The dance was not a disaster. It wasn't as big a success as I had hoped, but it wasn't a disaster.

I need not have worried about "inappropriate" dancing. Nearly all the kids who showed up were junior high schoolers (and a very few under-16 high schoolers; I guess kids who can drive are out doing other things Friday nights).

Anyone who has junior high school aged kids, or who remembers their junior high school dances (I didn't, until watching the kids last night, then it all came back to me) knows that a 11-to-14 dance basically means the boys stand on one side of the room and talk sports, and the girls stand on the other side of the room and talk about clothes or cute boys in their class.

We did put on a video ("Friday Night Lights") in one of the Sunday School classrooms for those who absolutely didn't want to dance. (And one of the chaperones, a man with two small children, chaperoned that room. His wife was watching the kids for tonight, and he said "wow, that was the first time in a while I got to watch a movie uninterrupted.")

Eventually, a few of the bolder, more mature kids did pair off and couple-dance. But it was that awkward, coltish, barely-touching sort of dance that kids who are just learning to deal with the opposite sex do. It was actually kind of touching to watch.

At one point the minister and his wife went out and close-danced for a song or two. That was sort of cute.

What finally got the most kids out on the floor, dancing?

I would never have guessed.

What worked was "The Chicken Dance." Yes, The Chicken Dance, the goofy, polka-themed song that is a requisite part of every Chicago-area wedding reciption.

I guess it's that EVERYONE looks so silly doing it that no individual person worries too much about that they, particularly, look silly.

Other big hits were "The Twist" (yes, as in Chubby Checker) and "Y.M.C.A."

So much for my pleading with the kids to hunt through their cd collection for music that's up-to-date yet "appropriate." I could have shown up with a stack of my old 50s r-n-b tapes, and maybe even my Dean Martin cds, and it would have worked just as well..

Another good thing was the cleanup. All the chaperones we asked for wound up having so little to do (the kids either parked it in front of the video, or they hung around the dance floor, and there was no "bad touching" going on) that they started the clean up around 8:30 (mostly of the dinner; young kids can really demolish a table of sandwiches and cookies) and by the time the kids left, there was little remaining for me to do (and I made sure to thank the chaperones, not just for showing up, but also for relieving me from being there 'till 11 sweeping and mopping). So I was home and in bed by 10:15. Not bad at all.

I guess the kids had fun. One girl who I had not met before asked if she could start coming to the Wednesday afternoon youth group, so if we get another kid or two as a result of the dance, then I guess it counts as a success.

So anyway. I decided I deserve a Grand Day Out, not only because I managed to pull the dance off without any cuss-word songs sneaking in, without any kids trying to make out, and without a mess left behind, but also because despite the fact that we interviewed three candidates for a position last week, I was involved with curriculum committee stuff and worship committee stuff, I still managed to get a rewrite of one journal article done and out to my coauthor for her comments.

So I'm going to go to McKinney, and take a day of shopping and relaxing and eating out. I decided the needs for a Grand Day Out included a bookstore, a store that sells nice soap or bath things, a fabric store, and possibly a store with some yarn. I could just go to Sherman, and I contemplated that - it has a JoAnn's and Mary's quilt shop, it has a couple bookstores (including a really nice used bookstore in Denison), and a Bath and Body works in the mall. But McKinney also has smaller, privately-owned shops with those same things. Plus it has more fun restaurants. And it has a lot more antique shops, and frou-frou thing shops, and a Michael's (which is slightly more interesting than Hobby Lobby). So I'm ditching on grading the rewrites of the student proposals (I only have six; I'm thinking - fingers crossed here - that I can get them graded Monday morning in the four hours I have before class).

Besides, tomorrow's my Birthday. I really do deserve a Grand Day Out.