S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G B-E-E

I have a confession to make... I love watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee. I'm pretty sure that makes me a nerd, particularly because I've never actually participated in a bee myself. I just find the whole process so exciting! Several years ago when the documentary, Spellbound, was released on DVD. My sisters, Sarah and Rachel who also oddly obsessed with watching the bee, and I quickly rented it for Family Movie and Pizza Night. So when my mother called today to announce that the final rounds of the bee would be broadcast tonight, I knew I had to flip the TV in our work lounge at break to ESPN because as any ardent fan of the Spelling Bee knows the semi-finals are always broadcasts the morning prior to the final. Live. Then at lunch in my apartment I searched for ESPN again to see the last few rounds before the evening's finale. (I say search for ESPN because I am hopelessly without any knowledge and very little interest in organized sports. I do like baseball- particularly watching the Braves- but I'm getting off the subject.)



Why watch the spelling bee? Well, I love the shear emotion of it all. Mostly the kids are pretty brave and handle what I can only imagine must be overwhelming stress wonderfully. (There was that one kid a few years ago who fainted as he stepped up to the mike.) But to watch them request definitions and pronunciation over and again, its so intense. Inevitably I find myself nodding along with the families as the kids say each individual letter and then cheering or commiserating with the crowd. I've long since given up trying to spell the words before they appear on the screen. I'm a self-proclaimed bad speller (with well established evidence). Only by the grace of a word check option do I publish posts with hopefully few errors. [laugh] Maybe I like to watch the bee because I can't spell. [smile] I definitely admire all of the participants intelligence, by the way have I mentioned these participants are 9-13 year old students.

If you haven't watched the bee before, check it out on ABC tonight at 8PM, EST.

Just wishing I could spell, Margaret