Sweet 16

Last weekend was my dear friend, and sort of adopted sister, Ruby's 16th birthday. To celebrate, we had her over for a taco dinner and an evening of laughs. Ruby was one of my mom's first students at OVS and is now the sophomore class president at Villanova Prep. She came here maybe 5 years ago from Taiwan knowing very little English and it is really amazing to see how much she has grown and changed and turned into the wonderful young woman that she is (Ohkay, I sound like I am 80 saying it that way... but it is the truth). I love Ruby and I am so glad that we got to spend time with her for her birthday.

Last weekend was also Parent Weekend which, I'm not gonna lie, was pretty rough. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy that some parents actually come visit their kids one weekend out of the year, but seeing some of these kid's family dynamics literally breaks my heart. One of my 4th grader's dad's can't be more than 2 years old than me. Another one of my kid's mom (who I think is insane...) brought her new "friend" to meet her daughter since they are going to be spending Thanksgiving with him... Are you serious? Who brings their new boyfriend to Parent Weekend to meet their daughter for the first time? Who does that? It breaks my heart. And then there are the kids whose parents don't even come to Parent Weekend. I had a forth grader who was alone this last weekend because her parents couldn't fly out for the weekend. Granted I understand that flying out from Japan for one weekend is kinda crazy, but other parents do it. And their kid is in 4th grade! For reals? You can't come see her? Stay for a week for crying out loud! Just come visit your daughter! Parent Weekend is always really depressing, but I am glad I got to be there for the kids who had no one, or worse, the kids who's parents at psycho!