Funny Stories

Lego Person

For two years, I've served on the Lego Education Advisory Panel.  I love it, and it's a lot of fun.  When I found out that the Lego Education people were going to be at the NAEYC national conference here in Washington DC, I volunteered my classroom for them to come and see what an American classroom looks like.  One of the ladies is from Denmark.  Like the good teacher that I am, I let my kids know several times that Lego people would be coming later that day.  I let them know at breakfast.  I told them in the middle of reading.  Before lunch, when we were lining up, I said "Don't forget, the Lego people are coming after lunch.  Please make sure that you walk nicely into the classroom."  Sometimes my kids come back from lunch and they start tattling.  They'll say things like "Andy butted to the front of the line again!", "Josh stepped on my shoe!", "Nasya looked at me!", and, you know, a million other things.  So I really wanted to make sure that they understood that we were going to have visitors, and that they were just supposed to come in and sit on their letter on the carpet for math time.

So, I picked them up from lunch, brought them back to the classroom, and told them "Ok, the Lego people aren't here yet, but we're going to start math."  We read our math message, and then our visitors arrived.  I was shaking hands with one of the people, and Jesus stood up and said in a very affronted tone "They're not made of Legos!  You said Lego people were coming!"  'Oh my gosh,' I thought, as I realized my mistake.  I had been saying 'Lego people.'  Poor Jesus!  I said "These are the Lego people.  They work for Lego Education."  He said "But they're just... They have bones and blood and stuff!  They're just humans!"  My guests thought it was funny, and I learned a valuable lesson.  When I told my husband this story, he laughed for a solid five minutes.  He said it was one of the funniest stories I ever told him!

Washington Convention Center

...until Thursday, when I went to the NAEYC conference.  Ok, you all know that I'm totally blind, so when I go to these conventions I need a sighted guide.  I also take my cane with me.  I have a dear friend, a pre-k teacher, who also likes going to conferences, so she offered to take me this time.  First you have to understand that my friend, Tracie, is really bad with maps.  She will tell you this herself.  A couple years ago, we couldn't find the parking lot that we left her jeep in.  I mean, we walked around for 45 minutes trying to find the vehicle.  This time, she said we would absolutely not get lost trying to find the car.  We parked in a lot two blocks away from the Washington Convention Center.  Both of us really hate DC.  When you ask people for directions in DC, for some reason everyone you ask isn't from the area - maybe understandable since there are a lot of tourists.  :)  There's also a great deal of construction.

We had a great day at the conference (more on that in another post) and thought it would be very easy to get back to the jeep which was just on 7th and New York.  We were on 9th and L Street.  Ok, you guessed it, we got lost!  I was trying to be oh-so-sweet to one of my best friends, saying "It's ok.  We'll find it.  Remember, you wrote down the streets that it was on, and it's next to that restaurant The Fringe."  So, Tracie shouted out "Oh!  I see the restaurant.  The awning is the same."  Then, "Oh no," she said.  "It was a truck."  I didn't really understand what had happened, but I just smiled and said "Let's backtrack.  Let's go to the doors of the convention center and walk the two blocks to the parking lot that's next to The Fringe."  We walked halfway back, and she said "I see my car."  Oh, I was so happy!  She said "Oh, we just have to-- Watch out Sharon, the pavement is a little uneven."  Oh my gosh!  It was like walking through a mountain range.  I said "Are you sure this is right?  We didn't come through this way before."  In a very soothing tone, she said "It's ok, honey.  I can see the car.  We'll be there in 2 minutes."  Then she told me "Umm, I just need you to step up on this ledge.  It's really very tiny, but there's a lot of water in the gutter and there's a truck blocking this area."  I trust my friend, so I got up onto this ledge.  I'm a little ploofy, so it was challenging, as a blind person, to squeeze onto a 2-inch ledge.  Then she told me we were going through a hole in a fence.  The pavement was really rough again, and I heard the sound of a jackhammer.  I heard her say something about having to climb a fence to get out.  "Where are we?" I said.  "Are we inside of a construction site?"  I suddenly heard men calling to us pretty anxiously "Ladies!  You can't be in there!"  Tracie kept walking us forward.  I pulled on her sleeve.  "Tracie, I think those men are talking to us.  What's happening?"  I started feeling very nervous, like if I took one more step the ground beneath my feet was going to explode.  Tracie, in a very lady-in-distress voice, started yelling back to them "I just need to get to my car.  It's right there!"  The construction men said "There's no way out!  You're in a live construction site!"  I almost started to cry.  We must have looked a pitiful sight.  The men helped us out, and we did get to the car.  At that point, Tracie said "Don't you think that was better than last time?  It didn't take us as long!"  I laughed and said "It's never boring with you, Tracie.  And how dangerous was that, really?"  When I told my husband that I had almost died, he thought that this story was even more hysterical than the last.  The next day, when we were walking on the correct side of the street, the men recognized us and yelled "Much better, ladies!  You're doing great!  Keep going!"  I swear, I felt like I was on that old-time "I Love Lucy" show.

I hope these two stories bring you a little bit of laughter.