Red Ribbon Week

Well, it's been about a week and a half since Halloween. For Waterspout Middle School, Halloween meant the end of Red Ribbon Week. Red Ribbon Week consists of 5 different dress-up days including Camouflage Day, Rock Star Day, and Drugs are Scary Day. All in the name of Don't Do Drugs.



Camouflage Day-This ties into the the be drug-free idea by having the description... "Help Fight Against Drugs by Wearing Camouflage!" I thought there was supposed to be no violence in schools...? Oh well, it's a good cause. On Camouflage Day, you are expected to wear as much camouflage as possible. No, we don't care if you clash. The only real problem I had with this was that I don't own any camouflage. So, I went and whined to the Great Yogini.

"Mom, tomorrow's Camouflage Day and I don't own any camouflage! Alas! What shall I do?"

"Hmm, I might have something that will work. Let me see."

*digs through closet and removes short-sleeved blue camo jacket*

"How about this?"

"That'll do. Thanks, Mom!"

Wait a sec. As the teenager, aren't I supposed to be the one with camouflage clothing? Do moms wear crazy clothing when all us kids are at school? What a jigsaw puzzle.



Rock Star Day-This ties into the be drug-free idea by this year's Red Ribbon Theme (I didn't even know Red Ribbon Week had themes until this year but oh well) which was "Our School Rocks Drug Free". Being a nerd and therefore not knowing what a rock star is supposed to look like, I of course asked the Great Yogini.

As a result, I showed up to school totally and completely decked out. 80's style.

I blow-dried my hair (SCARY. REALLY SCARY!), put on a silk multicolored shirt (shoulder pads included at no cost to you! They're FREE!), wore blue jeans with sparkle belt, wore the Great Yogini's boots with four inch heels (seriously, what DO moms wear when we're at school?!?)found some sunglasses, and finished it off by taking a silver tie belt and tying it around my head instead of my waist. Two different people asked me if I was a hippie. A couple months ago we had Howdy Week which included Hippie Day. I dressed up as a hippie, and lo and behold, people thought I was a pirate. So my question is: if I dress up as a pirate, will people think I'm a rock star? Also, are they not aware that it's a dress-up day? If so, that would explain why I was one out of about five people who dressed up - teachers included.

Drugs are Scary Day-Halloween. Also known as an excuse to wear a costume to school. I was Princess Leia. My hair was still puffy from rock star day, so the doughnut hairdo was a breeze. I wore a really cool white dress Grandma had helped me sew. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring my blaster (in reality Nerf gun painted black - it looks exactly like the one from the movies!) to school because it's a weapon, but my costume was still cool.

So you can see, it was a quite the ridiculous week. To make things even more ridiculous, one of my teachers showed a video on the history of Halloween and also Halloween safety. She warned us it was cheesy, and said she was showing it due to the good information about the history of Halloween.

"Cheesy" does not even begin to describe it.

The first section was on history. A narrator gave a brief overview of Halloween's beginnings in a singsong voice as badly drawn pictures with minimal animation flashed across the screen.

Really cheesy.

The second section was on safety while trick-or-treating. It went something like this: "Always bring an adult, don't go in people's houses, make sure you finish before it gets dark" yada yada yada and so on and so forth. All the usual stuff. Hang on a minute - finish before it gets dark? You're missing the point, people.

They did throw in some safety tips I hadn't heard before, though. With video clips.

Safety Tip #5: Always insure your mask fits properly so you can see. Makes sense, don't you think? The video clip showed a girl putting on a witch mask while standing on a street corner. She turn to cross the street, starts walking...BANG! right into a telephone pole. She would have fallen over, but her friends caught her. Lucky.

Safety Tip #7: Always insure your costume is the right length. The video clip shows a kid dressed as a ghost. He starts to walk toward the camera... and suddenly disappears from view. SPLAT! Whoopsy-daisy, fell flat on my face! I can only imagine what happens when he continues to trick-or-treat... "No sir, the bloody nose is not part of my costume. I tripped over my costume hem..."

Nuthin' Like a Nosewarmer

When going through Knitty's archive in search of awesome knitting patterns, I came across the Nosewarmer. No, I am not joking. I cracked up and immediately printed it out. Using some mystery sock yarn ( leftover from my first pair of socks ever) I knit it up, added the tassel, and attached the tie in just 1 1/2 hours. Gratification just doesn't get any more instant than that! I am now turning them out at a rapid rate. It's my dreams come true! Now my nose won't get frostbite and fall off! The only issue is I can't exactly wear it in public. Drat.

Toilets?

When you have neighbors fixing up a house, there is bound to be some mess. But mess lying around in the front yard for several weeks? And… TOILETS?

No, I am not joking. For several weeks there has been a pile of junk our neighbors have been adding to, ranging from a beaten up door to chairs with missing legs. Granted, they are trying to repair the house. We are grateful for that, as it looked pretty bad before they moved in. So, we just ignored the mountain of trash and went on with our lives.

However, yesterday when we were climbing into the car we noticed a change in their front yard. They had acquired some rather interesting lawn ornaments. Namely, toilets. At first I thought there was just one. But as Mom pulled into the street, it became apparent that they had a second toilet in their driveway.

So here’s the jigsaw puzzle. Is using toilets as lawn ornaments the new fad? Or do the neighbors just not know where to dispose of them so they chucked the toilets in the yard? And how do you pull out of the driveway when you have a toilet in it?

Weird.