Camp Kennedy

Not a place to learn how to pahk yoah cah, but rather what happens at the middle school of my employ when the first big storm thrashes Northern California. Now, all my friends in Canada will scoff at the notion of a "rain day", because I know we all went to school and wrote exams in thigh-high drifts (at least I did---honest, Christmas exams, 10th grade), but in fact, the power was out, the phones were out, the heat was off, etc.

I got to school blissfully unaware of the issue, although I did notice the amazing number of downed branches and downed entire trees...discovered that the administration had been sending kids home ever since about 7:00. Well, the assistant superintendant showed up and screeched that school was absolutely in session, and sloshed out. Problem was, we had about 45 kids total...out of 1000. Thus, Camp Kennedy (it helped that power in 2/3 of the school came back on).

Basically we rotated through three activity stations by grade level: watching Monsters, Inc, playing volleyball in the gym, and board games in the library. Even with the wet and the funky schedule, it was actually a pretty fun day, and I was charmed and heartened to see how many of the kids (well, boys) knew how to play chess. I abdicated my turn at the board a few times because I was honestly more intrigued with watching them play, and I think I might invest in a few cheap chess boards to have in my room for other rainy/slow days. Was taught to play dominos by a substitute there that day, and by the afternoon, he had taught a couple more of the chessplayers. It was a fitting end to a much better week than I have had in a while.

AND we get Monday off for Veteran's Day. Huzzah--but stay tuned to make sure the West Coast hasn't floated away.