Life's Little Events - The Spelling Bee
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size:
 (micro)
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This cache is easy. It even has a hint!
Are you frequently telling yourself, "Hey, that's a good reason to hide a cache!"?
Yeah, me too.
This is one of a series of caches that exist for reasons that are everyday but special, at least special to me. You know, life's little events.
No puzzle. No game. Just regular standard caches with kind of a theme.
How many spelling bees have I been to over the years? Several at least, whatever several is. More than a few. Spelling bees are a blast.
I went to my younger son's first spelling bee yesterday. He is in the third-grade, and he was representing his class.
The field included 24 kids. Fifteen of the 24 were fifth-graders. Five were fourth-graders. Four were third-graders. My son was one of the third-graders.
After some introductions and an explanation of the rules, the spelling bee began. Kid after kid walked up to the microphone to spell words. Then it was my son's turn.
His first word was "singular". As I was trying to estimate how many times he had been confronted with Cingular Wireless commercials, he spelled the word correctly without missing a beat. "Singular. s, i, n, g, u, l, a, r. Singular." Correct.
Four rounds later, he was still up there, with only three other kids who were all fifth-graders. Yes, it was him, a third-grader, with three other fifth-graders, as the final four.
Then in the next round, he goofed. He misspelled his word. He realized he made a mistake as soon as he said the incorrect letter. I think he really knew the word, but nerves and impatience played their hands.
As he walked off the stage to join the other twenty-something kids in their roped-off area of the auditorium, I sensed, in his face, the feelings he was experiencing. I don't believe it was really disappointment, but rather a feeling of "I can't believe I messed that up." I cannot think of a good word to describe that.
After the spelling bee was concluded, my son and I talked about it. I told him how cool it was that he was the last third-grader up there, making those fifth-graders sweat.
Any feelings of disappointment were gone, and he was all smiles. We shared some excellent hugs. I made sure that I got a couple of kisses in there too. I have to get as many of those as I can now because, in a couple of years, that will be taken away from me. It will not be cool to kiss Dad.
Then we made our way to the cookies and punch. As I ate my four cookies and he ate his two, we talked more about the bee. He said he loved it and couldn't wait until the next spelling bee so that he could do it again.
Then we walked back toward his classroom. We separated in the hallway. One last hug, and I turned to go back to work. He ran up the stairs toward his classroom.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Fvk srrg fbhgujrfg bs "erfreirq cnexvat".