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Jun. 5th, 2014 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckThis afternoon, right after school, they had the annual 5K run that the kids doing cross country have been working toward all year. Cordelia didn't want to run, but she wanted to volunteer to help the event along. I wasn't sure if she'd need a permission slip for that or not (she would have needed one to run), so I showed up at the school just in time for the end of day bell.
As it happens, nobody asked Cordelia if she had permission to be there. Some of them may have seen me and just assumed, but I'm not sure that the mother who gave her and her best friend the job of staffing one of the water stations had seen me.
I wandered around a little bit, not sure what I could help with. A mother I know asked me to rummage around in the kitchen in the cafeteria to see if I could find something with which to serve cake. I found a nice metal device that I'm pretty sure was meant for exactly that.
I took the spatula to where they'd set up two tables under a tree. They had a cake inscribed with a thank you to the teacher who organized Cross Country Kids this year (taking over from the gym teacher who passed away). They had watermelon and bananas and three coolers full of gatorade.
I ended up slicing up the cake. I had to cut tiny little pieces so that there'd be enough to go around. Another mother helped me by presenting me with plates to be filled and by setting the filled plates out with forks for the kids to grab. I seem to have judged the size of the pieces just right. There were three pieces left at the end, and those got grabbed by opportunistic kids who wanted seconds (they were the only kids still around, so nobody was going to get upset). There was a fair amount of watermelon left and almost all of the bananas. Unfortunately, they had cut the bananas open, so it wasn't like people could take them home and save them.
We don't know if there will be Cross Country Kids next year or not. It will depend on whether or not one of the new teachers is willing to step up and organize it. The parents who helped out this year will mostly still be around. I suppose it will depend, too, on how many people are willing to get up extra early to get their kids to the school by seven two days a week. That requires getting up early for most families (us included) in a way that getting there at quarter to eight didn't necessarily.
I'm not sure I'm willing to do it just so Cordelia can walk the course and chat with her friends. If she was actually running, I might feel differently, but getting up when Scott does two days a week would be really difficult, especially as I'd have to wait an hour before having my morning coffee (I take my thyroid medicine when Scott's alarm goes off. Normally, I go back to sleep for an hour and a half. If I have to be up at six, going back to sleep makes no sense. I'd have just enough time to fall asleep again and then have to be up). Maybe Cordelia's actually serious about getting herself up and ready for school on her own. She's talked about it, but she hasn't said she wants to do it. I think having me there in the mornings, even if I don't do anything but sit and drink coffee, means something to her.
As it happens, nobody asked Cordelia if she had permission to be there. Some of them may have seen me and just assumed, but I'm not sure that the mother who gave her and her best friend the job of staffing one of the water stations had seen me.
I wandered around a little bit, not sure what I could help with. A mother I know asked me to rummage around in the kitchen in the cafeteria to see if I could find something with which to serve cake. I found a nice metal device that I'm pretty sure was meant for exactly that.
I took the spatula to where they'd set up two tables under a tree. They had a cake inscribed with a thank you to the teacher who organized Cross Country Kids this year (taking over from the gym teacher who passed away). They had watermelon and bananas and three coolers full of gatorade.
I ended up slicing up the cake. I had to cut tiny little pieces so that there'd be enough to go around. Another mother helped me by presenting me with plates to be filled and by setting the filled plates out with forks for the kids to grab. I seem to have judged the size of the pieces just right. There were three pieces left at the end, and those got grabbed by opportunistic kids who wanted seconds (they were the only kids still around, so nobody was going to get upset). There was a fair amount of watermelon left and almost all of the bananas. Unfortunately, they had cut the bananas open, so it wasn't like people could take them home and save them.
We don't know if there will be Cross Country Kids next year or not. It will depend on whether or not one of the new teachers is willing to step up and organize it. The parents who helped out this year will mostly still be around. I suppose it will depend, too, on how many people are willing to get up extra early to get their kids to the school by seven two days a week. That requires getting up early for most families (us included) in a way that getting there at quarter to eight didn't necessarily.
I'm not sure I'm willing to do it just so Cordelia can walk the course and chat with her friends. If she was actually running, I might feel differently, but getting up when Scott does two days a week would be really difficult, especially as I'd have to wait an hour before having my morning coffee (I take my thyroid medicine when Scott's alarm goes off. Normally, I go back to sleep for an hour and a half. If I have to be up at six, going back to sleep makes no sense. I'd have just enough time to fall asleep again and then have to be up). Maybe Cordelia's actually serious about getting herself up and ready for school on her own. She's talked about it, but she hasn't said she wants to do it. I think having me there in the mornings, even if I don't do anything but sit and drink coffee, means something to her.
