it's time to try

Last Friday most of the kids didn't come to the center and I was able to spend some quality time with Jaein, Brian, Jake, and Jason, all of whom were there for several hours beyond everyone else.

Jake and Brian are 10 and 12 year old rather ESL (remember the green card conversation?) brothers who constantly bicker with each other and everyone else.

For example, last Friday as they got out of the bus:

Brian: I have baseball practice today!

Me: Cool! What position do you play?

Brian: Third base.

Jake: Third base sucks ball! (yes – it sucks "ball")

Brian: Shut up! You play outfield retard!

Jake is the rotund goofy kid who gets a kick out of yelling "Hey Miss Stward!" before closing his eyes and spastically shaking his entire body while flailing his arms in an unearthly little dance. It is an indescribable sight and I have often pondered somehow secretly videoing it.

Jake is also intensely emotional and is given to sudden fits of rage and tears. Friday, though, his energy had a sort of manically joyous flavor. When he realized he was one of only a few kids left, he started suggesting games we could play instead of working. The kids always try to pull some variation of this – "Miss Stewart, can I go to sleep?" "Can we have an extra break if we're good?" etc. I don't know why they think I'm suddenly going to become fun teacher (Not like other teachers, FUN teacher!) (vague Mean Girls reference...), but I guess hope is good for the human soul.

So on Friday, he pipes up with:

"We should play Roll the Bottle!"

"Really? Roll the bottle, Jake?"

"Yeah! It's when you take a bottle and push it," he gestured wildly, "And if it points at you, you have to tell truth or take your clothes off! Hahahahahhaha!" he ended in a frenzied laughter.

And then, a bit later, Jason looked around the room at the remaining occupants.

"There's only one girl left and if she leaves, it will be all boys!" he shouted.

Miss Garcia laughed. "What's Miss Stewart? She's a girl!"

"That's female!" he yelled.

Everybody was laughing at this point.

"What, you mean 'woman'?"

"Yeah."

I felt vaguely objectified, being pointed at, and being called a "that" and "female" in the same sentence. They start young...

***

I started some lists, but stopped when I realized they could go on forever. So here are the beginnings:

stuff i like
-getting clothes out of the dryer
-restaurant leftovers for lunch
-the pioneer woman website
-Roald Dahl

-sand dunes

-kites

-african gray parrots

-silver toe rings

stuff i don't like:
-airport goodbyes
-dropping clothes on the floor as i transfer them from the washer to dryer
-corn dogs. I don't like corn dogs! And I have 15 of them in my freezer. Stupid stupid stupid.

I'll probably add to them later...