Everybody everybody


I took the day off today for assorted clutter-reducing and primary-school tasks. After delivering the kids to their respective educational establishments, Noel and I tackled the "nook," the little niche beside the garage where the previous owner of our home had an elaborate ham radio setup. I originally used it as an office, and we bought a little desk to put back there. But since the kids came along, and we lost Noel's original office (which held most of his comics and collections) to make Cady Gray's room, the nook has become storage for books. My desk, which became inaccessible beneath assorted clutter, now just has haphazard stacks of records and papers and tax stuff and packages from electronic equipment.

We needed to clear out the big Rubbermaid bins that had stacked up halfway to the ceiling, and the graphic novels stacked a yard high in front of the enormous cheapo bookcases already groaning with them, so that the window people can get to the window there (whenever the window people decide to come to install our new windows, which is our big home improvement project this year). So I categorized the box full of cords and cables that lives under the desk, and broke down all the boxes our various computers came in (I have a problem getting rid of original boxes), and helped Noel carry boxes of Marvel Essential collections and DC Showcases and cetera to the guest room, where he sorted them into "give away" and "keep" piles.

After an intense 90 minutes, Noel gave Jesse Harris a call for a Random Rules, and I made copies of a couple of key therapists' reports on Archer to take to our meeting with his teaching team. (I wasn't convinced we needed an all-in-one to replace our printer a few months back, but I sure did enjoy making copies with it this morning.) We had a great meeting (can't say more without betraying confidences we promised to the school), then went to Hastings to kill time in the media aisles before lunch at Firehouse Subs before returning to the housecleaning.

Next up: separating the clothes Cady Gray will continue to wear from the ones she will never wear again, as Noel continued to plow through the book piles. But I was back on the road to Archer's school in about another 90 minutes for the kindergarten and first grade talent show.

Now Archer was not performing solo in the talent show. But all the individual classes got up and did a group number. Of course, Archer's class was the next-to-last act. So I got to see the whole 75-minute extravaganza, which was pretty much adorable from start to finish. I will say that although many school officials get overcautious on the whole church-state thing and discourage students from doing religious acts, we don't have that problem in Conway. By my estimate, eighty percent of the singing, cheering, hand-jiving, jump-roping, and coordinated signing was performed to praise song accompaniment. Individual student religious expression is robust in this school system.

We had witnessed many rehearsals of Archer's class song at home, but I was anxious to see it with the props. They trooped up there and sang the first verse, then they all turned around to put on their sunglasses and pull out their bling necklaces. Yes, they did a rap version of the second verse. Unfortunately, Archer had a little trouble with his accessories, and the rest of the class rapped the second verse while he was still turned around trying to get his sunglasses on. He turned around just in time to miss the big finish, where they crossed their arms and went "huh!" But fortunately, his difficulties entertained the crowd just as much as his classmates' actual performance. That's the saving grace of all school shows, ain't it?

Posted: Thu - May 31, 2007 at 09:11 PM         |

©