Today is International Hug Day! What an ending to a week that started off with the Saddest Day of the Year. Here’s a question: how is the date of International Hug Day actually decided, and by whom? Not that it matters; I plan on ambushing all my friends with giant hugs all day long. Well, except the friend whose daughter had the stomach flu yesterday. Germ phobia trumps International Hug Day.
I’ve been having somewhat of a strange week. You know the days when your kids are annoying, your husband is a jerk, everyone is stupid, you are completely uncreative and will never accomplish anything, ever, the world is completely depressing and life is wholly unendurable? And then you look at the calendar, do some back-counting, and it dawns on you. Like St. Paul on the road to Damascus, it’s like the blinding light and suddenly it All Makes Sense. It’s not you, it’s me and my hormonal derangement. Throw a full moon in there and you have my situation, and now you can sit for a minute and let that Too Much Information just sink in and perhaps feel a pang of sympathy for the poor souls who share my living quarters.
This video pretty much sums it up. Her face is actually a perfect replica of my facial expression.
Remember ParticipAction? The word still strikes terror into my I-don’t-feel-well-I-have-my-period-I-have-to-sit-out-of-gym-class heart. Years of ParticipAction and I only ever got those “Participant” stickers, never a badge. Side note: my husband actually once won the Award of Excellence, and that is how I knew I had to procreate with him. In fact, when he told me that I think I ripped off all my clothes right there, so arousing did I find that information. Recently my kids asked me if there was anything I didn’t like at school, and “GYM” was my answer. They couldn’t believe it! How could I not enjoy gym? When I recall gym class I recall doing the 4K run in the freezing cold, standing outside in the gusting wind in a dry brown field during Track and Field, a module in which there was absolutely nothing I was competent, let alone good at. I recall the dirty, smelly gym, my inability to throw a ball and my screaming with terror and ducking when a ball was thrown my way. Gym class and I did not get along.
But I saw this article about ParticipAction and its new approach to activity and personal goal setting, and truthfully I think it is a good idea. It seems much less scarring than the old approach, and certainly it’s a step in the right direction in our childhood obesity, inactive, video game world. I know that my kids do love gym class, and perhaps that’s because gym is much nicer now – no more “last-one-chosen” team selections, a lot more emphasis on fun things. Or maybe the boys take more after their father. That was my hope, after all.
Sounds like you got yourself a situtation…LOL I couldn’t resist. I’ve been watching marathon episodes of Jersey Shore.
((((virtual hugs))))
That video is my life!
I bet that International Hug Day was a result of the Saddest Day of the Year. We all felt so sad at the beginning of the week that we were motivated to start hugging at the end.
What a coincidence. My daughter is sick, my son has massive amounts of homework due on Monday along with baseball tomorrow and hockey on Sunday, my husband just left for France and guess what’s due to arrive in a few days? And I’m totally uncreative and unproductive and never going to accomplish anything. Can I have a hug? Oh yeah, I hated gym class too.
Gym was the WORST. Blech.
And who on earth would put International Hug Day in the middle of cold and flu season, when June is available?
International I am staying home day.
I actually liked the fitness challenge as I had freakish upper body strength for a geek and usually kicked butt in the chin-ups. It was the one time coordination wasn’t essential. Now I would just lay down and cry.
Gym was my least favourite class too – and I ended up marrying a phys.ed teacher! Go figure! Of course I require our sons to take music lessons alongside their sport of choice – hockey!
You have absolutely scarred me by mentioning ParticpAction. SHUDDER. The horror of high school gym will live long in my nightmares.