Me and Winnie

2004-11-13 at 2:10 a.m.

Frankly, I wanted this post to include an important picture. But, alas, I could not get the scanner to work. And taking a picture of a polaroid.. well, it just doesn�t come out well. But I must explain.

A week ago I was Winnie-the-Pooh.

Thanks right. I was the Pooh. See, at my store we have storytimes for kids. And usually an employee�s kid will wear the costume, but apperently no one was free, so they had two of us on story time detail. I was given the option of reading the book, or wearing a giant bear costume. Like any sane person, I picked the costume.

Allow me to explain. Getting in front of 20 kids and reading a book is terrible. They all look at you like �Yeah. You�re stupid. And my mom reads way better then you.� And they�re right. I have gotten up and spoken about everything in front of a group from fried chicken in a keyboard to getting shots in the butt, but I cannot, cannot get in front of 20 five year olds and read a book. Can�t do it. So I was very glad the costume fit. The costume involved a foam egg like form that goes over the body like a onesie that had two hula hoops inside to retain the round shape. Over this goes a furry onesie that covers the wearer from ankle to wrist to neck that is zipped up in the back. Then, over the shoes go these foam filled furry slippers which are HUGE and held on by a velcro strap. Mitten like furry gloves go on the hands, and its all topped with a three foot round hard head with a helmet and a strap with a loop and velcro on the inside to hold it on. It was a challenge to get dressed in this. I haven�t had anyone dress me since I was three. Manger Joe (not his real name) helped me. I got the foam egg on okay, but then the furry onesie I had to have help. To get it on each leg I had to balance myself with my elbow on poor Joe�s head. He took it very well, though. Then the shoe things, and the gloves. Which were made for people with double the hand size of myself. The head was the most difficult part. Because I couldn�t use my hands, someone else had to put it on my head. If you have never had an extremely large roudn thing stuck to your head and two sets of hands (he had to call in reinforcements for that part) stuck inside looking for the head strap because your head keeps tilting back at an unlikely angle, well.. You cannot imagine was it was like. I could see through the end of Pooh�s nose, thankfuly, so I wasn�t totally blind. I couldn�t see anything below my own chin level, and since my body was padded a good 5 inches on all sides, it was tough to see some tiny kid hugging me. However, I had a great time. The bookseller reading the story did really well because she cracked up laughing looking at me in the suit, so she sounded really funny and happy while telling the story. I got to act out the story, and once it was over all these little kids wanted their picture taken with Pooh. So that was cool. The best part was while I was being escorted to the back and some kid just getting to the store saw me and screamed �mommy, It�s a big bear!� and I turned around and � like slow motion, she ran across the story to give me a big hug. It was a moment. So cute. Kids like you so much better in a giant bear suit then in person.

So. Yes. That�s what I�be been up to. School. Work. Winnie the Pooh.

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