Post by Honeylioness on Nov 30, 2009 11:36:09 GMT -5
Well, now that the monthly is essentially over I thought I should get crackin' and actually post something for November. I think my New Year's Resolution is to be more on top of these things.
November 11, 2009
As it was Veteran's Day Anne had no school. During the trip to Niagara Falls she had met two other kids from Germany who are also in their respective school's show choirs. She "said" she wanted to join them and some others in Boston for the day to see both of them - but I know the real draw is the tall good looking boy - Torbin.
However this day trip did not get off to an auspicious start as the afternoon before she and Bianca had tried taking the bus service down to the Burlington Mall, which is only about eight miles south of my home. However since neither of them exactly knew what they were doing or how the bus system ran it took them almost three hours. Oy Vay.
And of course they HAD to make the trip as she "needed" a dress for the upcoming Harvest Dance/Junior Prom.
So when I was showing her the train schedule and maps I had readied for her she was in a tizzy. I know teenagers are volatile and emotion driven - but after 10 minutes of trying to get her to concentrate on what I was telling her while she ranted and cried and sniped about how much better these things were in Germany, and how American services are terrible and how she was going to get lost and how stupid our systems were - well, at that point I lost all patience.
So I stood up, gathered all the papers and told her "Anne, if you cannot even handle discussing this without acting like a two year old then you are most definitely NOT old enough to make this short trip on your own. So you are NOT going."
And I left the room.
That little verbal slap upside the head finally seemed to have gotten through to her and she started kvetching about how she so WANTED to go etc etc - and I figured out she was angling for me to take hours off of work and be her personal driver into Boston.
Hmmmm, let me think ............... NO !!!
Well lo and behold, when I picked her up at the train station that night it seems I really DID know what I was talking about, and I DID know more than Bianca about schedules etc, and it WAS extremely easy to manage. Gee, I guess for an old lady I haven't yet lost all my brain cells.
*Sigh* Living with a teenager some days just seem to drag on for weeks.
November 13-14, 2009
She left Friday mid-morning with her Show Choir to go down to Easton, MA which is almost on the border of Rhode Island for a Choir Festival.
Aside from getting to finally perform after all these weeks of practice she got to meet up with some of the other students she met during the Niagara trip.
The only part of the trip that did not go according to plan was the return. Originally the bus was scheduled to be back at the High School at midnight. That is late enough, but I know that traffic, packing etc can interfere with these plans so I had asked her to call me when they left Easton.
Finally, after not hearing from her, I called her phone at 12:30 am. They had JUST started home. Not her fault but I knew it would take them at least 90 minutes to get back. She called me when they exited the Interstate and then I drove to the school to get her.
Silly girl had said "Oh, you don't have to wait up for me, I can walk home"
I DON'T think so. I was not letting a teenage girl walk home by herself with an overnight back and bedroll at 02:00 am. I don't care what city you live in - that is just a bad bad idea.
Needless to say she was not exactly bouncing out of bed the next morning at 07:00 am
November 20, 2009
Tonight was the Harvest Dance. And again I can only scratch my head at the vagrancies of the teenage mind. If I needed to be home before 05:00 pm because you promised Keisha you would be there before 05:30 pm so she could help you with your hair - don't you think "telling" your host mother this would be a good thing?
Hmmmmm - it may seem as though Anne often does things that just confound me - but it's not really that way. It is just that when something like this does happen it reminds me how young she is really and that science has shown that a teenager's brain is no where near capable of the processing and retention abilities of an adult.
She did look cute in her new aqua colored cocktail dress with the over skirt decorated with black velveteen swirls and the black sash. It was too bad her feet are two sizes bigger than mine as I had the perfect shoes for the dress, but alas Cinderella could not make them fit.
November 30, 2009
November 11, 2009
As it was Veteran's Day Anne had no school. During the trip to Niagara Falls she had met two other kids from Germany who are also in their respective school's show choirs. She "said" she wanted to join them and some others in Boston for the day to see both of them - but I know the real draw is the tall good looking boy - Torbin.
However this day trip did not get off to an auspicious start as the afternoon before she and Bianca had tried taking the bus service down to the Burlington Mall, which is only about eight miles south of my home. However since neither of them exactly knew what they were doing or how the bus system ran it took them almost three hours. Oy Vay.
And of course they HAD to make the trip as she "needed" a dress for the upcoming Harvest Dance/Junior Prom.
So when I was showing her the train schedule and maps I had readied for her she was in a tizzy. I know teenagers are volatile and emotion driven - but after 10 minutes of trying to get her to concentrate on what I was telling her while she ranted and cried and sniped about how much better these things were in Germany, and how American services are terrible and how she was going to get lost and how stupid our systems were - well, at that point I lost all patience.
So I stood up, gathered all the papers and told her "Anne, if you cannot even handle discussing this without acting like a two year old then you are most definitely NOT old enough to make this short trip on your own. So you are NOT going."
And I left the room.
That little verbal slap upside the head finally seemed to have gotten through to her and she started kvetching about how she so WANTED to go etc etc - and I figured out she was angling for me to take hours off of work and be her personal driver into Boston.
Hmmmm, let me think ............... NO !!!
Well lo and behold, when I picked her up at the train station that night it seems I really DID know what I was talking about, and I DID know more than Bianca about schedules etc, and it WAS extremely easy to manage. Gee, I guess for an old lady I haven't yet lost all my brain cells.
*Sigh* Living with a teenager some days just seem to drag on for weeks.
November 13-14, 2009
She left Friday mid-morning with her Show Choir to go down to Easton, MA which is almost on the border of Rhode Island for a Choir Festival.
Aside from getting to finally perform after all these weeks of practice she got to meet up with some of the other students she met during the Niagara trip.
The only part of the trip that did not go according to plan was the return. Originally the bus was scheduled to be back at the High School at midnight. That is late enough, but I know that traffic, packing etc can interfere with these plans so I had asked her to call me when they left Easton.
Finally, after not hearing from her, I called her phone at 12:30 am. They had JUST started home. Not her fault but I knew it would take them at least 90 minutes to get back. She called me when they exited the Interstate and then I drove to the school to get her.
Silly girl had said "Oh, you don't have to wait up for me, I can walk home"
I DON'T think so. I was not letting a teenage girl walk home by herself with an overnight back and bedroll at 02:00 am. I don't care what city you live in - that is just a bad bad idea.
Needless to say she was not exactly bouncing out of bed the next morning at 07:00 am
November 20, 2009
Tonight was the Harvest Dance. And again I can only scratch my head at the vagrancies of the teenage mind. If I needed to be home before 05:00 pm because you promised Keisha you would be there before 05:30 pm so she could help you with your hair - don't you think "telling" your host mother this would be a good thing?
Hmmmmm - it may seem as though Anne often does things that just confound me - but it's not really that way. It is just that when something like this does happen it reminds me how young she is really and that science has shown that a teenager's brain is no where near capable of the processing and retention abilities of an adult.
She did look cute in her new aqua colored cocktail dress with the over skirt decorated with black velveteen swirls and the black sash. It was too bad her feet are two sizes bigger than mine as I had the perfect shoes for the dress, but alas Cinderella could not make them fit.
November 30, 2009