A Class Trip to Remember

Time	Activity
3:50am	Alarm goes off. After questioning my sanity, I crawl out of bed and head to the gym.
4:10am	The workout begins. Unfortunately, time runs out before I can do squats and lunges.
5:30am	Arrive back at home. Down a protein drink. Wake Patti.  Shower and pack a bag for the day.
6:05am	Head out the door with time to spare for so I can stop for water and snacks.
6:20am	Start greeting students as they drag themselves in still in a sleep stupor.
6:45am	Phone call from bus company saying they are running late and will not be at the school at their scheduled time of 6:45.
7:15am	Load the buses and head on our way only 15 minutes behind schedule.
8:00am	Listening to music, playing scrabble and texting friends.
8:13am	Listening to the boys argue whether ABC stands for Adult Beverage Center or Alcoholic Beverage Center. (They decided on Adult as it wouldn’t be good to encourage Alcoholics to the Beverage Center.)
8:52am	Asked by the boys if we could go to Hooters for lunch.
9:15am	The bus crashes into a stopped car in front of us turning a small sedan into a Smart Car in a fraction of a second.
9:28am	Collecting injuries, birthdates, phone numbers, and addresses from the students on the bus involved with the accident.
9:52am	Accident report filed, bus driver ticketed, we begin on our way again.
10:13am	Learned that there are still a few 8th grade boys who don’t know what XXX stores are all about.
10:14am	There are no longer any 8th grade boys in the front of the bus who don’t know what XXX stores are. (No, I did not educate them.)
10:30am	Arrive at the aquarium. I stay on the bus to rearrange groups so a student can be taken to have her head checked out.
10:36am	I am the proud chaperone of double the amount of boys that I started with when we began the trip. My group of 4 has grown to 8 – very active 8th grade boys.
10:38am	Look for my group.
10:40am	Run to the gift shop to get some batteries after realizing mine were sitting on the counter back in Benson.
10:46am	Begin looking at the exhibits in the aquarium.
10:55am	Head to the whale tail for our special class.
11:00am	Whale class. Throughout the class, tell my boys to quietly listen even when they speak regular volume, “When can we go miss. This is borin’!”
12:01pm	Head back to the bus looking at the fish on the way out. Stop to take a quick picture of a turtle on a log.
12:05pm	Look quizzically at the bus and notice one side is much lower than the other. Wonder if there is any truth in the ‘air compression’ reasoning I hear as an explanation. Examine the slight damage from the crash before getting back on the bus.
12:30pm	Arrive at Hardees with check in hand to pick up the order placed for our students the day before only to find two busses ahead of us and our food not ready. Wondering where my boys are. (No worries, I found them.)
12:57pm	Hand out meals to students.
1:05pm	Head to the beach asking, “Where are my boys?”
1:07pm	Find boys. Walk at a discrete distance behind them as they walk the beach checking out girls.
1:21pm	Join the group of students gathered at the water looking at a great big jellyfish. Talk myself out of taking it back to school as a motivator after hearing a man tell them if they touched it in the wrong place it would “bite your ass!”
1:44pm	Load the buses and head to the battleship. Run into dreadful traffic due to construction and our second accident (not us) of the day.
2:43pm	Arrive at the battleship.
2:47pm	Take two boys back to the bus to leave their swords and silly string out of temptation’s way while on the warship. (You guessed it. They were planning themselves a game of war on the USS North Carolina.)
2:55pm	Enter the battleship while looking for my boys.
3:20pm	My boys are nowhere to be found. They have begun a game of hide and seek on the battleship.
3:45pm	Find my boys and hang with them on deck before heading to the gift shop.
4:15pm	Start loading the buses for home. I breath a sigh of relief when see all my boys on the bus.
5:28pm	Try to answer riddles presented to me. I get 2 out of 5 correct. Put my headphones back in and turn the music up.
6:23pm	2 miles from school the bus begins sputtering. We find ourselves on the side of the road – again. I am able to quiet a busload of middle school students for the 5 minutes necessary to make a phone call.
6:37pm	Arrive back at school knowing this class trip is definitely one for the record books!