The Birthday Police

When someone in the office has a birthday at my school, the tradition is to do treats to celebrate, so I knew that was going to happen, or at least assumed. But the Friday before my birthday (Saturday) this year, I got so much more than treats and I had an amazing laughter-FILLED day and some twisted, unexpected turns.  I actually have to briefly start the story Thursday night. I said goodnight to Kiara and headed to bed myself to read. A bit later, Kiara text me that she thinks her phone broke and then comes to show me that her screen is showing her apps very strangely, like they were running (think watercolors) down her screen. I told her we'd look at it in the morning as there was nothing we could do.  The next morning, she brings it to me and it is much worse, with vertical bars going through the screen. I tried restarting it to no avail.  I told her we'd have to go get it checked out later and we left for school. Pause on that portion of the story...

I walk into school about 25 feet behind my principal and there were students at the entrance who immediately greet me with "Happy Birthday, Mrs. Witmer! We hope you have a great day!". I asked them how they knew and my principal just smiled and shrugged.  As I walked into the office each person greeted me with a loud happy birthday. I got to my door and found this: 

Opened the door and found this: (The office ladies call ourselves the Golden Girls, each assigned as a person that eerily we are each like. And last year, I MAY have started a tradition of leaving cut-outs with silly bubble conversations for people, so the favor was returned.)

And then was made to wear this for the day...like MADE. Each time I took it off, it was put right back over my head, a little roughly, I might add! HA!

I was flooded with co-workers and students wishing me a happy birthday and had piles of gifts on my desk for me, along with a Dunkin Donuts coffee. I felt so loved. I could write a different blog on how special it is to me to work in a place that I feel loved, appreciated, and belong...but that's a different post. During our homeroom I had a student I'll call "Susie" come to see me and give me birthday greetings and a hug. This brings me back around to the phone.

Susie asks me why Kiara left her phone in my office. I picked it up to show her the now, much worse, screen. Susie asks if I tried restarting it and said "Let's try it again, just in case."  More people are stopping by and I'm chatting when all of a sudden I hear the sound of the SOS on the phone and the 911 operator!  Susie threw the phone at me and I told the operator that all was okay and that we were working on my daughter's phone because the screen wasn't working and that I was so so sorry about bothering her. She recorded my name, verified that I was calling from within the high school and we hung up.  We burst out laughing and proceeded to tell the other office staff what happened and I sent her back to class. About 5 minutes later, my principal, who can be a joker, sticks his head in my office and says there are two policeman there to see me.  I said "Ha! HA! Very funny!"  He told me he was serious and that they had asked for me by name. I.  Was.  Mortified.  They came around the corner and as I floundered showing them the phone and telling them what had happened, they proceeded to tell me it was a crime to give my daughter an old phone and just gave me an overall hard time over it. We were all laughing so hard but I was so embarrassed. Apparently when they came in, they had told my principal they were responding to a 911 call within the building and asked him to call me to the office (thinking I was a student)...when they all realized who I was, they decided to give me a hard time. I immediately had to go tell "Susie" what had happened and she was so embarrassed. I will never let her live down that she called the police and got me in trouble on my birthday (well...the day before). As I was down the hall, one of the staff came to get me saying I was needed in the office right away. I thought something was wrong and immediately started walking quickly and asked her what student was there that needed me. She stammered and stuttered and I realized she was taking me back to be sung to for the birthday treats time. As I turned the corner into the office, all of them were gathered to sing like normal, with the addition of my daughter, whom they grabbed out of study hall,  and two very nice police officers who stayed to sing to me! I invited the officers to share in the treats since I caused them to come out to check on me. Although they declined to eat any snacks they did hope that they wouldn't have to come back and see me again that day and told me to behave myself and upgrade my daughter's phone! HA!  

The rest of the day was filled with love, laughter, Mean Bean for lunch, football game with some of my teacher friends, and so much smiling and laughing.  I claimed this year as my year of FUN! And this day was definitely one of the highlights in a lot of ways.

Oh...and the phone upgrade happened the next day, on my actual birthday, which is an ENTIRELY NEW story and new blog post. Stay tuned for more...