August 29, 2002

Today is the day to see if you have it in another size.

Since you have a long weekend, I encourage you to write Konerko Fan Fiction.It will appear next week. It can be about me and Paul, or you and Paul, or Paul and the crew of the Voyager. Or something else.

Well, this is Labor Day weekend, and, according to some, the end of summer. Back to school time (I still sort of think I'm going back to school. So that'll be me that you hear of, the person trespassing on the school who is not a student.) I remember when I was a kid, the first day of school always included two main things: My parents taking my brother's and my picture and new stuff. New clothes, new supplies, new shoes. It was always very exciting, except when you realized that even though the calendar says it's fall, it's still 85 degrees outside and you sweat through all your new clothes.

I was thinking, then, of all my favorite school games from grade school (I went to a parochial school, Pope John XXIII, K-8. And yes, there were uniforms.) The big ones, between gym and the playground:

Bombardment (Dodgeball? What's Dodgeball?)
Kickball (Always so unsatisfying when you shank that big red rubber ball)
Pompon (All the kids line up on one side of the playground. One student, selected by eeny-meeny, stands in the middle and yells "Pompon!" All the kids run over to the other side. If they're tagged, they join the kid in the middle. Last kid wins. It was always Jermaine Newman who won, because he was fast.)
Red Rover (But some kid always hurt her wrist and started crying and we had to stop)
Statuemaker (Amazing how many statues of models there were)
Red Light Green Light (Always so hard to stop)
Jump Rope (The best were determining one's boyfriend's name)
Let's Pretend (I tried this on the playground a few times and then realized that this was one best kept at home, once people started questioning my sanity.)
Double Dutch (I only knew how to twirl, sadly)
Chinese Jump Rope (An interesting fad wherein a thin elastic band was stretched over the ankles of two girls standing face-to-face. The jumper would then execute a series of patterns by jumping through and on the rope. The more skilled the level, the higher up the girls' legs this band would move, and thus, the more painful it would get.)
FourSqure (I remember next to nothing about this game.)

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, so maybe you can fill me in. But once again this webmistress has fallen behind in her getting-ready-to-go activities. Yes, Zulkey.com is taking another brief hiatus, leaving you alone this Friday and Monday. I expect you to enjoy your Labor Day weekend and get ready for back-to-school yourselves. Get your Trapper Keepers ready and pray that there are cute boys in your class and I'll see you on the other side of summer.