Kiss My Knits!

Today I had “Getting Started” Girl Scout leader training in the morning, then Brownie age level training in the afternoon. Getting Started consisted mainly of nuggets like “you can’t have a fundraiser if you don’t do the cookie sale” and “Brownies aren’t allowed to bungie jump.” Good to know, I guess.

During the lunch break, I popped over to Charlotte Yarn. I would have sworn I had two skeins of Blue Sky alpaca sportweight, making this project I’ve started a great stashbuster. Sadly, I only had one skein. I picked up a second, but the dye lots are noticeably different. One part of this project will be creamy, one part will be oatmealy. Well, it’s a gift, so hopefully it’ll add to the homemade charm. Or so I tell myself.

The Brownie age level training in the afternoon was excellent. The woman teaching it was clearly a veteran of many, many Brownie troops. She said she preferred the younger age groups. She had great suggestions. I’m hoping that Emily’s leader took her training from the same woman. I’m going to have to watch myself to be sure I don’t become one of Those Moms who think they know how to do everything, probably better than the leader, in fact. I mean, I do, but still. I don’t know where I get this tendency (cough*MOM*cough) but I know I’ve got it.

We were introduced to a lot of publications in the afternoon training, and I took the opportunity during our break to look at “Focus on Ability: Serving Girls with Special Needs.” And may I just say, this publication ROCKS. It has very clear descriptions of behaviors you may find in various disabilities and good, concrete suggestions on understanding those behaviors and making helpful modifications. Example:

“7. Use very exact communication. Do not expect the Girl Scout with a learning disability to understand subtle comments. If you expect the troop or group to wait at a certain place, mention the specific place to wait. Do not give a general location.”

Some of these things, you’d think would be self-explanatory, like the “Do not use sarcasm” bullet point, but apparently not. I forget sometimes how other people may communicate with their kids. I bought the book and am going to highlight a few points and give it to the leader. She was wanting tips, so hopefully that’ll help.

I had an invitation to go to a party tonight at a fellow Browncoat’s house. We were going to get together and watch Slither on his ginormous 106″ HD projection TV. He had us over last month to watch Serenity, and it was AWESOME in all caps. I’m not usually a horror person, but my “Snakes on a Plane” adventure with has made me more adventurous. Sadly, I was so exhausted after all the training – and okay, after staying up late and watching Sunset Boulevard – that I had to cancel. My oh-so-sweet husband has run up to Showmars to pick up some food, and we’re going to watch either an episode of Monk that my dad recorded for us or the Khan episode of Star Trek: TOS that we picked up at Manifest Disc for a song.

Either way, it’s rest and knitting and early to bed for me.

Hats up for: Chicago, UK, and Virginia

P.S. – I wore my Serenity shirt to training today, and the teacher from the first class gave me a Look, since I was five minutes late. Then she glanced at my chest, smiled, and said “Nice shirt!” and all was well again. Remember, only a few letters separate Brownie and Browncoat!