Today I set up a cute little red tent in my living room! I had tried to do this several days ago, but I failed miserably. If you've ever tried to set up a tent by yourself, it is NOT EASY. And it is even harder when you're setting it up on carpet because you can't push any pins into the ground to secure it. So the whole thing starts sliding all over the place and pieces of it collapse in sequence. Argh!
The tent I attempted to set up last week was a BIG blue and yellow polyhedron with hexagon-shaped facets. (Can you tell I teach geometry?) It had 3 different poles which arched over the center, and was impossible to set up on my own. Eventually, I had to just give up.
But tonight I finally got it right with a different, more simplistic tent. I lined its base with paper towels, changed into an old ratty pair of pajamas, and hopped in with Pure & Innocent! The three of us spent an hour in there, and I had brought in with me my new planner and started writing into it the highlights of the upcoming academic year.
The birds were so cute. After a few minutes of settling into their new surroundings, they curiously hopped up onto my lap. They walked among the pages of my planner, chasing after my pen while nibbling on my writings. Occasionally, I would pause from my work and doodle a collection of seeds in the margin of my paper, which enticed them GREATLY.
They walked among the large plethora of pens, pencils, highlighers, and papers I had brought in with me, curiously tasting every bright piece of plastic and sampling each pencil eraser. In the whole hour that we were in there together, only 2 raisins were dropped. Good job!
The thought then crossed my mind that perhaps I should leave this tent set up for the next 9 months so that I could grade all my students' math papers in this fashion and enjoy the close companionship of my fine feathered friends.
