Bobcats Game

I haven't blogged in a while -- life here has been quite busy.

On Monday, LO got a free day off school! Her name was "in the hat" for making good grades on her tests on library books -- and the school drew 75 names to go to an exhibition NBA game in Charlotte, Bobcats v. Washington Wizards.

Meanwhile, the school called and asked if I would chaperone.

We arrived at school bright and early Monday morning and clambered onto buses. What would normally take about 50 minutes, somehow took over 1.5 hours. I guess it was the combination of a school bus' slower speed, plus idling in line with a bunch of other schoolbuses as we neared the new arena.

We parked about 4 blocks away from the arena and filed in with other middle schoolers from all over this side of the state. Police were at every intersection, stopping traffic for us. Door people greeted us and scanned the adults' handbags (kids were not allowed to take anything inside). The order and organization were amazing.

Once we were all seated, they passed out "Lunchables" to all the children. Fortunately, our seats were pretty low, at an end of the court. Seats were packed, all the way to the nosebleed section. Yet, there was not a bad seat in the house due to the giant screen TV with 4 sides, hanging over the center of the court. As good as our seats were, sometimes it was clearer to see the play on the huge screen. This felt pretty silly to choose to look at TV rather than the live action right in front of us!

Each student was given a little tote bag with a program and puzzles inside. Occasionally, the announcer would hold quizzes on the info and students got to compete for prizes.

Between periods, the mascots came out and did funny stunts. The cheerleaders were lovely and scantily clad. I was not sitting near LO but I could imagine her saying what she usually says: "Their clothing is unappropriate." Sometimes I repeat after her, "Inappropriate," and she just says, "Whatever," and next time says the same thing: "Unappropriate." My thought: whatever.

As students needed RR breaks, we accompanied them for safety. The bb game was punctuated by handouts and prizes for the students. What a treat, all for reading your library books and answering questions correctly!!

At the end of the game, we trooped back to the buses and rode to a mall that lies about halfway between Charlotte and our small town. Each chaperone was assigned 8 to 10 students to shepherd to the food court for another lunch, and brief shopping. We had just over an hour before we had to head back to school for dismissal.

My group of kids were well-behaved, well, all the kids, all day, were well-behaved. I am pretty sure we did not have an incident all day long. It was a pleasure to go and help. Amazingly, we arrived back at the middle school with all the kids on board -- and in time for them to catch the bus back home.

The Bobcats' program was amazing. What an incentive for the kids!