The Wheels on the Bus............

I just returned from a bus trip to Madison to watch our girls basketball team compete in the WIAA state tournament. Our school has not been to the state tournament for 25 years so this is quite an accomplishment for our team (for any team for that matter!). In order to avoid having to sit in BORING meetings all afternoon and to avoid burning a personal day, I OPTED to be a chaperone. There were 3 adult chaperones on our bus to watch over 40 + high school students. I must say that overall, the behavior of the students was rather civilized to my delight. I did take exception to the kid that walked on to the bus and said "What the F---!" when he saw how many people were on the bus. Do you actually eat out of that mouth???? The other comment that I took offense to was a student inserting "J.C." into his sentence as he was complaining about a driver cutting into our lane. Thank goodness he doesn't have his driver's license YET because once he does, I have no doubt that HE will be the one that doesn't seem to have a working blinker on his car and he will be playing frogger on the road (for those of you that are of the "X-Box" era, you probably have no idea what frogger is).
Unfortunately our team lost by 3 points after a valiant comeback in the 4th quarter. The ride home was far less pleasant than the ride up to Madison. This can be attributed to the following factors: a disappointing loss, the fact that we were on the road during rush hour (compound that with a back up due to an overturned semi.....ughhhhh), horrible music , an annoying kid sitting in the aisle across from me and the fact that whoever designed buses did not anticipate long-legged people having to endure bus rides longer than 20 minutes. As a result of my trip to Madison, I have suddenly developed arthritis in both of my knees as well as a huge kink in my neck due to the horrible angle at which I was literally wedged into my seat.

For children 4 feet tall and below, these seats probably feel like 1st class (minus the thin little stewardess delivering beverages and top grade snacks). For humans that are 6 feet tall (give or take an inch or two) this was anything but a JOY ride!!!! Does anyone know where buses are manufactured?? When my head was wedged between the window and the cushion that was digging into my knee caps, I tried to locate the manufactured in tag that you find on stuffed animals, small trinkets, toys, etc. I thought for sure that I would find a tag that said made in Taiwan or Korea or any other place that does not have a large population of taller people. I mean, come on.....they clearly did not have the best interest of all individuals in mind when they designed the seats.