Teacher-bie

K, so I hadn't planed on blogging today, but I have a story just to cute not to record somewhere for remembering/posterity. And since I haven't written in my journal with any sort of even faux regularity since college (I know, I'm a terrible human being, right . . . lol!) I figured this is as good a place as any. I do feel a little guilty though, as it is yet another work/cute kids story. I feel almost like I'm turning into one of those mombies - you know, those women who have a baby and it's like the outside world no longer exists, all they talk about (and will talk about for the rest of their lives) is their kids. And while there's nothing wrong with talking about kids a lot . . . ummmmm, how 'bout that global warming? The state of things in Israel? Avatar? Paris Hilton's latest boytoy? Anything? For crying out loud, anything that will make you sound like you pay attention to something - even if it's just one thing - that goes on outside your nursery room. I mean, I may have pretty much no life outside of work, but at least I try to follow what's going on . . . most of it makes no sense to me, but at least I'm paying attention.

Thankfully I only know one mombie personally (and it isn't any of you!). And while I love the girl to death I finally had to block her updates on facebook because seriously? Five status updates a day about what your kids are eating/pooping/playing? Was driving. Me. Nuts.

Anyway, onto story time. So yesterday Ellis Elementary celebrated Valentine's Day, because today was a half day and there's no school tomorrow. And it's a good thing people mentioned those facts in passing yesterday, otherwise I wouldn't have had a clue. BTW, what's up with all these days off? I've only worked one full five-day week since I started. We sooooo did not get this many breaks when I was a kid - I fell GYPPED!!!!! *insert pouty face here* :-)

Aaaaaaaanyway - V-Day. The pink, heart-encrusted one. Apparently all the kids have been practicing some dances or something and also performed them for the parental units yesterday too. (another thing I never got to do . . . sad . . . ). So everybody was all dressed up all fancy-like and stuff. It was really interesting to compare how the girls were dressed according to grade. The second grade girls were all wearing miniaturized prom-style dresses, probably their mostly-new hardly-worn-yet Christmas finery. And they all looked very sweet. (side note: Aunt Sharon, Sage looked absolutely adorable!) The fourth grade girls were dressed a little more . . . casually isn't quite the right word, but I can't think of the one I want. Trendy, maybe. Stylishly. Skirts and blouses or sweaters, mostly in some combination of black and red. And heels! I was amazed when I saw how many of these little girls were wearing heels - some higher than I typically wear. My fourth grader self was immensely jealous - I didn't get to wear heels until 7th or 8th grade! My 25-year-old-self wondered what their parents were thinking letting them wear shoes like that. I mean, this is prime growth spurt territory, and judging by the fact that every last one of them took their shoes off they must have been in pain, which isn't surprising considering they'd been wearing those shoes ALL DAY! I mean, I absolutely love and adore my stilettos, but I still can't do much more than three or four hours in them, and I imagine stilettos all day for me to be about the equivalent. Holy. Crap.

By far, the two best parts of the day were listening to the fourth graders and watching the second graders pass out Valentines. Mostly because I got a better Valentine haul than I've gotten since . . . well, since sixth grade when everyone in my class had to give me one. It was so sweet I just about melted!! I wasn't really expecting anything since I've only been there about a month, and not all the kids had one for me, but from the moment one of the little girls I work with handed me a chocolate rose I was a bit shocked. I also got a little heart shaped box of chocolates, a pink lady apple (my favorite! yay!!), a couple of suckers, and a handful of cards, one handmade by a little girl who'd been enthusiastically telling me for a week how hard she was working on it. And I don't even work with her at all! Seriously, made my year. Kids can be so sweet.

On a semi-related note, I was a little bit shocked/jealous to see just how much has changed in the valentine giving department since I was in elementary school. Back then probably about 30% of the kids included candy, and it was usually a sucker stuck through the card or a box of those valentine hearts (which I adore, chalky as they are - YUM!) with your name written on it. But it looked like just about everybody was giving candy this year, and most gave more than just a sucker. In fact, the girl who gave us teachers apples was handing out sandwich bags stuffed with pink wrapped Halloween style candy with a valentine card stapled to it. Ummmmmm . . . when did Valentine's Day become Halloween 2.0? Holy crap, forget about Christmas being to commercialized - that's nothing compared to the intense sugar consumerism I saw yesterday! (Of course, that said - what I wouldn't have given for Valentine's Day to have been like this when I was their age!!)

Then I got a huge laugh with the fourth graders. They came into the after-school-club on a major sugar-rush, so I don't think much was accomplished, but it was still an amusing day. the girls who are usually clamoring for me to read with them as soon as they come in instead had to tell me all about their dance performance and how they had to dance with Braden or Kevin or whoever and they had to touch them - GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never having really gone through a boys-have-cooties phase myself I found it a little hard to sympathize, but I think I faked it pretty well, and I was more than successful at keeping my giggles on the inside until I was safely in my car. I'd honestly completely forgotten about "opposite gender = ick" thing so it kind of took me by surprise when they started telling me their stories. And I still don't get it. I mean, I didn't "like" boys until about 7th grade, but I always saw them as perfectly acceptable playmates - better than most girls in fact, since not many girls played foursquare and I was quite the foursquare queen back in the day. (Oh, how I loved that game . . . ) Good times.

Anyway, that was my marvelous day at work. Hopefully by Tuesday the kids will have had enough time to come down from their sugar highs. I'm off to cure cancer . . . or at least read about something the government is doing . . . or something. :-)

P. ost S. cript
I'm sure you've seen this one, but it just seems to fit the tone of the blog. And it's freaking hilarious. Plus it's hard not to love any video with a Princess Bride quote in it. :-)