Talent Show

This is not a crafting post. This is just about me, and my day, and since I didn't take any pictures of my day (because I feel weird about putting pictures of other people's children on the blog,) I'm just going to throw this one up:

(I like this picture. It's not flattering, but it's not awful, and this is how I usually see myself when I look in the mirror. Plus it's with Audrey, and she's highly ornamental.)

I keep getting myself in trouble. I'm serving my third term as PTO president at the middle school (because no one else wants to do it and I didn't say no---well, actually I did say no, but no one else wanted to do it and there were things that needed to get done, so the no didn't stick.) PTO president is really not a good role for me. I'm basically shy, have some social anxiety issues, am organizationally impaired, can't stand conflict and I'm phone-phobic. Despite this, I spend a lot of time thinking about what could be done to improve the middle school experience and include the kids more in school activities, and over the summer Audrey and I cooked up the idea of having a "Spirit Club."

Our Spirit Club (the "'Stang Society"/school mascot is a mustang,) does not shake pompoms at sporting events. We are more of a girl scout troupe who does arts and crafts projects and brainstorms about how to improve school morale. Every Wednesday, under my direction, we meet at school, have a snack and do something like make posters for an upcoming school event or decorate lockers for the current sports teams. It's a small group, but not without its personalities. Most of the girls are nice, some of them are a little loud, and only one of them has bitten people. And tweaked other girls' noses. And pulled their hair. And stomped on their feet. And spat on them. But that is a whole different story, I was just trying to get to today. In 'Stang Society we democratically decided that our project for the year was going to be a talent show. I liked the talent show idea, it's fun, and gives kids who may not shine academically or in sports a chance to shine, it also makes an event that parents will come to. We had a talent show at our elementary school every year and I always enjoyed them---but I wasn't the adult in charge then.

Today we had talent show auditions. I was terribly anxious that we would have a huge unruly crowd, and almost hoping that no one would come so I could call it off, but we had a nice manageably sized group. However, no one wanted to go first. Finally we got the most prepared looking person, a baton twirler to go, and she was adorable. Seriously adorable. She dropped the baton a few times, but she was still great.

Next we had a couple of girls who sang quietly but well, one of them while blushing furiously and trying so hard not to make eye contact that her eyes were rolled back in her head like she was able to read the lyrics off the inside of her skull.

Then we had a big group of girls, one of them who sang well, one of them who sang passably (which is better than I can do, so I consider passably an accomplishment,) and two who were not only nowhere near the microphones, but one of them stood with her back to the audience. Then the same group of girls danced, and the one who sang well also danced remarkably well, until she heard someone say she danced like a slut and stormed off-stage. Ironically the name caller was up next, and while she was technically a good dancer, she moved in a far more provocative manner than the girl she insulted. As she left the stage I told her she was good, "But, uhm, for the talent show you can't touch yourself."

Then there was several minutes of these same kids playing with other tracks on their Cd's and sort of singing/dancing and sort of goofing until I broke things up.

There were a group of boys who break danced in an entertaining way, though their leader had to serve a half hour of detention before their act could go on, and one of the boys lost his pants.

Then there were several minutes of the same kids playing with other tracks on their mp3 players and sort of dancing until I broke things up. And since basketball practice was now over we acquired a big group of players and managers who were only a little bit noisy, but terrified the last reluctant performers, so I had to tell them to move on.

Things finished up with a shy guy who did card tricks (which worked a third of the time,) a girl with Down's Syndrome who did a very sweet and passable acapella version of "Tomorrow" from Annie, and two girls who sang Taylor Swift songs together who deliberately went last and had so much fun with the microphones they didn't want to go home.

All in all it went well. If I can get them to polish things up, keep their pants on and not offend anyone, it could be a very good show. But it was a harrowing experience, and we still have the actual show at the end of next month. Why do I get myself into these things??? (The son says it's because I'm silly and looking very hard for excuses not to clean house.)