c-o-u-n-t-e-r-f-e-i-t

at the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee...

we are fearless spellers who love scary words.
we're the nerds with the dictionary on our knees...

and we find we love spelling! it makes us feel normal.
we love spelling...

i love my dictionary, and i love the indented border. every word's in alphabetical order,
ergo, lost things always can be found...

i achieve my goals. so unfazed am i as my life unscrolls unamazed am i. winning is a job and i get not real enjoyment but je peux parler six langues. carda idio maes simple. jerro oh yo no reshipe no yesashesades. ja gavaru shetz yatzukim. v'ani yodat shalom. im noch mindesterns sieben mehr. i speak six languages. i am sick and tired of always being the best and the brightes at every mass. six lousy languages and for my height i'm the lightest of the girls in my class.

chimerical. c-h-i-m-e-r-i-c-a-l. highly unrealistic, wildly fanciful.

on tuesday, branson and i went the the 25th annual putnam county spelling bee. its a relatively new musical (2005 i think) and it was hilarious. so funny! a few unnecessary parts, but the music was fantastic and the acting was excellent. i was not disappointed.

part of my excitement for this was due to the fact that i was in the spelling be. i remember it vividly. 4th grade. i was awesome. people were amazed at a) how little i was and b) how great i was at spelling. it quickly came down to 3 of us. me, heidi and heather. heidi and heather were both in 6th grade - much older and supposedly smarter than i, a feeble 4th grader. but i gave them a run for their money. but i swear i always got the hard words. no joke, the word right before i got out was testimony. ridiculous.

the 3 of us spelled and spelled and spelled our little hearts out, for a good 15 or 20 minutes - we all kept getting the word right. finally, it was my turn.

the word is 'counterfeit'.

no need for a definition, i knew what it meant. i didn't even need it used in a sentence.

c-o-u-n-t...
e-r...
f...
then the tricky part... i before e? e before i? which is it?
and my poor, dyslexic 4th grade brain said the wrong one. although as soon as the letter came out of my mouth, i knew it was incorrect.
i-e-t.
counterfeit.

unbelievable. i've never been so mad! i didn't even wait for the judge to tell me it was wrong. i walked off the stage as he said, "i'm sorr..." i was gone. it was expected that you sat with your class after you were eliminated, but i was so upset that i went out in the hall and paced back and forth for the remainder of the bee. (which was really only 2 or 3 minutes) my mom came out and told me how proud she was that i made it so far, etc, trying to console my shattered 9 year old heart. but i was still upset.

truth be told, to this day every time i hear the word 'counterfeit' i have to spell it under my breath. c-o-u-n-t-e-r-f-e-i-t. counterfeit.