Farm Days

3-30-12


Walking through the hallways of an elementary school with purple hair is an interesting experiment in human nature.

Mrs. Fasheh had seen my hair and I know she wasn’t thrilled with it, but at the same time, she seemed to accept that it was on my head, and therefore it was more than reasonable. She had seen the Brenans in all their wacky glory so much in the past that it was not even par for the course, it was under par.

Mrs. Kelly saw it for the first time on Wednesday, and she gasped and put her hands to her head in exasperation. She certainly didn’t approve, yet she also didn’t object. She is slowly figuring out, and based on her comment yesterday, that this is just who our family is. I mentioned yesterday about having fun with something at the house, and she said, “I would venture a guess that EVERYDAY is fun at your house.” Hee hee!

People who know me, don’t bat an eye. People who don’t, now here is the fun social aspect that I enjoy.

I walked through the entire length of hallways of the school yesterday, right when kids were entering their classrooms and teachers were often also out, waiting for stragglers. I had my yellow Visitor’s Badge on my shirt in plain view, although I kind of wish I didn’t if only so I could see if anyone would question my being on campus. I am pretty sure some people would have.

There was a lunch aid that looked at me, extremely blatantly, with hate in her eyes. I smiled, with her not even considering a similar greeting. I had parents stop and stare at me, chattering on in Spanish and pointing at the brightly colored hue I was rocking on my head. I simply continued to smile and say hello to folks.

Kids, btw, were never quite so freaked. I had many kids stop me and tell me how much they loved it. And kids who didn’t get it, simply asked me outright, “What happened to your hair?” I usually answered that I spilled grape juice on it. They always laughed. A couple of kids would say, “Your hair is purple!” I would respond, “It is??? What the heck?!?!” This also resulted in laughter. Kids are awesome. They don’t care what you do, as long as you don’t mind answering some questions about it.

Grownups, though, feel that it is impolite to ask. Or maybe if they don’t approve, they feel like they should somehow let me know this with glares. Either way, I found it humorous that anyone would even care.

In a shocking reaction, if only because it was from the principal of the school, Mrs. Sakurai told me she liked it, and actually called me a chameleon, which was clearly a compliment. She asked me about the blonde before, and we talked about hair color in general. She seemed to respect my choice to be different, and I appreciated this, especially from a person who guides children and teachers.

Most parents or administrators seemed to settle down a bit when I would say that the shade choice had to do with the boys’ soccer team colors being purple and white. They would respond enthusiastically with praise saying I was the best mom ever. I was confused. Wasn’t a fantastic mom before this point for coaching their team? Or even more importantly, for showing them that you should be yourself no matter what society thinks?

As much as I certainly don’t think that this can be directly compared to the recent freakouts from society regarding things like people wearing hoodies, there is some interesting similarities. Essentially, if someone does something that is different, or could possibly be associated with people who do bad things, it must mean everyone who does the trend must be evil. Trench coats were vilified after Columbine. Don’t even get me started on how often rock stars are preachers of death and destruction simply because one person who happens to listen to that style of music happened to kill a guy. Funny enough, I highly doubt you would ever hear anyone criticize something like country music if a killer said that it was after listening to someone like Toby Keith caused him to kill a bunch of people of Arab descent.

Mainstream should no longer be considered a stream. It is a vast ocean that contains all kinds of fish. There are the peeps that are close to the surface that yes, people may see a lot, but it doesn’t make them the best fish. There are fish at the bottom or in colder waters or warmer waters that all are still part of this great big wonderful ocean.

Ok, I am stepping down from my soapbox and now will regale you with tales of my wonderful Farm Fieldtrip!!

Holy crap, I don’t know that I had this much fun even as a kid! Being a grownup on a fieldtrip is way more enjoyable. Not only do I get to see cool exhibits, but I get to see 25 faces of kids who have never seen the likes of said exhibits. They light up in a way that can’t help but make you smile.

There was one close call on the way out there. Cries heard from the seat that contained Bobby and his classmate Mharyann caused Mrs. Kelly to investigate. I was called forward, since I was sitting at the emergency exit (they needed a grownup in that row) and at first I was worried that Mharyann was sick. Instead, apparently Bobby had bopped her in the face with his elbow. Upon further investigation, it sounds as though she started it, but ultimately, they were messing around and it resulted in injury. Sounds like typical kids.

I did mention to Mharyann later that she just had to say the word and I would kick Bobby’s butt, and she laughed. I love that these kids like me this much.

Our tour of the grounds was done by Farmer John (It is probably best this man never lead a bunch of teens around lest he would be teased endlessly). Farmer John was eleventy and spoke very softly. But he was incredibly sweet and tolerant of the kids. He even seemed happy when I asked him a bunch of questions.

The kids got to see a lot of the planted crops and even got to plant their own radish plant that they got to take home.

I am always amused when I get to be the calm, rational grownup with a bunch of kids when really, I am right there with them on my fear. There was a working hive on the grounds we got to look at, and we saw several bees working hard when we were wandering the garden. Many of the kids flipped out, terrified they were about to be stung to death. Funny enough, Bobby and I were two of the calmest. Both of us reassured his classmates that the bees were far more interested in the nectar they were collecting. When I get into this zone, even I believe this information, which makes me wonder if perhaps I need to use this super mommy power to allow myself less of the freakouts I get with things like the June Bugs and moths that haunt my dreams.

At first, I was sure the highlight of the trip would be the hundreds of roly polies that kids found through the dirt. I was clearly wrong since I forgot about how much children enjoy farm animals peeing.

The sheep, as if this was what he was trained to do, waited for all of the kids to gather around his pen, at which point he promptly peed and even pooped. The collective “eeeewwww!!!” was very satisfying.

We saw cows, oxen, sheep, goats, chickens and rabbits. I have say, even though farm smells are kind of gross, it made me think of being at Grammie’s house and even Uncle Bill’s house when they had all the livestock. It is a bummer that that property doesn’t exist anymore since I know it would have been fun to take my boys to see all of that.

The last part of the tour was being filed into this little room that allowed each of the kids to hold a chick. Some were clearly more comfortable than other with handling these critters, but all of them were really sweet while holding these fuzzy little babies. I got a picture of every student with a chick, which pleased Mrs. Kelly greatly. I was her acting paparazzi, and I know it is something that she is thankful for.

The bus ride home was certainly less eventful, with several students even falling asleep on the way. I know I would have, but I tried to stay diligent and awake to make sure that in case my services were needed, I was ready!

Ken took the boys with him to his class in the afternoon, allowing me to work on the photos from the field trip, along with several AYSO treasurer duties. I felt pretty dammed accomplished!

This was good since I was feeling a little frazzled with soccer practice last night. The kids were clearly suffering from Spring Break Fever and could not be contained. They were not listening, and very wired, which meant any instruction we tried to give them was ignored, or simply not heard. At one point, I had them in the middle of a drill all file in behind me and we ran the length of the field. I knew they had energy, so the run was a good way to settle them a bit.

Sadly, there was one casualty in this exercise. Dax apparently felt he was being pushed and cut in front of. He stopped about a quarter of the way. I passed him on the way back and he was in complete tears.

Dax has been uber weepy of late, still feeling down on himself along with getting very frustrated with potentially not keeping up with older kids. On top of that, every morning this week, he had broken down in tears right before he would go into his classroom. Mrs. Fasheh has said he is usually fine within a few minutes, but we are all baffled. He told me it was because he missed Ken and me. But it is still a strange reaction from this kid, the one who has no issues going to the bathroom by himself. Although, now that I think about it, he has been requesting somebody to go with him. His normal brave demeanor has diminished. I am frustrated, specifically because I feel so helpless. I worry about him. I also worry about him on the soccer field. We bumped him up to the higher age level because his skills were good enough to do so. However, his emotional maturity may not be quite to the right level. Sometimes his intelligence and stature caused me to forget that he is only 5. That is all my fault, and certainly not his.

The boys are with Ken today, going to his home school class followed by a class at American Martyrs. I am hoping the Lego stimulation will please them and leave them in good spirits, especially since we are dropping them off at my folks’ this evening so that Ken and I can go see the Hunger Games. I have to admit, their whining and fighting has made me anxious for a night off.

My weekend looks to be pretty basic, thankfully. There is the soccer game tomorrow at noon, which will undoubtedly be another blowout. After that, I think we can look forward to just hanging out the rest of the day. With Sunday being our actual anniversary, I would imagine we will just make sure to hang out together. Maybe we need to take the boys some place like the zoo or something. Don’t know yet, but either way, it is nice that we don’t have to stress about anything.

For now, I am left with a morning at work, catching up a bit from being out yesterday, but truly, just happy that it is Friday and that in a few hours I will be on my way home.