Tonight was his first school dance.
It was a Sadie Hawkins event, informal with a theme of fun. Did you know that Sadie Hawkins was actually a cartoon character? She was a...homely country girl who couldn't catch a husband. So her daddy claimed one Saturday to be Sadie Hawkins Day, where a race of all bachelors in town would take place in a field. The one that Sadie chased and actually caught, then dragged (kicking and screaming) across the finish line got to be her betrothed.
All the spinsters in town loved this idea, and it became a yearly tradition. The night BEFORE the race they had the Sadie Hawkins Dance ( kind of like Homecoming I guess...)where presumably the women wore heavy boots to stomp on the bachelors feet while they danced- making it more likely for them to catch their injured prey the next day.
It's a bit....praying mantis vs. Hunger Games I guess, but the Sadie Hawkins dances these days are much less violent. The 11-year old did come home with a hoarse voice, but no swollen toes or feet.
He actually didn't argue about wearing an outfit that didn't boast a sports' emblem, and allowed me to "do" his hair differently- there was totally hair goop involved. He wore deoderant AND a spritz of Dad's cologne- it's the best he's smelled since the baby powder and lotion days.
As I sat in line behind a string of vehicles at the school's entrance, I realized I was probably more nervous than he was. I kept asking questions and making suggestions ("are you going to slow dance with a girl? Make good choices. Will there be snacks? Be sure not to fart while you're
dancing with a girl"). He just rolled his eyes a little and patiently answered my questions, resigned to the fact that he has an embarrassing, neurotic mother.
Hey. I may have been in my pajamas, but no one could see that, and I totally had great hair going on.
Two hours later, I picked him up in the same place, again full of questions. But before I could even get the first one out he announced sheepishly but proudly that he had hugged his "girlfriend" for the first time. "We hugged" he stated, matter-of-factly. When I asked him if he danced with her, he looked at me like I had two heads.
"Did you dance at all?"
"Not really", he replied.
Huh. Maybe he was afraid someone would step on his toes...
Tonight's picture represents a night of firsts along the road to teendom. His huggable girlfriend was texting him before we got out of the parking lot, so I told him to just say no if she invited him out to a field tomorrow.
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