Second Sadie’s of the Season

One of the perks of going to a new school this year is that Nathan has friends, and lady acquaintances, in two high schools. That means double the school dances. Nathan’s second Sadie’s for this month was on Saturday and while it was at his previous school (which we are all glad he is no longer attending), it actually ended up being much more fun due to an extreme lack of drama. And besides, what’s not fun about getting to dress up as Sully from Monster’s Inc.? 😊

Just Keep Breathing

As most adults well know, high school is the epitome of social drama. Nathan, who is viewed as a highly dateable boy (he’s tall, cute, talented and nice-seriously swoon inducing for the normal sixteen-year-old girl), is learning this, much to his dismay. Yesterday was Sadie’s at his high school and there was a good deal of drama involved in the occurrence of events. He came home shaking his head and wondering why high school has to be so completely soap opera worthy. Seriously, he is just completely flummoxed about the whole thing. He is very reasonable, well grounded and in many ways very mature for sixteen, so he just doesn’t get it. And all I can tell him is that teenage girls just think that way. Everything is either the best thing that has ever happened in their whole existence or is the end of the world as we know it. He’s just not lucky enough to be as oblivious as most teenage boys.

The day date portion of the event was his favorite part. Their dance group divided in two for the day date, so most of the drama occurred after they met back up. Nathan’s small group ate lunch at Chick-fil-a and then sat and talked for a couple hours. They went to a mini corn maze designed for little kids and had a blast. And when recombining with the remainder of the group led to the first infusion of drama (and the missing of the official date photos), they went to Harmons for their photoshoot. And honestly, I think they turned out great. I mean, Dory, Nemo, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Patrick Star posing in front of the seafood department is just funny!

The whole group did come back together for dinner, but all those bright smiling faces were hiding some powerful social drama and Nathan was glad when it was all over. For better or for worse, he has another Sadie’s event coming up this Saturday. He has been invited to the same dance at his old high school and he is already concerned about all the drama that event may hold.

Staking Her Claim

All of last school year, Nathan was repeatedly queried about whether he was going to this or that school dance. The fact that he was not going because he was not sixteen yet was his response, his safety net. I’ve warned him in the past that once he turned sixteen, he was no longer going to have an easy out. In response to similar questions regarding last Saturday’s homecoming dance, he asked Sariah, one of his best friends. That was a safe and socially acceptable choice, but in the minds of all the teenage girls, his going to the dance was an indicator that he is now on the market.

Yesterday afternoon, Nathan told me that the Madrigal women were already talking about who they were going to ask to Sadie Hawkins, the next school dance and a traditional girls’ choice event. He was flabbergasted about how early they were making plans, but I explained to him that girls just think that way. They plan much farther in advance than boys and they have to talk about all of it so that everyone knows who is claiming which boy in order to avoid huge amounts of teenage girl trauma and drama if someone’s preferred date is asked by someone else. He didn’t really get it, but he’s a teenage boy, and the minds of teenage (and honestly, any age) boys and girls just work differently.

At just after 7:00 a.m. this morning, Nathan sent me the following text:

Yup. Yesterday was the female powwow about who gets to ask whom and today the plan went into action. Nathan is even more flabbergasted and I’m just laughing over my Cheerios. The dance is in six weeks and the girl in question is, in fact, one of those Madrigal women that was making plans and staking claims yesterday.

I fully expect Nathan to get asked to pretty much every girls’ choice dance of his high school career. He is a talented, smart, kind young man, one who also happens to be tall and pretty easy to look at. I’m his mom so I know I’m biased, but he is kind of a cutie. Try as he might, he’s never going to understand how those girls think, but at least I can steer him down a safe path in order to avoid as much “wrath of teenage girl” as possible.

Turnabout is Fair Play

Daniel did the asking for Prom last month. This month it was ladies’ choice for Sadie Hawkins. It was a sports theme for this event and being the group of kids that they are, their sport was marching band. It was a more casual dance, but Daniel and company still had a great time!