anatomy of a friday

"What are you supposed to be?" That was the most frequently asked question as kids entered my room today. The official staff Halloween costume this year was "golfer," which would've been great if I in fact owned any sort of golf clothes. Last year's 60s/70s theme was much easier; I have this fabulous outfit (complete with obnoxiously plaid pants) that was my mother's in high school. If you haven't seen it, just trust me - it's great. However, that was last year. This year, owing to the lack of golf gear, I opted for the basic black. (I'm a musician; when I don't know what to wear, I sort of default to black. You should see the "black" section of my closet. It's like a smorgasbord of darkness.) At least I had the presence of mind to dig out my Halloween socks. They're orange and have bats on them. So, you know, I was trying to be spirited. At the last minute, thought, I grabbed something else. A pink Superwoman cape.

Yes, I own one.

It was $5. I got it at Six Flags this summer. And it's awesome. Observe:

However, as you might imagine I have very few occasions to wear said cape. I figured Halloween would be one such occasion.

(My VanderFriend Cheryl got me the matching butterfly glasses. She said they completed the outfit, which clearly they do. Thanks, Cheryl!)

So there I was - jeans, black shirt, bat socks, and a pink cape. (I'm pretty sure I just redefined awesome.) My 6th graders - have I told you how much I love those kids? - decided that I was "SuperTeacher." I don't know what my superpowers are. Faster than a speeding school bus? (Ha, like that's hard...) The 7th and 8th graders were confused at first - "Why aren't you a golfer?" - but no less amused.

Surprisingly, my classes all went really well today. I say surprisingly because typically Halloween is one of those "hang on to your hats and just try to survive" sort of days. The kids are off-the-wall hyper, and it can be a challenge just to keep them focused, let alone have a lot of quality learning. But all of my classes learned brand-new stuff today, and they all did pretty darn well with it, too.

I think it was the cape.

Oh, and the fact that I taught the new stuff in conjunction with learning the theme to The Addams Family may have helped.

Hey, it's Halloween. Might as well go with it.

The great day continued even after the final bell rang. It was one of those days when my room served as a hangout - a quartet and duet were there to rehearse, and a couple other students came by just to chill, practice, and play the piano while they waited for friends to get out of swim practice. Good stuff.

After that, I traipsed all over town running errands, including heading out to Byron Center to buy a pumpkin. I knew about this particular pumpkin spot because of a small group event from last year. That day was sunny and beautiful. This day, however, was rainy and disgusting, and the water had transformed the once-dry ground into a slip-and-slide of squelchy mud. Still in my school clothes, at first I tried to step carefully, in hopes of keeping myself clean. But that pursuit proved futile, and before long I had no choice but to embrace the mess as my shoes, socks, and pants became soaked in mud.

There was another woman there, and as we made our way around we couldn't help but laugh together. She was equally unprepared for the mud but seemed to take it in stride, saying "it's amazing what we do for our kids."

I was on my way out, and so I simply gave my agreement as I walked toward my car. Pumpkins, The Addams Family, or extra time after school on a Friday - whatever it is, we'll do it for our kids.

I didn't tell her that the pumpkin was just for me.

I had one more stop to make on the way home, and so with my mud-encrusted self (and by this time it was quite crusty indeed) I wandered through Meijer in search of a pumpkin-carving kit.

Yes, on the day before Halloween.

What can I say... I'm a perpetual optimist.

At first it appeared my search would be in vain. But then I spied a lonely little package, slightly damaged, on the one remaining rack of Halloween odds-and-ends. Not only was it a pumpkin-carving kit... It was a POWER pumpkin carving kit. And it was on sale to boot.

Score.

I really only wanted a kit for the little tools since I planned to find a pattern on the internet. But hey, this whole battery-operated carver might just end up being the coolest thing since sliced... pumpkin. (?)

Guess we'll see... Stay tuned for tales of pumpkin carving!