The Awesomeness Has Like, Totally Returned

"Mom! Fifth grade is AWESOME!!!"

That's what I was greeted with when I got home from work on the first day of school Monday. When asked why fifth grade was so awesome, just what about it made it rock so much? Bug grinned from ear to ear and replied

I don't even know! It's just AWESOME!!

Can you even remember fifth grade? Actually, I can for the most part. That was the year I received my first "meaningful" Valentine's Day card. This work of art had been handed (although "thrust into my hands" maybe more accurately describes the delivery) to me with no words, and minimal eye contact, as the artist himself ran off. It was a heart cut from construction paper, with a Tootsie Pop taped to it, the words "To A Cute Gril" written across the front. And no, that is NOT a typo on my part. It truly did say GRIL rather than GIRL. That same boy became my very first boyfriend. It was such a deep, intense relationship, too. (Did you hear that amazing example of sarcasm?) Here's the proof: His friend asked my friend to ask me if I would go out with him. And then my friend told his friend to tell him yes. Which apparently sealed the deal, as from that point forward every recess he and his group of friends followed me and my group of friends around the playground, a subtle ten feet or so behind us at all times. This tweenaged waltz lasted somewhere around a couple of weeks or so, until I told my friend to tell his friend to tell him that we needed to break up.

I don't think he and I ever actually spoke to each other.

Fifth grade was the year I started regularly going to sleepovers at my friends' houses. We'd rotate every weekend whose house we slept over at. That was the year, on one of those sleepovers, that I saw the original version (on video.... do you remember VHS?!) of The Shining, with Jack Nicholson. My friends and I did NOT go to sleep that night, and I remember a lot of flying popcorn.

Fifth grade was the year my friends and I fell in love with Johnny, Pony Boy, and Darry. Remember The Outsiders?

Fifth grade was also the year I started saying things like Like, Ohmagawd! or Like, Totally! Or how about Totally Tubular! or Fer Sure! This is where I might be tempted to point out that fifth grade might possibly have been one of my dad's LEAST favorite years for me. In hindsight, I can't say I blame him much.

All of these memories are things I will probably be sharing with Bug this year. I've already mentioned the first boyfriend to him. At which point I was torn between laughing and crying when he looked at me, so very seriously, and said that he was thinking this might be the year he gets a girlfriend. He wasn't sure, but said he would definitely let me know when he decided.

My baby is growing up. And that is like, Ohmagawd, like, totally not cool. Fer sure.