Because.

Well, I didn't win the drawing for front-row seats at next year's 8th grade graduation. Darn.

But in other respects, the 8th grade graduation dance chaperone gig was a hoot. I think (knock on wood) I have escaped catching my friend's cold, despite the fact that the noise level required us to lean over and talk loudly into one another's ears in order to converse. And we always have lots to talk about.

The adult chaperones worked in pairs, rotating through various stations around the middle school gym, inside and outside. There were more than 20 of us, quite enough to prevent any nonsense. Although none was really in the offing. These are generally pretty good kids.

The principal, in our pre-dance briefing, assured us that the worst things that had happened during his 5-year tenure were that they had once, during the pre-dance "sweep" of the school, confiscated alcohol hidden in the boys' bathroom, and he had once had to tell a slow-dancing boy to move his hands above the girl's waist.

The worst thing that we had to deal with was a couple who clearly wanted to go in the corner and neck. I simply moved a lot closer to that corner and gave them a big smile. They went back to the dance floor. The principal had his eye on them all evening also.

Overall, the kids were cute and innocent and sweet. The DJ had a lot of ways to get them having a good time, such as tossing beach balls onto the dance floor, with a small volleyball-type net being held up, so the kids could bat the balls back and forth over it. A lot of the dancing was solo or group dancing rather than couples, and for the majority of the evening, the majority of the girls were on one side of the floor and a majority of the boys were on the other.

A cute slide show had been put together with pix of a lot of the kids when they were much younger, and pix from this last year. They were all given CD's of it to keep at the end of the evening. Good thing my DD was only finishing 7th grade, I would have been bawling if those were her class-mates.

All in all, much more fun than I thought, and a good glimpse into what middle schoolers are like at a dance. I'm glad I did it.