I was looking forward to yesterday since May. That's when 3 friends and I had ordered tickets to see "Dirty Dancing" at Cadillac Palace in Chicago.

Little could I have known that it wouldn't just be after school that would be perfect!

Last period is 'cleaning lockers, desks, boards, etc.' (Everyone does remember that, right?) Another teacher usually gives me 10 minutes to load things into my car, so we can get rolling quick on Fridays. When I came back into my room, we were chatting with some of the kids, when the secretary comes into my room with this huge floral package. One of my last year's students who had changed schools this year sent me the flowers. 6 yellow giant roses, with gorgeous fall greenery. The card said, "Happy Sweetest Day For The Sweetest Teacher Ever!"

This boy had enrolled in our school in 6th grade. Lots of problems beginning with his being addicted to coke & heroin at birth. Then his mother dumped him in dumpster. He was adopted by the mother I know. In 7th grade he was 6'1" and probably 230lbs. He was/is hyper active and his emotional maturity was around 10. I thought of him as 'my Baby Huey'! When excited about something, he would literally jump for joy. A very helpful kid, but wouldn't do a lick of homework if he didn't like the teacher. He did mine, but that left 6 classes he failed over and over. He had serious clashes with the 8th grade male teacher, which was the reason the mom decided to move him this year. She was afraid one of them would 'lose it', with serious repercussions.

She called me over the summer and I agreed with her; while usually 8th grade isn't a good time to change schools, we couldn't offer the support services the public schools can and our 8th grade teacher does have issues, especially with a 'boy' who is his size. The mom has cancer and I think the stress was making her illness worse. I knew I'd miss 'R', but it seemed the right thing to do.

Of course this huge arrangement made the kids in my class excited. "Open it up Ms. D! Is it from a 'secret admirer?' I was a bit hesitant, not knowing who would possibly send flowers to school. Truth to tell, thought it might be a text book publisher or something. When they found they were from "R" they started talking about how they missed him. But capping my gift off, one of the girls said, "Everyone loves you, Ms D, cause you care about us." Talk about feeling 'on top of the world'!

Well we did get out of school, about a whisper behind the students. My two teacher friends and I met up with another friend and took off for the city. We realized none of us had made the dinner reservations, due to miscommunication. We tried where we planned to go, alas they were booked solid. Not a problem, we figured we'd just have to go to one of the less 'fancy' restaurants. While walking we saw "312, Chicago", right next to the theater. The decor, ambiance, and food were great! It may have been a tad more expensive than Petterino's, ($290), but worth it. None of us had even heard of it before. This morning I checked out the reviews, we weren't the only ones who like it.

"Dirty Dancing" was fabulous! The high tech scenery, the energy, the 'Australian guy', wow!