April's Life Adventures

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Clowning Around

While still in college, my husband and I were the Resident Assistants for the on campus housing. It was a challenging post for sure, however it paid our rent so no complaints ever came from us. We were in charge of 72 units total, and we had to keep watch over our residents. Fire codes were especially difficult to enforce.

One of our responsibilities was to create different social activities for our residents. They were each charged about $5 a semester which went into a budget for our area. Some of the other RA's decided to have a carnival, and asked us all at our weekly meeting if anyone knew how to make balloon animals. I ventured forth and told them that I had some experience.

The two ladies that I was helping out provided me with the clown costume. They also provided me with a description of what they expected me to do, which was making a few balloon animals. I felt comfortable enough with my skills to venture forth for the first time as April the Clown...

When the day arrived for the party, the RA's brought over the costume. It was an ill fitting rainbow affair, which in and of itself was really not that bad. What they didn't remember to provide was the clown makeup. I didn't have any of the white face paint that clowns are supposed to have, so I stuck a little extra blush on my cheeks to look like circles. I did the best I could with what they did not provide me with.

To further the absurdity of the experience, when I walked into the room, the ladies expected me to entertain 25 children under the age of 6 with a few balloon animals. They had not planned any other activities for the kids beyond me! Suddenly I was supposed to be some sort of magician. After about 10 minutes of struggling, one of the kids pointed out the obvious when he came up to me and said "you are not a very good clown." I knew it was true. All I could think about was somehow surviving the next hour and getting out of there. That day I made a decision that still holds true today. I will never again wear the costume of a clown. I will perhaps provide balloon animals if needed for a birthday party, but never again will April the Clown grace the earth with her presence.

*I know that you guys will all have a wonderful time teasing me about this one, but hey... Its a story about balloons right? I will prepare myself for the ridicule that I know is to come, if from no one else but Johnny Lingo :-)

At the request of Sariah, I have added perhaps the worst picture ever taken of me. Yuck! Ahh yes, lets add more fuel to the fire of ridicule!

Posted by April_Mommy :: 8:50 PM :: 7 comments