They Sounded Like Chipmunks

Last Friday was a monumental day for my students as it was Outsider's Day, which is the day they not only get to drink Pepsi, eat chocolate cake and chocolate candy, but they also get to watch the beginning of the movie with some pretty hot actors in it (Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, and Tom Cruise in their younger years).  I usually dress the part as well as I possibly can, but with my recent decision to grow my hair out to see what it does, it left much fewer choices for me.  Nonethless, I tried to look like a Greaser (think "hood" from the 60's) but fear it's more of a PeeWee Herman movie character.

See what I mean?  Regardless of how I looked, I didn't care as it was all in fun for the kids and I was pretty excited myself to see how they dressed and so on.  Some did well, others, well, they were too cool, no pun intended. 

In the middle of the day, I get a call from the office telling me my daughter's school was calling so I took the call to hear that she was sitting in the office pretty upset as she got hurt on the playground. When they handed her the phone, I heard sobbing which is rare for Thing 1, so I decided I needed to go get her.  Luckily, my school is amazing with helping out at the last second so off I went, looking like the photo above to pick up my daughter from her school where they know I'm a teacher.  The look on the secretary's face was priceless. 

The whole drive over I was trying to envision what happened to Thing 1. She isn't a klutzy kid but I know she plays hard so when she told me she fell backward onto the ground and hit her back and her head, then she stood up and couldn't breathe so she passed out and fell forward and hit the front of her head, I realized this might be a little more serious than having someone cover my class for a few minutes.  Her head hurt and her eyes were red from crying but otherwise, she was great.  However, when she said, "Mom, when I started falling forward, all of the voices around me sounded like chipmunks and the next thing I know, the teacher is looking at me and saying my name," I decided the ER was pretty much where we were headed. 

It was quite fun to walk into ER dressed like a Greaser, but I suppose they see lots of different things during their day. They chuckled and off we went to our own room. Again, I was calm, cool (pun intended) and collected as the doctor talked to us and examined her briefly, then said a CT scan was next.  It was when the man came to take her away to the CT scan when my heart skipped a beat. I was sitting alone, in an ER room, my 9 year old was being wheeled away with great big eyes filled with terror, and Megamind was playing on the TV.  I paused the movie so Thing 1 wouldn't miss it.  Then I cried.  I cried in fear. I didn't sob, just cried as all the complications that could be happening came flooding into my mind and of course, I went immediately to the worst case scenario. I just cannot fathom what parents who have injured or ill children go through. Just can't fathom it. 

It turns out everything appears to be fine for Thing 1 albeit she does have a concussion.  I have a new perspective on having her in my world and I also have now learned that when you're passing out, people's voices sound like chipmunks.