Writing Competition, Mr. Chicken & Lubbock

Saturday, April 2–Outside the sun shines bright, temperatures hover in the mid-80s and normal people bustle about enjoying their Saturday off. 

I, however, am stuck in a noisy high school cafeteria, surrounded by teenagers who gave up their Saturday to compete in a district academic competition. I managed to con six newspaper staffers to compete in the journalism writing events, and while I like all of them, I can honestly say with 60 or so days left in the school year, I'd rather be any place but here.

In fact, I think I'd even rather be home cleaning my bathroom especially since Howard the Shelter Cat inadvertently knocked Unlucky Bamboo Plant #3 into the bathtub this morning spewing an assortment of pebbles and dirt everywhere.

Such is my life.

Still, despite the Unlucky Bamboo Plant #3 omen, I am hopeful that we will perform well. This time I even remembered the chicken (unlike my gross negligence in the New York trip debacle where Mr. Chicken was forgotten). I even found a spiffy new ribbon for Mr. Chicken. Let's hope he brings us luck and we advance to regionals.

The only problem with advancing to regionals is the competition is in Lubbock. Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty of nice folks in Lubbock and also some nice things to do in Lubbock.

But why can't regional competition be somewhere like, I don't know, Barbados. I love Barbados. OK, OK, OK, so maybe Barbados is a bit of a stretch. It's out of state. OK, OK, OK, so it's out of the country. No way to sneak that by the financial bean counters.

But what about, I don't know, South Padre Island. I love South Padre Island. That's in state. A little far perhaps from my school, but definitely in state and definitely an incentive for the kiddos to do well in competition.

When the kiddos asked where they got to travel to if we advanced to regionals, I said brightly with my best Susie Sunshine disposition, "Lubbock."

Well, they just groaned.

I think I'm going to need more than Mr. Chicken and a new ribbon to brighten their spirits.

A ticket to Barbados would be nice.