I choo choo choose you!

For the past week the halls of MBO have been abuzz with talk of the Valentines Ball. Having seen the name of a buddy, Katje, on the chaperone list, I thought "why not? could be interesting" and decided to join in the "fun"...from 6-8 PM. The dance went till 11, so I got the best of the whole situation: I got to put in an appearance, help the school, and make it home in time to do something fun. I spent Thursday looking for a decent cocktaily dress, and managed to find a nice, black/grey wrap dress at H&M (if you know my blue one, it's that with longer sleeves and less poof), which I wore a tank top under to make it more...family friendly/less va-va-voom.

It was good that I chose that and not a skirt, because this sucker turned out to be FORMAL! No one gave me that memo (this happens from time to time), but I blended in with the less well dressed of the bunch (Katje was in Dolce and Gabana...a decent picture of which [and of me] was taken by someone from the school paper and I'll get that out when I get it).

Milling in the lobby, something I did plenty in my time

I found my fellow teachers after a MORTIFYING bus ride where my students in year 9 found me (awkward) and kept asking me where my date was. The hall was actually really well decorated by the GSW, the student council, and it looked charming. One of my year 13s, a fellow Texans would describe as SWOLL!, was doing security, walking around in a puffy jacked with a walkie talkie making sure people weren't too drunk or disruptive and feeling important, there were hand stamps, all very official.

The older chaperons stayed mostly out in the hall, helping out when they could



but mostly just watching what was going on and commenting on it, looking for their students in particular. I was proud of our kiddos though, mostly black dresses (some VERY short ones, some over-formal, Quinceniera style dresses), tasteful shoes, and no one was nasty dancing. Mostly the music was Euro trash techno type stuff, most of which I'd never heard. There was one exception, though as you'll see, I was rather critical of the crowd, seeing as how THE SONG COMES WITH ITS OWN, VERY CLEAR DANCE!



I spent my time wandering, chatting up Katje and some of the other teachers, and then towards the end of my time I convinced one of my kids at the bar to get me a free drink. These girls are super cool, and I wish I could go back to my high school days, point these chicks out and say "Little Kate, be them!"

Photo edited for identity and...well, the girl in white is not wearing a family-friendly neckline

Then came Lady Gaga's "Just Dance" and then "Yeah," the former which I like quite a bit, and the latter which I have danced to before and know how, so I sort of waded in and started dancing with the year 10s who were the first ones to charge onto the dance floor at 7:00 promptly. I was apparently leaving a good impression, because a big crowd gathered to watch me "shake it as though 'twer a polaroid picture," and I was complimented. I think I scandallized one of the social workers at the school, but Katje commented "and you don't dance every weekend?" Ner...

At one point we got reports of a girl with a bad nosebleed in one of the bathrooms, so I was sent in to check it out. I opened the door marked "D" and was hit by a WAVE of hairspray, perfume, body spray, and more hair spray. The room was THICK with girls and a smell I can only describe as "industrial fruit and estrogen." They were all yelling and giggling and generally making a scene. I sort of waded in, found the girl in question, and established that she was actually fine, and the nosebleed had stopped (I think the hairspray in the air kind of cauterized it), after which I made a hasty exit, the most drama I experienced the whole night thankfully.

There were some oddities about this dance, things that made it special:
it was a super-formal but in the school assembly hall
no one nasty danced
personal space was respected (GERMAN!)
a student was the DJ
and then there was this...

This is EXACTLY what y'all think it is...a big ole' table of sausages and pretzels.
Can't have a decent dance without it(apparently)!!

So it was a good night, I think some of those kids got instilled with those traumatic high school memories so important to building character, though I never had to witness or mediate them, because I was gone! I got to see my kiddos, and congradulate the ones who did the work to make such a dance happen. So all around a good time.