is anyone out there???

A little too smart for my taste.

We went to Washington, D.C. for National Quiz Bowl competitions this weekend. Early on the first morning, we walked through the hotel on our way to breakfast. Apparently there were several other teams staying in the same hotel. We couldn't help checking out the competition. My husband and I would whisper and point at the kids walking down the hallway: "He looks smart." We tried to figure out the best way to gauge the "smartness" of the other teams. We came up with a few ideas for the best indicators.

1. White socks with black shoes.
2. Wearing a backpack with both straps (and the bigness thereof).
3. Notes for last minute trivia cramming.
4. Teams with matching unibrows.

Heather was offended because she wears her backpack with both straps. It only means that she is smart.

When I walked around between rounds, the kids were always talking about things you don't normally hear teenagers talking about. Things like their calculators, Pokemon, and which US president they think could win in a street fight (the top choices were Taft and Eisenhower).

In the end, it all came down to who knew the most stuff. Our team was smart, we just knew the answers to the wrong questions. They were determined not to come in last and they didn't. But it was close.