Really Bad Timing

I don't know what Mrs. Eagle and I were thinking.

We are encouraged to work at least two after school events every year. They range from dances, to basketball games, to choir concerts and the like. For some reason Mrs. Eagle and I decided to work the first back to school dance, probably because we wanted to get at least one of our events over and out of the way.

Which in itself is a bit silly because we tend to volunteer and end up working most of the dances and events anyway.

However, this was one of those weeks where we both had something to do nearly every single day after school. I had a historical society meeting, a Civil War round table meeting, a board meeting for a non profit, open house, and then, lastly the dance. Obviously we didn't check our calendars when we volunteered to work the dance.

I don't think we realized that open house was this same week. For some reason the district scheduled the middle school open house really early this year - like nearly a month early. We're just barely getting all the kids' names down (I know their names but I still can't remember what class period I have them) and now we've got parents, grandparents, siblings and who knows who else coming by the room to say hi and see what it looks like. This open house was busy. Really busy. And to top it off we had the book fair (also very early this year) and our second annual community health fair which has turned out to be hugely popular. What was amazing was we didn't just see parents of the good kids, but my team actually got to meet the mothers (and get their emails) of two of the boys that were put on our team so they'd be close by Mr. Enforcer...and because he told the moms that we don't put up with any nonsense. The moms both mentioned that and thought of it as being quite positive - their sons needed a firm hand.

Side note. One of my students who is now sophomore showed up to visit. He's HUGE. He's a grown up! We talked about how much fun it was on the camping trip and what a goofball he was in class. It was nice seeing him, but kind of weird because he's so different now.

Anyhow...so the dance arrives and we're just beat, to say the least. It's been a long week. And our kids had been keyed up about the dance all day (and man, some of those girls were dressed up!) But hey, a dance is easy work for the most part. The student council sponsors and members are actually doing most of the work (it's their fundraiser, after all) and we're just there for crowd control.

And we had a heck of a crowd.

It may have been because it was the first dance of the year, and the kids were still excited about being back with their friends. Or, as Mrs. Bunny said, it was a good way to get rid of your kid for a few hours. In any case, it was packed. Not just with sixth graders and seventh graders, but even the jaded, cool eighth graders who don't often show up at dances because, well, they're just so over that.

The gym was packed. The cafeteria where the kids spend a fortune shoving candy, soda and pizza down their gullets was packed. And those of us working the dance spent most of the evening telling speeding sixth graders To Stop Running.

What is it about sixth graders that they come to a dance to run? We should have track meets with music for these critters.

The good news is that the student council cleared two grand which will go towards our angel tree program at Christmas.

And it's the weekend.