The Smart Contest

Mar 28, ’07 11:58 PM
for Mel ‘s friends and Mel ‘s family

So, CJ’s thingey mabob was last night. Last fall he got invited to test for the academic challenge team. There were only three slots for sixth grader’s, and the test was 100 questions long, all short answer, no multiple choice. I know! WTH? Intimidating, no? So, anyhoodle, CJ made the team and they have been practicing 1-2 times a week, after school, jeopardy style. With buzzers and all. Last night was night one of the Smart Bowl (that’s what I call it anyway), there were a bunch of teams, and they faced off against each other in 30 minute rounds.

I took my camera and was all prepared to document the proceedings, but honestly people, I think my brain died a little last night. And, I might have dozed off a wee bit several times. When CL wasn’t whispering me things about popsicles and polar bears, that is. And, the thing is, documenting the Smart Bowl didn’t go as I imagined. For starters, every time I took a picture, everyone in the room stared at me like I had just smuggled in a bobcat and was attempting to feed it a live chicken. Wha? People don’t take pictures here? I only blinded them with the flash once, I mean, come on! Is my camera clicking noise THAT OFFENSIVE? But! Despite the stink eye, I still took pictures. Then when I got home I realized that all the pictures were basically the same. The Smart Bowl isn’t that exciting recorded in photo form. And, okay, it wasn’t that exciting in person either, hence the brain death and naps….

So, I will spare you most of them. But, I do want to show you a few.

They would sit and stare blankly at the lady as she asked questions.

Sometimes they would get to confer and then the captain would answer for the team. A bunch of the questions I KNEW CJ knew, but he would just sit there. Experiencing buzzer performance anxiety. He said later he didn’t want to buzz in unless he was 100% sure of the answer. It is a tough concept for the little guy, figuring out that it is not possible to know everything about everything or that it is okay to be wrong sometimes. I wonder where he gets that from? Not me I’m sure.

So, occasionally we would make eye contact…..

and I would send him a bulgy eye furrowed brow expression that was supposed to mean, “I KNOW you KNOW that answer! Quit being buzzer shy! ARGH! For the love, RING THE EFFING BUZZER AND TAKE A STAB AT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!”

And then he would do this ~

Sweet Jehoshaphat, am I the only one that thinks he is hilarious? He cracks me up.

So? If you can imagine the stares I got before, now that I was laughing AND taking pictures it was like I flossing the bobcats teeth and putting a pink ribbon in his hair.

In case you are wondering, or still reading, he did eventually answer some questions, and they ended up with a third place finish. So, we move on to the finals tonight, where the top 4 teams battle it out for first place.

I can’t wait.