Boogie Night

I love working the middle school dances.

Truth be told, we shouldn't even call them dances. It's more like A Run Around And Jump Up And Down Two Hour Frenzy. It's actually quite entertaining. As a chaparone you tend to spend more time telling a kid to "slow down and stop running" than anything else.

They chase each other, they run around the floor, they run out to get junk food, then run back in, they run out to get a glow in the dark necklace, they run back in, and then maybe they'll jump up and down with the music. At times it reminds me of a 1979's mosh pit in an L.A. punk club, without the safety pins.

What cracks me up is how many students will ask, "Mrs. Bluebird are you going to be at the dance?" on the Friday of the dance. Why they care who's actually going to be there is beyond me, but they all seem to want to know who's going to be there. And of course Mrs. Language, Mrs. Eagle and I always work the dances (because it's cheap entertainment) and we always get a flock of 8th graders who may have hated our guts last year but are now wanting hugs and squeal when they see us there. Go figure.

The Skateboard Squirts were there and they seem to have no interest in girls (probably because all the girls are taller than they are) but they're really good at jumping up and down and chasing each other. We have the Hip Hoppers there in force, looking cool and doing the moves. Then there's all the girls who rove in packs following The Cute Boys. And once in a great while you'll actually have A Couple. And when you have A Couple, you make sure they aren't tooooo close. Considering that the DJ doesn't play any slow songs, that isn't too hard to do.

And every once in a while the DJ will look over at us graying rockers at heart and play some AC/DC or Def Leappard so the teachers can have some fun too. Bless his little hip hop heart.