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Mom writes note to daughter's teacher, admitting she skipped class just to see Taylor Swift

"Here’s hoping my daughter’s 1st grade teacher is a Swiftie."

via Makaiyla Willis/Wikimedia Commons

Taylor Swift performing in concert in 2017

People are praising Karen Vladeck, 38, a mom from Austin, Texas, who wrote a clever email notifying her daughter's teacher that she would be missing school to attend a Taylor Swift concert. However, instead of a simple letter asking for the absence to be excused, she channeled her inner Swiftie and composed a note infused with nods to the singer's music catalog.

The absence was for April 24, which coincided with the final date of Swift’s 3-night stand at Houston’s NRG stadium. Vladek sent the letter on April 4, so the teacher would have plenty of notice.

Vladek, a legal recruiter, attorney and podcaster, shared the witty email she sent to her daughter's teacher on Twitter, which received nearly 3,800 likes. “Here’s hoping my daughter’s 1st grade teacher is a Swiftie," she captioned the tweet.

She titled the email: "It's Me, Hi, I'm the Problem, It's Me,” a nod to Swift’s song “Anti-Hero.”

The email begins with “Dear Reader [Ms. Parks]," referencing another song on Swift’s “Midnights" album. It went on to include numerous Swiftisms, including “Should Have Said No,” “So It Goes…,” “Bad Blood,” “I Did Something Bad,” “The Last Time," “Cruel Summer” and “Forever & Always.”

“Dear Reader [Ms. Parks], I’m writing to let you know that Maddie won’t be in school on 4/24 because she is going to the Taylor Swift concert in Houston,” Vladeck wrote. “I hope missing school doesn’t ruin her otherwise stellar Reputation, but she begged me to go and maybe I Should Have Said No but I didn’t want to be Mean. So It Goes…Anyway, I hope this doesn’t leave any Bad Blood between you and Maddie and that things for the rest of the year are not Treacherous.

“I know I Did Something Bad and I promise this will be The Last Time she has an unexcused absence before the Cruel Summer starts. Forever & Always, -Karen Vladeck.”

Vladek’s husband, Steve, didn’t seem too thrilled about the email.

The mother could have made up a story that her daughter was sick or that there was some family emergency. But she was honest, admitting that having Taylor Swift tickets was an acceptable excuse for missing a day of school. Who’s to blame her? The Eras Tour is such a major pop culture event that the average ticket price is $700; Swift may become a billionaire when it’s all said and done.

Plus, it would have been hard for her daughter to return to school and not tell everyone on the playground that she got to see Swift.

The mother’s note got a lot of praise on social media from fellow parents and Swifties.

Some teachers said that Maddie's absence was completely acceptable.

Swift fans shared some more references she could have included in the letter.

A World Series parade is a great reason to take a day off from school, too.

The good news is that Ms. Parks was totally fine with the reason for the absence. She responded to the email, saying, “THIS MADE MY ENTIRE DAY.” Way to go, Ms. Parks.

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9 gorgeous, chemical-free swimming pools to dive into this summer.

Did you know that some of the oldest and most popular swimming pools in the country actually don't use chemicals to keep the water clean?

Photo via iStock.

Natural pools don't use any chlorine, which can dry out your skin, cause allergic reactions, and be really dangerous to handle. Instead, many of them are built to harness water from nearby springs, rivers, and lakes that Mother Nature has already filtered.

They really are the best of both worlds: It's the same beautiful, chemical-free water you get while swimming in nature only with lifeguards, diving boards, and no yucky, muddy toes to worry about!

Here are nine fantastic natural swimming spots that are well worth a visit this summer.

1. Deep Eddy Pool, Austin, Texas

Deep Eddy is one of the oldest swimming pools in Texas (100 years old!) and is an official historic landmark. It brings in fresh water via a spring fed by the nearby Colorado River and — I mean, just look at it!

Image via mkettler/Wikimedia Commons.

2. Landa Park Aquatic Complex, New Braunfels, Texas

Yep, that's a water slide. Yep, that's a rope swing. Yep, that's fresh spring water.

Ready to dive in?

Photo by Sergio Chapa, used with permission.

3. Barton Springs Pool, Austin, Texas

The beautiful and extremely popular Barton Springs Pool is fed by Main Barton Spring, one of the largest in Texas, and features an incredible view of downtown Austin. You might even swim alongside an endangered Barton Springs Salamander as they make their home in the pool.

Image via Downtown Austin/Wikimedia Commons.

4. Balmorhea State Park, Toyahvale, Texas

Balmorhea State Park boasts their pool as "the world's largest spring-fed swimming pool." It's so big, in fact, you can snorkel and scuba dive in it. It's also in the middle of a desert!

Photo courtesy of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department © 2006.

5. Venetian Pool, Coral Gables, Florida

The Venetian Pool opened in 1924, featuring water fed through an underground aquifer for some of the clearest, cleaning swimming you've ever seen. The stunning pool has waterfalls, grottos, and a bridge as well.

Photo by Matt Kiefer/Flickr.

6. Sycamore Pool, Chico, California

In Chico, the parks department has done something really cool: They've actually diverted water from Big Chico Creek so it flows through a manmade pool that can be properly maintained. The pool is a moving body of water!

Image via Saopaulo1/Wikimedia Commons.

7. Webber Natural Swimming Pool, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Truly one of a kind, in America at least, Webber pool is a living, breathing ecosystem. Unlike the others on this list, the water never leaves the facility here; rather it's filtered every couple of hours by plants, rocks, and bacteria. It's an incredible sight to behold.

Photo courtesy of the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board.

8. Hancock Springs Pool, Lampasas, Texas

Another pool that opened in the early 1900s, Hancock Springs is a big tourist draw, with its sparkling blue spring water and serene tree cover. When it first opened, people came to the pool to get baptized, but these days it's all about their dive-in movie nights.

Photo by Lampasas, Texas, Parks Department, used with permission.

9. The Ranch at Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California

Furnace Creek actually features two spring-fed pools along with an impressive conservation system for ensuring the water doesn't go to waste. Yeah, not a bad place to go for a dip in sweltering hot Death Valley.

Photo by The Ranch at Furnace Creek, used with permission.

Don't worry, spring-fed and natural pools aren't just beautiful; they're also totally safe.

There may not be a ton of chemicals in them to kill bacteria, but the water is usually brought in fresh from a nearby cold spring. In many places, the pool is drained and refilled regularly, with the wastewater being used to water gardens or fill ponds and eventually returning to the natural watershed.

So whadya say? Can you think of anything more refreshing than a dip in some of the finest water Earth has to offer?

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He couldn't play in a normal treehouse, so Make-a-Wish made him one of his own.

7 year-old Hayden Trigg has used a wheelchair for his entire life.

Hayden is from Austin, Texas, and suffers severe complications from congenital skeletal and nervous system disorders, making muscle coordination and movement extremely difficult.

It's a big battle to fight.

Photo by Austin Tree Houses, used with permission.

But even though he's faced more adversity than most adults, Hayden is still a kid. He loves planes. And he loves trains.

After watching an episode of Discovery Channel's "Treehouse Masters," he fell in love with treehouses, too.

It didn't look like playing in a treehouse fort was something Hayden was ever going to be able to do, though.

That is, until the Make-a-Wish Foundation and its partners stepped in.

His family reached out to Make-a-Wish to see if there was any way they could help.

Last year, they found out that, amazingly, Hayden's wish was going to be granted: He was getting a treehouse.

“He spent months in the hospital last year — three months,” mother Adrienne Trigg told The Statesmen. “Everywhere we’d go, he’d tell people, ‘I’m getting a treehouse built for Make-A-Wish.’ It was something to look forward to and a distraction."

Two local companies, Austin Tree Houses and BioTrust Nutrition, also joined the effort to make a treehouse happen for Hayden, providing the funds and labor to create one seriously impressive structure.

Take a look at Hayden's amazing new hideaway:

Photo by Austin Tree Houses, used with permission.

Photo by Austin Tree Houses, used with permission.

Photo by Austin Tree Houses, used with permission.

On May 17, the treehouse was finally finished. And Hayden's entire first-grade class came by to help him break it in with an epic pizza party.

Photo by Austin Tree Houses, used with permission.

Photo by Make-a-Wish Foundation, used with permission.

Pretty soon, the treehouse was swarmed with kids, including a beaming Hayden.

Photo by Austin Tree Houses, used with permission.

Rob Soluri, the owner of Austin Tree Houses, said the structure was a $50,000 project. He told Upworthy it features two stories, a 65-foot ramp for Hayden's wheelchair, posters of Hayden's beloved trains and planes on the wall, and a bucket and pulley for hauling toys up into the second-floor loft.

"It was the best day of his life," Hayden's mom told "Good Morning America."

Even though the treehouse was built just for him, his mom says the long, wooden wheelchair ramp is still a struggle for Hayden.

Wheeling himself up to the house to play is a challenge. But it's a challenge he's tackled head-on as he continues physical therapy.

Cheers to Hayden for fighting for his right to be a kid, and to all the incredible heroes standing diligently in his corner.

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After getting sick, this 15-year-old missed her favorite band — until they surprised her.

After playing an amphitheater the night before, the rock band stopped to visit a fan.

On Thursday night, rock band Florence and the Machine played to a packed crowd at the Austin360 Amphitheater in Austin, Texas.

As usual, lead singer Florence Welch wowed the audience with her theatrics and powerful voice.

But something was missing.

Photo by Mauricio Santana/Getty Images.

A 15-year-old girl at nearby Hospice Austin's Christopher House was confined to her bed and unable to attend the concert.

She and her best friend had long planned to attend that night's Florence and the Machine concert. Unfortunately, she landed in hospice and was too weak to make it.

She was crushed, but good news was right around the corner.

The day after the band's Austin concert, Welch and guitarist Rob Ackroyd decided to make that 15-year-old's dream come true — with a private concert.

It's not every day you go from performing in front of thousands of people to joining just a roomful of people in song and celebration — but that's exactly what Welch and Ackroyd did. At the hospice, the two played through songs such as "Shake It Out" and "Dog Days Are Over," with Welch holding the patient's hand and focusing her energy.

Even watching the video takes you into this sort of otherworldly, joyous experience.

Photo via Hospice Austin's Christopher House/YouTube.

There were smiles, there were tears, and above all, there was love filling that room.

Welch was even pretty impressed with the harmonies being sung by some of the visitors.

GIFs via Hospice Austin's Christopher House.

And of course, there was clapping.

In a Facebook post, Hospice Austin nurse Lev Baesh remarked on the experience of being in that room.

"I spend half of my days exhausted after working the other half as a hospice nurse. Today, I dragged myself back to the hospice house after three 12+ hour shifts to witness a gift."

And what a wonderful gift it was.

It was a reminder that no matter how dark the world seems at times, there are moments of great beauty and love sprinkled throughout. When times get tough, remember those moments because they give great hope.

You can watch Florence Welch and her new friends sing "Shake It Out" in the video below.


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