So I was chatting with one of my students yesterday as we played our 1000th game of Uno. You think I'm kidding. I play Uno from 3:15 until about 6:15 EVERY SINGLE DAY. Because I'm that awesome for my students. Though, some days, I play Speed with the older kids (that can understand the concept of the game).

Anyways. I went totally off track there.

But I got to talking about how me and a previous student from my years at Bright Steps used to play this Who-Can-Scare-The-Other game. Me and another aide would drive to various elementary schools, picking up our after-school kiddos. Matthew N. was on the other bus run, so it was kind of a race to see which of us would get back to the day care first. The first person back, either me or Matthew (my 5th grade student at the time), would hide somewhere in the school and then do their damnest to leap out and scare the crap out of the other. Sometimes I got back first and could scare him to death. Other times, he'd get back, so I'd walk around the school on high alert waiting for him to leap out of some dark, crazy hiding place to scare me.

Jessica M., my new high school aide, whom I adore, was listening in and asked me what was the name of that student again. So I repeated. Turns out, she goes to school with him and he's a friggin' SENIOR in high school now! I told her to ask him about me, Bright Steps, and this mermaid crown we took turns wearing one day, though he had problems putting it on because he had a broken arm. *chuckles*

AND it turns out, Jessica also knows Maddie S., another one of my students from Bright Steps. She graduated LAST YEAR. I told Jessica that if I had to pick two of my absolute favorite students from my 17 years of working with kids, Matthew and Maddie would be it.

And to make me feel even older, the first group of students I started working with in 1996 are turning 28 and 29 this year. WOW!!!!!