Did a few things online after that, but I think I lingered too long. It was just cloudy, breezy, and cool when I headed out on my bike. Dropped King Arthur in the book kiosk on Johnson Avenue, then drove down to the Westmont Plaza. I got a Horschata Frappucchio at a very quiet Target Starbucks. It did taste like a horschata drink, or at least enough like rice and cinnamon to drown out most of the coffee flavor. Headed to Sprouts a few doors down next. Culture Pop soda was buy one-get one. Coconut milk is just cheaper there. Got dried cranberries and raspberry-lemon mango slices out of the bulk bins and a turkey sandwich and vegan sea salt caramel chocolate chip cookies on clearance.
I was trying to pick a sandwich when I heard what sounded like rain on the roof. Sure enough, when I looked up as I made my way to the bulk bins, it was pouring. It slowed down a bit as I made my way to the Westmont Acme, but I still got wet. At least neither the Acme nor Sprouts were any busier than Target had been. Restocked strawberries, soda, puffcorn, granola, granola bars, and yogurt at the Acme. Found coconut macaroons on the bakery clearance rack. Got a bagel to eat with the kids tomorrow on their long half-day. They had Fresca in 20 ounce bottles for the first time in ages, too.
Rushed home across Newton Lake Park after I finished. On one hand, the rain had taken a temporary leave of absence at that point. I got home damp, not soaked. It's just as well that the path over the hill would have been too muddy for me to push my bike over. I noticed construction workers fixing the path alongside the hills as I went past them.
Put everything away, then had a really quick lunch while watching the 2003 Strawberry Shortcake. "The Play Is the Thing" when Strawberry and her friends have to find other plans after their garden party is rained out. Inspired by the girls teasing Strawberry about her tattered raincoat, they put on "Cinderella"...and learn a lesson in appearances and true beauty being on the inside.
Though it wasn't raining at that point, I still called Uber. I wasn't going to trust Mother Nature again. The first driver came in 13 minutes and got me there a bit late. The one going home came in 11 minutes. No traffic either way.
On one hand, we only had 15 younger kids, 8 of whom came with me to the bathroom. The kids were already antsy when we had to start in the library again due to a school assembly. They didn't improve much once we got into the cafeteria. Two of the little girls tried to hide under the table again, while two others pushed at each other, and one girl put out her legs and blocked people from sitting next to her. On the other hand, I got to admire all of their stuffed animals. This must have been stuffed animal day, because they all had at least one, from a little girl toting a giant Figment dragon from Epcot who was almost bigger than her to the girl who brought an adorable reindeer with a light-up nose who would move his legs when you flipped a switch on his stomach.
I think you can guess that no one went outside today, not even the older kids. We moved the remaining 12 kids to the library around 4 PM. They were so noisy, running around, playing under tables when they weren't supposed to, trying to hide in corners, I told them all to sit down, because I wanted to talk to them. That worked. I told them that the other teacher and I were disappointed in them for not listening. Running around was outside behavior, not library behavior. Only one of the boys was actually sitting down, making windmills and satellites from bristle blocks.
I coaxed one of the girls out from under the librarian's table by pointing out that, for once, the magnetic tiles were completely free. She and I built a lovely little garage for a wooden car sitting on the table. One of the girls was so impressed with our work, she built a lavish pen for the reindeer with the glowing nose and moving legs. Another girl ended up helping her. A boy sat down and built a nifty space station. When the pen almost fell over, I pushed it back up and told the girls if it broke, we could build it again and make it better.
The other boys set up chairs and pretended to race each other until they got bored and started running around again. Thankfully, by that point, the head teacher had come back from dealing with a few other kids. She finally got the kids to clean up by telling them we all had to do it together in 30 seconds, or we wouldn't go in the cafeteria! That got them. They moved even faster than when they were pretending to be racing cars. Wish they behaved that well in the cafeteria. The older kids were supposed to be playing a game where one kid hid, then another, and one kid had to ask the others questions to figure out who was missing...but they kept peeking on the kid who was hiding. They were so noisy, the remaining 3 younger kids and 5 older ones were having a 10-minute time out when I left.
Went right in the shower when I got home, then made a quick dinner and watched Match Game '74. They've moved on to the week with Bert Convy, Louisa Moritz, and Kaye Stevens of the infamously noisy cackle. The last episode of the night brought in another famous Burt, Reynolds in this case, who came to visit his friend Charles Nelson Reilly. He kissed Louisa, then gave the female contestant a kiss on her cheek that I bet she never washed off. Bert Convy had even more fun beforehand, running off with the contestant after she won the head-to-head round!
Finished the night with Let's Face It at YouTube. I go further into another service comedy, this one with Bob Hope, Betty Hutton, and Eve Arden, at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
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