Getting old sucks enough without having to drag Jack & Diane into it

I've noticed something about popular music that kind of says something about today's generation and  I got it full force on my way home from work today.  Angel #4 is jealous of people my age for getting to be teenagers in the 80's.  Though I didn't realize it at the time, looking back now, the 80's were a great time to be a teen.  We had John Hughes, Ronald Reagan, Eddie Murphy (R-rated, not todays PG version), tight-rolled jeans and some really incredible hair.  The mid-80's were pretty much the peak of the glam age - I had hot-pink mascara for pete's sake!  Like #4 says, the 80's were cool, nobody says they wish they were a teenager in the 90's.  Our music was pretty awesome too.  For the most part it was pretty optimistic and, I'll admit, rather self-centered, but that's what the 80's were all about.

Fast-forward to today.  We've got All About That Bass and Secrets (I don't care if the world knows what my secrets are) which is all about, this is who I am, like it or lump it, suckers.  Sorry, that stuff just didn't fly when I was in high school.  You did NOT go to school in your pajamas, you DID comb your hair daily (and applied about 2 lbs of Aquanet) and no matter what Madonna wore onstage, people did NOT see your bra straps out in public.  #4 looks back in envy of the days when people made an effort before going out in public.  I'm not saying everyone should plaster on the make-up and spend an hour on their hair every day, but fresh clothes and a shower certainly shouldn't be out of line.  But then when I think about the other song I heard on the radio today and I understand their look of defeat.  Yes, it was the dreaded American Dream.  The song that states that it's "not the same summer song that you used to know, Jack left Diane 30 years ago."  Jack and Diane are MY people and they need to keep them out of their depressing little ditties.  J & D were all about making plans for the future, doing something with themselves, having dreams; to drag them into a song whining about whatever happened to the American Dream is just depressing us all.  No wonder teenagers can't seem to find the energy to get out of their pajamas in the morning if all they think they have to look forward to is just surviving life.  Okay, bitter middle-aged rant over.  Now I've got to go get my broom and tell those rotten kids to get off of my lawn.

On a totally unrelated note.  We've really got to get the curtains up in the living room.  With the big patio door in the middle of the wall and all the people out there shining deer down our road, I feel like I"m in a big fish bowl, or that alien zoo episode of the Twilight Zone.

Another parental last....YAY!

Angel #4, my baby, turned 16 on Monday.  Today, after 2 1/2 hours in the DMV, she received her driver's license.  That's it for me.  No more teaching kids how to drive.  No more temporary license restrictions.  No more having to go everywhere with my kid so they can get more driving practice.  Done.  Over.  She did really well on the behind the wheel test as well, only losing one point out of a possible max of 25, and she feels he just docked her the point so she wouldn't get a perfect score, because when she told the girl in line next to her why she got a point off, that girl said she never even looked in her mirrors while #4 was told she was supposed to check surrounding traffic  in her mirrors every 6-8 seconds.  Sounds a little nit-picky to me, but who cares?  She got her license!!  She's already made plans for the weekend.  I may never see my car again, but at least I don't have to haul her to the mall anymore.

In other wonderful news, the carpet was laid in our living room and new family room yesterday.  The guy finished around 5pm and as soon as #4, WE's girlfriend & I got home from belly dancing class, we moved the furniture back in the rooms and it looks great and feels so roomy after being crammed in the dining room for the last 3 months.

Yesterday was the last belly dance class.  I'd like to say we all improved drastically over the course of 6 weeks....but I can't, because we all still looked as uncoordinated the 6th week as we did the 1st, though Angel #4 caught on pretty well and could do the moves much better than the rest of us.  Next adventure?  Yoga

it's been a month already?

Okay, this is what's happened since I last wrote:

Life is fine
Went to San Diego for a weekend to watch WE graduate Basic Training
WE is now a Marine
The new Marine is currently home on leave and getting bored and ready to go back to work
The living room still isn't done being remodeled

I guess that's it.  Look at all the time I could save by only doing monthly recaps rather than writing something every week.

Oh, we did do something fun in San Diego.  WE's girlfriend and I flew out and met hubs, his dad & Angel #1 for the basic training graduation.  WE hasn't seen any of us since he left back in July.  I told his girlfriend that he was going to hug her first and she seemed to think that because I was his mother, I'd get the first hug.  So I devised a plan.  When the guys were dismissed and allowed to come over to their families finally, all of us stood in a long line and nobody could move, so WE had to make the decision who was going to get first hugs. (yeah, I'm kind of mean that way)  He took one look at us and knew what we were doing and said: are you really going to do this to me??  I was right, the girlfriend got the first hug, which is fine, I'm sure she missed him more than I did.

back in the swing of things...sort of

Things are sort of back to normal now with school going on.  One of my coworkers husbands is fighting cancer and she has to take every Thursday & Friday off to bring him to doctor appointments, so we've had to bring in substitutes for her, then this week, another ones mother died, so we've had to fill in for her as well. It makes things a little chaotic since I have to adjust my work hours to do the stuff they'd normally be doing but that makes it so I don't get much of my work done, and I haven't been able to catch up on that stuff since school started.  When I walked in that first day, there were huge piles of papers & files on my desk I needed to deal with, I still haven't gotten to the bottom of those piles, or my emails either, for that matter.  Oh well, I'll catch up eventually, at least I know I'm needed.

Last night was our first belly dancing class.  Over Labor Day weekend, I went to a local art festival with a couple friends.  One of the demonstrations was for a belly dancing school.  The three of us stood there for a little bit watching the dancers, then someone (I KNOW it wasn't me) said that we should give it a try.  We discussed it for a bit, then one of the dancers came running over to hand us a brochure saying that it looked like we really wanted to learn to belly dance.  So, with that little nudge, we signed ourselves up and were committed.  I talked Angel #4 into joining us while WE's girlfriend got talked into it by her mother.  A few more friends also got talked into it and by next week, there should be 7 of us in our belly dancing posse.  Though I did make the observation that it looks more like we're doing the hokey-pokey than belly dancing, but I'm hoping we all get a bit better as time goes on.

final bash of summer

Angel #4 is having the final summer bash before the dreaded school starts.  There are about 8 teens in my yard having a fire and for some reason, they also have badminton rackets, hula hoops and a frisbee.  I don't know and am not going to ask.  She pulled a real coup by getting the cute new boy in school over here, so that'll give her a few extra points.  The fact that he's a junior and drives just has added cachet.  All the girls are spending the night here, which means that somewhere, 4 girls are going to have to find a place to sleep.  They usually all just crash in the living room, but since that is still under repair, I'm not exactly what they're going to do.  Oh well, not my problem.  That's one of the nice things about your kids getting older, you don't have to be all responsible for feeding and taking care of their friends when they come over.  I just go to bed and the next day find out they were making waffles at 3am.  Whatever.

Friday night was the first home football game of the season.  And what a game it was!  Probably the most stressful game I've ever been to.  Our team was one touchdown behind during most of the 2nd half, only to make a touchdown in the last 45 seconds of the game.  The crowd went wild.  But we weren't done yet.  The opposing team then managed to get a touch down with only 16 seconds left on the clock.  Talk about a bunch of dejected Panther's fans.  But our dejection turned out to be premature.  With 4.3 seconds left on the clock,  there was one last chance to make a touchdown, and wouldn't you know it - they did.  A 1 handed catch with 0 seconds left on the clock.  The bleachers were shaking and I still had a sore throat an hour afterwards from all the cheering I did.  It was a good night.

Angel #1 found a place to live in Miami and will be moving in on Tuesday.  I'm sure that's a big load off his mind...as well as his friend Jesse's mom's mind.  That admirable woman has hosted 3 Marines in her house for the last 2 weeks while the boys were trying to find a place to live.  She deserves a medal.

our days of freedom are numbered

We're counting down to the end of summer and school beginning.  Tuesday, sept 2 is the big day.  Angel #4 isn't particularly excited, though they got a "hot new business teacher" so she's looking forward to computer class.  She decided that freshman and senior years are the ones you look forward to and sophomore and junior years are just fillers, so she's got 2 years of filler to look forward to.

I haven't seen much of #4 since I picked her up at the airport Sunday night.  We went to McDonalds on the way home and I don't think I've had a chance to talk to her since, she's been out with friends and doing overnighters trying to get the last precious drops of summer.  I thought we'd at least be in the car at the same time on the way to the football game tonight, but now it looks like she's babysitting instead, so I'm on my own there too.  I'm hoping my friend Kim will be at the game, she usually doesn't miss any because her son's on the team, but he dislocated his shoulder and did some real damage during practice, so he's out for the season.  It's his senior year, so it especially sucks.  We've only got about 5 seniors on the entire football team, so missing even one creates a pretty big hole.  Kim might be too bummed to watch the game.  Rumor has it that her son's shoulder might sideline him not only for football, but for wrestling as well, which is an even bigger blow.  He took 1st place in state last year in  his weight class and was really looking to take over this year as well.  Since this is a  pretty big wrestling town, a long-term injury would devastate the whole town-at least the wrestling portion, which is a pretty big segment.  I've been to more than one wrestling tournament where our bleacher crowd was double the size of the home town crowd.  We take our wrestling pretty seriously around here.

All's Fair

Yesterday I went to the county fair.  I met my friend Sarah there and we watched her daughter compete with her horse, then we wandered through the animal barns, walked the midway and watched the animal auction.  We both did admirably and avoided the worst of the fair food and had gyros instead of a deep fried anything on a stick.  I feel I deserve extra points for not buying deep-fried cookie dough, my main disgusting fair food downfall.  Sarah had to leave early so I ended up by myself at the fair that evening and considered going home, but then I heard the roar of the stock car races and knew I had to let my inner redneck shine through.  Man, those babies are so fun to watch.   You can eat a deep fried snickers bar on a stick while watching cars smash into each other at high speeds with the additional option of puking your guts out on the Zipper, all for only about $10.  Only in America, people.  God Bless the USA

I saw a few of my lunch room kids there and they all said hi to me.  I even had one excitedly show me his entries in the small animal barn.  He shared his knowledge of bunnies while also giving me the controversial low-down on his big brother's upcoming wedding as only an eight year old can.

My kids are so used to my hermit lifestyle that it seems my going to the fair by myself, of my own free will freaked them out a bit.  When I told Angel #1 what I had done, he couldn't have been more amazed if I had told him I'd jumped a plane to Baghdad to go conquer the Taliban.  I guess I need to force myself to go out more.

Today I spent the morning mowing the lawn.  It took about twice as long as it took WE to mow, but then again, I don't set the mower on rabbit speed and race over the grass so fast that I miss half of it either, so the yard looks pretty darn good.  I am missing my little WE though.  It's cucumber season and I made a batch of refrigerator pickles, one of his faves.  Previous summers, I would make a huge batch in an ice cream bucket and keep replenishing it, which I needed to do often because WE would just take the whole bucket up to his room and chow down.  Last week, I made a small batch with a single cuke and though I've been slowly eating them, the level isn't going down nearly as quickly as it has previous years.  The last letter I got from him, he said he misses pizza and jam, his girlfriend said in her last letter he said he was missing Twix candy bars.  I think he's missing familiar food from home and would be thrilled to dig into a big batch of refrigerator pickles right about now.  Poor little guy.