I may have just a bit of pent up anger...

Today was the annual 3rd grade carnival for the school that I student taught at...wow, still so weird saying that in the past tense. PS...I will be walking across that stage to get my lovely, empty (won't get the real diploma til mid June), leatherette folder this Saturday! Ok, so back to what I was saying...

I went back to see all of the kids and enjoy a great carnival, now I will have to backtrack a little because I still haven't told you what my Tuesday consisted of. And, actually before that, I better tell you what I was doing from 1-3 on Saturday afternoon.

My mother, the self proclaimed "sun goddess" made me sit outside with her for two whole hours in the beaming sun. I have nothing against the sun, it just so happens that the sun is outside, and my personal motto is "Why be outside, when you can be inside?" With the allergies and the bugs, I'm simply not a fan, which ironically you can have inside, add another point to their tally. Ok, as I was saying, I was forced to be outside for two whole hours because apparently my legs are so white, they look green...her exact words. Now, when you are a lovely shade of white as I was, two hours in direct sunlight will have a slight effect on your skintone. To be more specific, you will go from an almost see through white to a more astounding red. Yes, it will hurt to stand when the blood rushes to your legs. Yes, it will hurt to even wear pants because the fabric rubs against the burn and when you try to solve this problem by putting on some loose fitting capri pj's, it will only make it worse. Yes, it will actually feel like you are peeling back layers of skin when you try to shave because you didn't before this self induced pain. My arms and face were also a lovely shade of pink, but not too bad.

So, on to Tuesday, where most of the painful burn was gone but it will come raging back in direct sunlight. My littlest brother is in 5th grade and it was their field day/bbq and I volunteered to help. I was the official nurse and am proud to say I actually helped with a pukey (sp?) situation! But when you are outside from 8:30 am to approximately 3 pm, the sun wants to make sure you remember it. So the first burn was almost gone, but once I was in the light again, it too wanted to make itself known. This burn was obviously a million times worse, along with my fabulous glasses burnline on my face. Oh, and the pain doesn't stop there. I was sitting there enjoying myself when I feel my glasses fly off of my face. What was that? Oh just a soccer ball hitting me in the back of the head, knocking me so hard that my glasses come off, where the nosepiece hits the side of my nose so hard that it's actually still tender 2 days later. At this point, I really want to cry, but feel like I probably shouldn't. So I blame the few tears that slip out on the fact that it hit my nose so my eyes are just watering a little bit. Yeah, I'm smooth like that. Five minutes go by and I'm able to recover when WHAM! it happens again. The second time, not quite as intense, but maybe thats just because my head was numb from the first whack. At this point, I again try to compose myself, because really a soccer ball hitting you, twice, hurts more than you'd think. Approximately 2 minutes later, I realize that I have an appointment and tell my brother bye. In my defense, I really did have to go run some errands, maybe not at that precise moment, but I felt it was time. Some of you may be saying, why didn't you move the first time? Well, honestly, would you believe it to happen twice in a matter of minutes?

Finally, on to today. So, my face, arms, legs, and of course top of my feet are still pretty red but not as painful as it was Tuesday night. So red in fact that today, after being there for the entire day, a 3rd grader asked me why my face had been red all day long. I explained, in a slightly shorter version, that I was sunburned. She replied that she thought I had been really mad all day, that or just really constipated. Yep, that was her thinking, and the fact that she had no problem stating this opinion made me laugh out loud. Ok, so carnival's going great, of course it, too, takes place outside so sunburn on top of sunburn on top of sunburn isn't the most pleasant experience, but I'm tough.

And don't get me wrong, I really love teaching and believe that it's something that I was meant to do. The fact that I have no idea what I may be faced with that particular day fascinates me and the way kids respond to different situations is amazing, but there are certain times when I'm probably not the best role model. For instance, for any teachers out there, aren't there certain students that just really seem to get under your skin? And no matter how hard you fight the urge, you sometimes think it would just be great to throw a book at them?

Today I got to do just that.

So, maybe it wasn't a book, but it was a water balloon! The entire 3rd grade had to run around in a certain area while the teachers threw water balloons at them and it...was...amazing. Obviously, no one got hurt and the kids had just as much fun as the adults and the last one standing actually got to break a water balloon over the head of the teacher of their choice...not me, thankfully. But it was so much freaking fun! Water balloon fights are right up there with Tug of War. I can't think of anything more fun than doing either of these activities.

Now, if I could only find an indoor water balloon/tug of war arena.

And also thanks to the fabulous, or should I say awesome Gina for giving me an award...will respond soon!