Proud Daddy Alert

Humor me.

Nearly a month ago, Oldest Girl decided to enter the school spelling bee. I have never been a big fan of spelling bees, despite being a stickler for good spelling. I guess the big gripe I have about spelling bees is that they have such limited real-world usefulness--being able to spell "onomatopoeia" in front of a big crowd of nose-picking kids and hyperventilating parents is not my idea of a Big Deal. Better to know how to write sentences that whir and pop and jingle and sizzle. Or to know that "it's" is not possessive.

Anywho, every year she decides to enter, mainly because she is obsessively competitive. I gripe about having to shell out $5 bucks for a stupid "Official" spelling book which is full of such interesting unspellables as "haruspication" and "opisthenar" and "vinegarroon," and which never even gets looked at. This year was no different--it sat right there in the middle of the kitchen table the entire time. "Ashley, have you studied your spelling book?" "YES! Uh, YES! Yes, I've studied it!" Uh-huh. Right.

Last year she got knocked out quickly, but this year we were pleasantly surprised to see that she made it to the school final. Today was the big day, and she was all full of butterflies. "Look, quit saying you're nervous. If you do good, fine. If you don't, that's fine, too." "But I'm nervous." ::sigh:: She even managed to coerce Reba's mom, the same one supposed to go under the knife tomorrow morning, to come watch her.

She came in first, and gets to go to the District final. Grandmom reports that she was very excited and happy.

IN YOUR FACE, SNOTTY NOSED LOSERS! Oh, sorry, that just slipped out. I'm really not competitive like that. WOO-HOO! Sorry, that slipped out, too.

Congratulations, Kid!
posted by Terry at 1:44:00 PM