On Wednesday, Mer and I got to go out to supper at Friday’s, where we met up with two former students, Katie and Sarah. The happy thing about the evening is that Katie and Sarah initiated it. That is amazing to me, that nineteen-year-old students would actually want to hang out with 40ish-year-old teachers.
We were both very close to Sarah and Katie. Sarah and Katie were both in Mer’s Honors and AP English classes, and Katie took two writing electives with Mer, and was her student assistant last year. Both girls were in my Irish dance club at school, with Sarah being in it for four years and Katie for three. Both were in Royal Fools as well, with Sarah being in the group for two years and Katie for her senior year. And they both went with us on last year’s London trip. They are both great and fun people, and so we were both delighted at the invitation.
We met them at Friday’s around 7:00, and we were there until almost 9:00. We had very slow service because the restaurant had sent home most of the cooks when it was slow, so they were unprepared for a mini-rush that happened around the time we came in. As such, we waited about forty-five minutes to get our meals, but it was all fine since we were busy chatting and getting caught up on the lives of Sarah and Katie. The time passed quite quickly (although I was certainly happy when our food did show up!).
After supper, Sarah and Katie swung by the house to pick up some cookies I had just made, and we talked for another fifteen minutes or so before they headed off. It was a great reminder of one of the big reasons of why Mer and I work in education.
Another group of former students invited us over on Thursday. Clarice and Matt invited us over for a game night, and our former students Josh and Kristen (now married!) were to be there as well. The games never really happened, as Josh and Kristen both ended up working later than they’d expected, and they arrived at separate times. In the meantime, Clarice and Matt had put in the first season of the TV show Arrested Development. They thought we would like it, and they were right.
The show features a very dysfunctional and weird family, where the one normal son is trying to straighten out the family business, which had been run by the father, who was put in jail for embezzlement. The show is very witty, and the strange family members are painfully weird. We ended up watching three full episodes. Josh and Kristen showed up partway through one of the shows, and they were delighted, since they are big fans. We had a very good time laughing at the show and getting caught up with the others.
It is a bit weird that young people want to hang out with us, but I’ll not question it. I love the energy and vitality of our younger friends, and it keeps me from getting too old mentally, even if the body keeps aging along. Young people rub off, and that is a very good thing.