Today was our, Lummis Elementary’s, annual Fall Festival…Spooktacular!!! This is the first year I’ve had ‘first person’ involvement! Last year, David and I went together, to just enjoy the "fair"…and the year before that Brian and David went without me because Mom was in the hospital.
Again, this school year, I volunteered to be the "Room Mom" for David’s class. This year, the PTA, was trying something a bit different. They hired an outside company to do the games for Spooktacular. Because of this, there were more game booths than last year and the plan was to have each classroom sponsor (ie WORK) the booth.
Ms Russell told me, one day, "OK, Team Lummis Mom, go to the teacher’s lounge and sign up for a booth"…so off I went to see what was available…many had already been spoken for but when I saw "Hairspray Booth", I thought, "Now that sounds easy" and put my name right next to it. And it turned out to be exactly what I thought it would be…kids (and some parents) were paying me to spray their hair with colored hairspray (pink, red, orange, green, blue, purple, and black to be exact)…almost sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it???
The next thing was to rustle up volunteers (ie parents) from Ms. Russell’s class to work the booth. The Spooktacular Committee’s suggestion was to either get 4 parents to work in 1 hour shifts for the 4 hours of Spooktacular…or 8 parents for 30min shifts. I got exactly 2 parent volunteers! Out of 21 kids. And they were both Room Mom’s for their other kid’s teacher, so they were in the same predicament I was in. But they did come help as time allowed (I love you, Heather and Felicia!). Mostly, Brian and I just handled it.
Ok, so I am a Mom. And when these "little darlings" would come over looking to get their hair colored, I would take care to shield their little faces or clothes with my hands so as not to get this stuff on them. So my hands looked like a vision from a really bad acid trip. Guess what else….this colored hairspray stains your skin! Right now my hands and arms look like they were in a tie-dye explosion! I am seriously wondering exactly how long it will take for them to return to their normal, pastey, color??? I’m guessing no less than a week! Even my fingernails are stained. It’s hysterical!
The other "problem" with this booth was the fact that hairspray is an aerosol…specifically that stuff comes out as tiny droplets and floats around the air…for me to inhale. Of the 20+ cans of colored hairspray we went through, I think I inhaled about a 1/3 of each can’s contents. I jokingly told a Mom that I would probably be blowing lots of pretty colors out of my nose for the next several days…and I’ve since found out that is in fact the case!
The stuff we do for our kids, their teachers and school! But you know what…it’s what I have always wanted to do…I wouldn’t change a minute of it.
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