Friday

The school where I teach has a "School Spirit Day" at least once a month. On school spirit day, we're all encouraged to wear the school colors...blue and white, as befits a school in Connecticut... and I always forget.

But once a year, we do a "mismatch day" rather than a plain ol' run-of-the-mill School Spirt Day. Last year it fell on Tuesday, so it was called Tacky Tuesday. This year, it fell on Friday so (despite the fears some of us had of waking up on the morning in question only to find that we had switched bodies with our mothers) it was called Freaky Friday.

Whatever you call it, I love mismatch day. Maybe it's the memory of outfits worn circa 1986. Maybe it's the leftover angst from never owning a Champion sweatshirt that I could wear inside out. Maybe it's something even deeper...but most likely, it's just my long-term love affair with playing dress-up. No matter...

So, this year I was a little bit warry of celebrating Freaky Friday with my accustomed zeal. Last year, there were two other fifth grade teachers who were brave enough to dress up special for mismatch day. This year, one has transferred to the nearby middle school, and the other has been out for the past two weeks...leaving me with some very conservative colleagues.

But, I soldiered on...and I have to say, once I got over my lingering self-doubt...I really enjoyed spending the day in tights, pants rolled up to the knee, and shirt (all with stripes of different colors and in different directions), a snappy hat, purple elbow-length gloves, moss-green sneakers, and assorted pieces of chunky jewelry. It was liberating.

And my kids, especially those who freaked out themselves, had fun. It was kind of nifty, as the day went on, the ones who hadn't dressed up slowly began channeling thier inner freakiness... each time we stopped at the bathroom, more of them came out with their clothes on inside out or backwards, the girls with their hair in sloppy, off-balance pony tails...until the whole lot of us was wacky lookin'...we were quite a crew.

Next year, I'm coming prepared with a bag full of argyle socks, plaid shirts, tie-dyed t-shirts, costume jewelry, and paisley print scarves. That way, when I walk past a fellow teacher who's wearing their standard professional looking gear I can slap a hat on thier head, drape a scarf around their neck, and pull a tacky t-shirt over their head.