Strange Pulse

I took the kids to Magic Mountain on Friday, my work had free tickets. Daniel couldn’t go, so our friend Dave came with us. He took the older kids on all the rollercoasters while I hung out with Elijah. We’re all exhausted and sore from it still.

We got a free lunch there too, in a picnic area, where there were games and an MC w/a DJ. The winners of various games got free passes to Magic Mountain. The MC had a game for the adults, and since no one was going up for it, I went up to play. All the things up till then were harmless scavenger hunts, etc. But no, this time it was a talent show contest. So we all had to think of a talent, and then everyone watching voted via applause to decide the winner.

The first person had nothing and bailed. The MC said, “Ooooh, the walk of shame,” everyone booed, and I thought, “OK, that’s not going to be me.” I was the last in the line though, so I had time to see what everyone else did first. One lady sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Another told kid jokes (and all the kids in the group shouted all the punchlines before she could). One lady juggled bread, one did a Samba. But the winner was the guy who break danced. Or at least, he tried–kinda hard to do back spins on grass.

(This is kinda funny–my work got the free tickets from a sister company that had planned a work outing and ended up with extras, but only a handful of anyone from my company wanted to go, which is why I could take all the kids. It looked like no one from the sister company took any of their kids. The rest of the extra tickets were donated to a local Boys and Girls Club. So there we are, crashing someone else’s work picnic. Participating in all the games and contests.)

I couldn’t think of anything to do but one thing–so I did “You Light Up My Life” by Debbie Boone, in sign language. It wouldn’t have been so bad, except I had to sing the song as well. And I couldn’t remember some of the words. And I couldn’t remember some of the signs. (I learned it when I was in 3rd grade, or something.) But since we were actually there with a group of people I’d never met and I thought would never see again, I figured I can get into the spirit of things and make a fool out of myself! Who’s gonna know?

Well, I was wrong. The HR lady/office manager from my work who arranged the tickets for us was there and saw the whole thing. Now I get to wonder if she’s going to email the entire office on Monday to fill everyone in on me making a fool of myself. (She actually was very impressed–”I didn’t know you could do that! I would never get up there and do something like that!” But somehow that doesn’t make me feel any better.)