun raisers? Because they raise the fun."
Kayla to Catherine: "No, it is a funDraiser."