I like Hallmark as much as the next person. Actually, I probably like it more. What I do not like is Valentine's Day, that Hallmark-induced holiday. I've never really liked it past elementary school with the tiny Valentine's Day cards and chalky heart candies. The problem with Valentine's is there are such high expectations, much like New Year's Eve. I mean New Year's Eve is supposed to be this end-all, be-all celebration; it's hard to live up to expectations. Once, in my early twenties, I was at a party at my friend Joe's parents' house and my friend Susan's sorority sister, Virginia, plummeted (yes, she actually plummeted) from a tree in the backyard. That was pretty awesome (and funny--Virginia was not hurt). But it's hard to live up to a party where people plummet from trees and I feel that Valentine's is kind of the same way. Don't get me wrong--I've had an awesome Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day in 2003 Matt, after showering me with flowers and gifts for the previous week, proposed to me. He set the bar pretty high. So when I found out Leah had a Battle of the Books preliminary tournament on Valentine's Day, it didn't even bother me.
Battle of the Books (BotB) is like a quiz bowl competition with the questions limited to a pre-announced list of books. Leah's school had three BotB teams. Leah team was called the Bookmarkers. There were about ten books on the list and over the course of "training," Leah read about 75% of them. The competition was from 5:00-7:00 pm at the local community college and there were about 10-12 teams in total between her school and other nearby elementary schools. There were four rounds of about ten questions each, with each round becoming progressively more difficult. Leah's team was at a disadvantage because their fourth team member dropped out about a week before the competition. All the other teams had four players and one team even had five.
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| The Bookmarkers: Ian, Leah and Aliyah |
You may not know this of Leah, and might be surprised to learn but beyond that uber-polite and huggable exterior, deep down lies the heart of a competitor. Seriously, the girl does not like to lose. And she does not like it when she cannot master something new after the first try. And she really, really likes to win. This BotB was a winner-take-all sort of thing with the winning team only advancing to the next round. Sadly while the Bookmarkers did well in the first two rounds, the last two rounds separated the herd. The team that won was in it to win it and even had matching printed t-shirts. They probably assigned team members books while Leah's team just read whatever they wanted. (In fact, the boy that dropped off their team was the only one on their team that had read one of the books.) Remember when I mentioned that Leah really likes to win? Well, during the later rounds tears were just streaming down her cheeks. She was so upset as they kept getting answer after answer wrong. I think it was a combination of fear, frustration, stress and really wanting to win. The only thing that could console her? Going to Moe's for dinner. (I know, you were thinking chocolate and chocolate is the best answer, but it was after 7:00 pm and we hadn't eaten dinner yet.) After two steak tacos and a chocolate chip cookie, Leah was back to her old self.
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Welcome to Moe's! Nothing says Valentine's Day
dinner like a bunch of tacos. |
So that was our Valentine's Day and I was fine with that. Matt and I did exchange cards. He was going to get me flowers but I asked him not to because we are now a family of Tae Kwon Do-ers. Remember when we were signing Leah up for Tae Kwon Do (TKD)? Well, we did Then we signed up Aaron. Then Matt and I decided since we have to be there for all the lessons then why don't we do it too. The pricing structure is discounted for each additional family member (Matt was actually free) but collectively it's still a chunk of change so that's why I asked Matt not to get me something for Valentine's Day. We're giving each other the gift of family activity and good health. And it's really fun. There are family classes where any belt color can attend and that has quite a bit of adults in it. There are also white & yellow belt classes and at those classes Matt and I have been the only adults. At first it was weird, especially when a 10-year-old high-fived me after a kicking drill. I didn't know how I felt about that. (My friend Michelle told me I should just take encouragement where I could get it.) The novelty of us being in the class seems to have worn off on the other kids so they don't even give us a second look anymore. (The bright side is I am the second tallest person in the class. That never happens.) So we are all working towards our yellow belts and we'll see where it goes from there. It is really fun and I love that it's something we can all do together instead of Matt and I sitting on the sidelines during some random sporting practice or game that Leah and Aaron are doing. And I love that Leah and Aaron are doing a sport. And isn't Valentine's Day supposed to be about love anyway? 💖
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As Aaron likes to say,
"Let's Tae Kwon Do this!" |
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