Common Sense Has Left The Building

As this is my 700th post I thought I'd throw my usual book review or recipe post to the wind and try something new.  My reading addiction has gotten out of control lately and I'm so far behind in my book review writing that it just isn't funny anymore.  Add into the confusion my utter lack of wanting to try new recipes and blogging has suddenly become work and something that I've begun putting off instead of enjoying.  When you'd rather do laundry or mop the floor it's not a good sign in the blogging world. 

So, for this post I thought I'd take a page out of a blog I happened upon yesterday called The Spin Cycle - which you can visit HERE.  Sue is the author of this blog and after reading one of her posts via Pinterest I knew I'd be back.  Why?  Because Sue made me giggle out loud.  It seems that she and I have very similar senses of humour and I lurve that.  If you can make me chuckle I will be a total fan.  Sue humourously chats about her day with her three kids and her geriatric Weimaraner named Macy which I totally loved.  So, for this 700th post I felt like just chattin' and sharing my day.  Sounds utterly boring interesting, no?  Stay with me, people.  It gets better.

Let me share a little of what happened in the Bookworm house yesterday.  Boy 1, who is in Grade 8 and will enter into teendom next month, came home from school and informed me that his school just had a spirit day.  Who doesn't love school spirit?!  In order to earn spirit points for his class Boy 1 volunteered to do the challenge.  These points would be redeemed for a pizza party for the winning class. Yay for participation and a slice of 'zza!  Weelll, perhaps not in this instance. 

Apparently there were some girls on the student council who came up with this little gem of a competition because they had tried it at summer camp and it was 'like totally so much fun.  Totally'.  What was the competition, you ask?  Well, the participants' had one of their hands salted and then they had to see how long they could hold ice cubes in said hand.  The person who lasted the longest won the points for their class.  Sounds legit, right?  Except that no one looked into how long this competition 'should' go on for and what the side effects could be.  A little thing but kinda important as you will see. 

One thing you need to know about my boy (heck, my whole family) is that we are competitive.  Boy 1 may be packed into a wee package (we like to think that he has less verticality than his peeps) but given the chance to bring it and win his class some points he planned to go all out and get 'er done.  He got 'er done and then some!  

The first few competitors lasted about a minute.  The next few?  2 minutes.  My boy?  TWELVE minutes holding ice in his hand.  Ummm, pardon?  Ya, it was as painful as it sounds but my boy stuck it out and won the points ... and some frostbite and a very sore hand t'boot.  That would be the not so nice part of the story as you can see below.  The white stuff is mainly salt but he had blisters and frostbite as parting gifts.

Initially after looking at his poor hand I was ticked off at the school and wondered why they'd allow kids to do this silly competition (for pizza no less).  After a few minutes I then turned my attention and incredulity to my 12 year old who seemed to lack the common sense God gave a flip flop.  When asked why he wouldn't just drop the ice when his hand started to hurt he just said that he wanted to win.  *sigh*  Welcome to the family, son.

So today, during our "Meet the Teacher" BBQ we spoke with the principal and the teacher involved.  I had already spoken to the principal on the phone this morning and wasn't looking forward to an awkward chat with the teacher in a busy classroom.  After the chat with both the principal and teacher - which included their deepest apologies which we accepted - we've come to a mutual agreement that this Survivor-type competition will no longer be part of the rah-rah-sisboom-ba curriculum for school spirit.  I also verified that walking on fiery coals, swallowing shards of glass or seeing how long one can stand fire ants in ones pants will also not be included in the 'fun and spirit' that is middle school.

We're chalking this up to one of life's little lessons.  Boy 1's hand still hurts but will heal and hopefully our little flip flop has accrued a little bit more common sense in the healing process.

So, how was your day?!

Note:  If you'd like to make my day and help me celebrate 700 posts I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment so I know you're out there.  It gets lonely out here all by my lonesome!  A like on Facebook or a follow on Pinterest or Twitter wouldn't go amiss either. :)  Happy 700th posting to me! :)