Yesterday at School...

... the kidlets dyed my hair red.
Don't panic.

It's not like they ambushed me in the hallway as I came out of the faculty bathroom or anything. I knew it was coming.

And I wasn't alone.

Every year, our school participates in a very cool Christmas for the Troops thingy called Project Rudolph. The kids make ornaments, write letters, and decorate bags to send to service members who might not have anything else to open on Christmas morning.

Our school has been the top contributor to Project Rudolph for the last four or five years and, to make sure we stay that way, the faculty member in charge talked a bunch of staff members into providing some...motivation.

For ever 500 letters/ornaments/bags completed, a teacher got sprayed. The kidlets would have had to do something like 6,000 items to color me, so I wasn't too worried. I guess I shouldn't have underestimated the student body's desire to see their teachers in embarrassing situations.

Several staff members had their heads colored over the last two weeks. Then came the big, final push which resulted in six of us, including our wonderful principal, getting our hair colored in an assembly.

And our necks.

And our foreheads.

And our ears.

And, in my case, my earrings.

Our kidlets are great at patriotic do-gooding, but at aiming...not so much.

The kids were happy with the color choice, but red turned out to be a little less than fun for me.

I made the mistake of breathing during the 4 minute spray-a-thon, which meant that every time I have blown my nose in the last 36 hours, the resulting tissues looked like my brain was hemorrhaging something fierce.

And did I mention that, right after school with no time to clean up first, I had to go to a technology class at the high school with a bunch of other teachers from all over my district? It would have been pretty embarrassing if not for the lingering effects of the hair color spray fumes.

And at the end of the day, my bathtub looked like it could have been the stand-in for the one in the shower scene in Psycho.

Next year, I think I will request green.