The Darndest Things
Back in October, The Preschool (where I teach creative movement five mornings a week) hosted a Breast Cancer awareness event. Unfortunately, I never got the memo so on the one day that I decided not to wear one of my fuscia “active wear” tops to work, I was greeted by a sea of pink preschoolers.
Even the boys had pink ribbons pinned to their shirts, and some of their mothers had sent them in pink t-shirts or pink sweater vests especially for the occasion.
One, cute as a button in his crisp, pale pink dress shirt, came running up to me to announce, “Miss Kat! Today, we’re all…” His voice trailed off as he tried to remember what exactly all the fuss was about. Then it came to him: “We’re celebrating breast cancer!”
“That’s great!” I replied.
(“That’s great!” is my standard response to everything from “We’re celebrating breast cancer!” and “Look Miss Kat, I’m a dragon!” to “My mommy said she isn’t going to have any more kids until she gets married and stuff…”)
One of the classroom teachers has started her very own version of “Kids Say the Darndest Things” on a bulletin board outside of the main office and every time I walk by on my way to the dance studio, I find myself cracking up.
Granted, their one-liners aren’t quite as funny if you don’t know the kids in question, but I thought I’d share this one (as relayed to me by my mother, who came along on the day of last year’s Nutcracker Extravaganza to help out).
Guess what, Miss Kat’s Mom: my daddy has to go on a diet. He ate too many cookies. Do you know how many cookies he ate, Miss Kat’s Mom? He ate three cookies!
Given that this particular student is usually quite shy and soft spoken (except when it comes to expressing her dismay over the fact that Trader Joe’s no longer gives away free balloons), I was rather taken aback by her candor. Kids really do say the “darndest” things—who knows what family secrets may be divulged tomorrow!
In the meantime: Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there, especially my mom. Moms are way better than boyfriends and without mine, there would be no blog, no adventures in glue gunning and no bargain hunting at Jomar’s (and without Jomar’s there would be no great date outfits so take a moment to reflect on the importance of mother/daughter shopping trips the next time your mom’s driving you crazy).
“Landlord” is currently in New Orleans rockin’ out with Michael Franti, Jimmy Buffet and— oh yeah— “Chauffer” (it’s Jazz Fest in NOLA) which means that I’ll have free and unrestricted access to her closet for the rest of the weekend.
Why do I need free and unrestricted access to her closet? Well, I’ve finally managed to line up that 50th date…
Kat Echevarría Richter 
4 Responses to “The Darndest Things”
Congratulations on your 50th date. And your mom is lucky to have you for a daughter.
Congrats. Two questions. For his benefit, how conservative does ‘Landlord’ dress? And for Landlord’s’ benefit, are you planning to wear something of her’s that she will wear in the near future and have someon, recognizing the outfit, say “Are you still dating that guy I saw you with the other week?”
From landlord, @stevew, as far as fashion goes I am eclectic at best, and that would be very funny to be mistaken for her, although I would also be immensely flattered, 😉
[…] I’m not used to this sort of thing. No one in my family has ever had Alzheimer’s or breast cancer or any of those other “causes” that they ask you to donate a dollar for when you go to the supermarket. And while I don’t mean to trivialize either these diseases or the people who’ve been through them, I’m not used to ribbons or fund raisers or “raise awareness” campaigns. Heck, I wear pink all the time as a dance teacher and the one day I chose to vary my wardrobe last fall was the day we were supposed to be “celebrating” breast cancer. […]