Out of the mouths of my babes

Recently while discussing our upcoming bridging ceremony at church, our reverend talked about the changes in children after attending college that first year. As she gave examples to me forgetting that I already had one daughter in college, I thought about that daughter and any changes I had noticed. The only one I could think of was that she came home this year with hair on her legs. I didn't notice it at all until Madison remarked on it.

Madison: "I did not have time for that shaving nonsense. I had other important things to do like studying, and when I had free time, which was rare, I didn't want to spend it on shaving my legs."

You can't tell. Her red hair doesn't show up on her legs unless you are right next to her and looking for it. It doesn't bother her and it doesn't bother us, and so since coming home she has not shaven her legs with all her new found free time.

This week she and Darcy started their summer jobs. Both are working as camp counselors at the Montessori school they both attended. This is Madison's first year working there, and Darcy's second. Both girls are working this week in the recreation room where the kids are moved in and out of during a rotation that also includes swimming. The recreation room has table top games including corn hole, ping pong, and air hockey. When they were setting up the recreation room prior to the start of camp a couple of weeks ago, they noticed that one of the air hockey tables had a jury-rigged cord, 

Madison: "The table had this cord that was only about a foot long and it was sliced in the middle with wires going every which way as if someone had cut it with a pair of scissors. One of the IT guys spliced it together and stuck a bunch of electrical tape around it. But it was too short to be plugged into the wall and so there is this giant extension cord on the floor where we are supposed to plug in the air hockey cord."

Tuesday one of the kids came up to Madison and said the air hockey table wasn't working. Madison investigated and deduced that the cord had come unplugged during play and that one of the kids had tried to plug the cord back into the socket in the wall instead of into the extension cord on the floor. Doing this had stretched the table's cord so that the jury-rigged job had come apart and wires were exposed.

Madison: "I just did this in Physics my last semester. The unit was all about electricity and motors, and I knew in theory all I had to do was reattach the wires to complete the circuit so electricity could flow to the air hockey table properly. So I unplugged it from the wall, and then for some strange reason I plugged it back again into the extension cord on the floor."

Darcy: "Because Madison, an intellectual individual who is always being accredited with book smarts and supposedly knows how to solve problems thanks to physics and science, but who doesn't have the basic street smarts, plugged the cord back into the extension cord!"

Madison: "I was thinking that I would just check first to see if that was enough to solve the issue before I spent the time unwinding the tape and fixing it. The cord, with the broken area and crappy electric tape, was on my leg because I was sitting on the floor, and after I plugged in the cord I touched the two wires together and all of a sudden sparks were flaring up like a mini camp fire on my leg. I immediately jumped and pulled apart the wires. I looked down and thought I had caught my leg on fire, but I saw instead that I had singed the hair on my leg."

Darcy: "Oh my god, it was hilarious! I told everyone the story. Ethan went by me today and asked how my day was going, and I told him fine but my sister set her leg hair on fire. I also told one of the teachers, and he doesn't know Madison and assumed it was a kid. I said, uh, no, Madison as in my sister and pointed to her. It was great. And even funnier was the little kid who kept jumping every time other kids came close to the table, shouting, "No, no, don't go over there. You don't want to catch your leg on fire like my teacher did." I mean, it was just too funny."

Madison: "I know how to vaguely fix electrical stuff because I've watched dad do electrical things. I remember him telling me you only have to curl the wires together and the tape is only really for protection, and that you're good as long as you don't touch live wires. But for some reason I plugged it in while I was touching live wires."

Darcy: "I mean, really. It was hilarious. SHE CAUGHT HER LEG ON FIRE."

Madison: "Technically, I only caught my hair on fire. Actually, my not shaving and letting my leg hair grow saved my leg from a possible serious burn. That's the way I'm looking at it. Not shaving saved my leg."