What A Long TIme

It has been a very long time since I have posted here. I apologize to the many lurkers that have commented to me about my lack of postings. It has been a very eventful and difficult year.

Meghan started 6th grade this year and this the last year that she will be in elementary school. They are being called "upperclassmen" by the school administration and teachers. They even have a dance planned for the end of the year. To say Meghan is excited is like claiming the sky is blue:) She is beginning to look into which middle schools she would like to apply for and is currently leaning toward a Jr/Sr high school that is ranked in the top 100 schools in the United States. To get into the school is a lottery type situation.

As she finishes up elementary school this year, she is involved a plethora of activities. Due to financial constraints on us, she is only taking 3 dance classes this year. In addition to the dance, she is still playing violin and moved up one level in the local youth orchestra. She still has strings at school as well as OM. She added Art club and Beta Club to the mix this year.

Date Night

Last night Meghan spent the night with one of her friends, so Alan and I decided to go to a movie. Of course the one we wanted to see (Ghost Writers) started when I was getting off work. We had two other back ups ( Bounty Hunter and The Hot Tub Time Machine) that were dependent on how fast we go get to the theater after I was off work. Well we ended up with The Hot Tub Time Machine. Now to begin with this a R rated movie. that was the 1st clue that it might not be suitable for children. We walk into the theater and their is a mother with her three kids (Meghan's age and younger) sitting in the row in front of us. As we sit down, I think, "I hope she researched the movie thoroughly before coming with her kids to see this".

The movie starts and while it stupidly funny, you can tell within the 1st 10 - 15 minutes that this movie is grossly inappropriate for children. I expected that at any moment the mother and kids would get up and leave. Much to my surprise and horror, they stayed for the entire show. While Alan was in the restroom, the mother is walking by with the kids and telling them that was a movie they really should not have seen. Gee, you think?

After the movie, we went to eat dinner. It is now 11:55 so our choices were limited to say the least. So we went to Denny's because we do have a favorite waitress there who is really good. We get seated in a booth that is in between two other groups. The group at the table behind Alan was a group of four that were the age of our parents. The one wife in the group had obviously way too much to drink before she got to Denny's. She was exceedingly loud. She was telling stories about her grandchildren ages 12 and 7. She even gave sound effects that were even louder. When they ordered, her husband was concerned about how the ham was processed and tied the waitress up with this for about 10 minutes. Dude, you either want the ham or you don't want the ham. It is after midnight, does it really matter? The group seating behind me had been pretty quiet to this point and then there food arrived and the "woke up". Suddenly they f this, f that. I 'll kick your @**. They were just crude and obnoxious. As they spoke i was reminded that my grandmother used to say that people that spoke like that only showed how uneducated and limited their vocabulary really was. It makes you wonder how many of us manage to live such drama free lives.

Screaming for Attention

Some people seem to scream for attention but get offended when they get it. The other day we had a customer bring a monkey into the store to shop with her. Yes, you read right, a MONKEY. If you bring an exotic pet out in public, I think you are asking to for people to pay attention to you. From the moment this woman arrived in the store, she was hateful to everyone that expressed interest in the monkey. One employee asked about the monkey and was told not to touch that it would bite her. Hmmm...maybe you should not bring it out if it will bite people. Does not seem fair of her to expose her pet to the stress of the public if it is incline to bite.

I was to amused to see her try to shop with a monkey. It looked like it might be worse that trying to shop with a toddler on a bad day. The monkey was trying to get into and grab everything.

Finally!!!

Meghan has been a member of her schools string program for four years. Each year they send 4 members to county festival. It is the equivalent of the all county that many of my contemporaries are familiar with. This is suppose to be the top 2 violinist from each group within the school. Meghan has auditioned every year knowing that regardless of audition scores that she would be unable to go because she was too young. Last year they changed the requirement from 4th grade to 5th grade so she had to wait another year. Well this year she gets to go. Meghan is excited.

Tomorrow I will chaperon the rehearsal session which will run during school hours for about 5 hours. On Feb. 27 they will have another rehearsal followed by a concert. I am looking forward to seeing her reach this next step that she has yearned for for several years.