Hard At Work With Mrs. HM

If you don't count the two late nights for conferences, last week was a four-day work week. In the upcoming week, I am going to the local community college Science Fair on Friday, which will require that I miss school all day. The week after that, we are off on Good Friday for our spring break. And the week after that, we have Monday off. Are you still with me? That is FOUR WEEKS in a row of four-day work weeks. Can't beat that with a stick!

That Science Fair is fantastic. To start with, I usually drive my T-Hoe, because the students ride the same bus as Basementia's entrants. That means there is already a teacher on that bus. We trade off by agreeing to return to school and wait with any stragglers whose parents don't love them enough to pick them up on time so the bus-riding teacher can make a hasty escape.

I don't have to go all the way to Newmentia that morning. My mom meets me to pick up The Pony and drop him off, so #1 and I can go directly to the Science Fair, which is closer to our Mansion than Newmentia.

Getting there before the buses means that #1 can check in and set up before it gets crowded, and get a chair to sit on beside his display, before they run out of chairs. Then he is in phone heaven until judging begins.

I can sit in the bleachers and watch everyone arrive. I can go down on the floor and peruse the projects. I can relax with a Subway cookie in the sponsor's room. I can read a book. I can chat with parents or other sponsors or ScienceBuddy.

I can buy lunch for #1 and myself before they dismiss the hundreds of participants to line up at the Subway that is located in the field house.

After lunch, I can see who is in the running for Best of Show. All of the category winners are called to sit by their projects for final judging. Oh, they don't tell them that they are the category winners, but if they have good deductive reasoning skills, they will notice that only one project from each category is asked to come back to the floor. This is good and this is bad. The kids know right off that they've won or not won their category.

At 2:00, the floor is open to everyone who wants to look at the projects. At 3:00, awards are announced. All projects must be removed by 4:30. We are long gone by that time.

Not a bad day of work if you can get it.