Highdrama

Ellie came in second today in her school Spelling Bee. Nothing is more stressful than watching all those kids struggle under the pressure of attempting to spell words like keelhaul and nachtmusik. My palms were actually sweating. It was heartbreaking every time a word was spelled wrong and the ding of the bell would send a child back to the audience. I especially mourned for this darling little 3rd grader who had to stand on his tip-toes to reach the microphone. He's Chase on the bottom row: I also felt bad for the girl who had to spell "goatee". The audience thought it was hilarious, especially when the sentence was "Sally did not understand why she couldn't have a goatee when she grew up." Terrible choice of words for a bunch of gradeschoolers.And the words were killer this year. In the third round alone, it went from 15 kids down to 2 - in ONE round. So Ellie and sweet Daphnie were left in the last round. Ellie was all smiles throughout, really enjoying herself. I think she enjoys the pressure. After about 3 or 4 rounds of the two of them going back and forth, the librarian assured the students in the audience that they were going straight down the list, and that they weren't skipping any words. She said the words were very "high drama". The adjudicator concurred, saying "Yes, high drama." So, Ellie, who happened to be at the microphone at the time, pipes up in her "spelling bee voice" with:

"Highdrama"

like she was going to spell it. Of course the crowd erupted into laughter, including the judges and Ellie. It released a lot of tension. Too, too funny. After Daphne bested her and was pronounced the winner, she (Daphne) broke into quiet tears, holding up her name sheet in front of her face. She was truly overcome with emotion. It was very sweet. She did a great job and deserved to win. Ellie then went up and gave her a hug afterward. She was truly happy for her and was a great loser.