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For WEEKS now Kaiden has been coming home with these rubber band-like bracelets on her wrists that she has gotten from friends at school… “Silly Bandz”  She has been begging me to get her some, but with her behavior lately, I have not.  I finally decided this week that I would go ahead and get her some, as her behavior had shown improvement and after spending Tuesday going to multiple stores just to find out they were all sold out of them, I was ready to give up and be done with it.  At the last store, Five and Below, the lady said they were getting a shipment in Wednesday morning.  So I seriously left work and ran up there to get her some… just to get the last six 24-packs they had, because they had already sold out that fast… again.  The sad thing is, I remember being her age and how important those fads were to me… jelly shoes, Swatch watches with the colored Swatch guards, jelly bracelets, woven string “friendship bracelets,” Esprit purses, banana clips, watch rings, suede belts with matching suede boots, braided barrettes with the strings that hung down, flojo sandals… the list goes ON AND ON AND ON.  It may seem retarded to me now, but I DO REMEMBER how I was the exact same way when I was younger - so I do need to make the effort to let her enjoy having something that is the latest fad… even if it is a $3 pack of Silly Bandz!  That IS a part of growing up… just because it is retarded as hell to me now… it is not to her and her friends.

This morning, when I went in her room to make sure she was getting dressed and had not laid back down and passed out… she had like fifty on each wrist – which immediately turned into a fight of wills with me allowing five of them on each wrist.. but with a stern warning that if she played with them during instruction time at school and I found out about it – they would all be gone for good!  I am well aware that this is a complete waste of breath… but at least I feel like I tried.  Of course then I got to work this morning and opened up Yahoo, just to see the following article front and center:

Silly Bandz Bracelet Craze: School Ban Over Distraction

The Bandz are now contraband. Schools in several states, including New York, Texas, Florida and Massachusetts, have blacklisted Silly Bandz, those stretchy, colorful bracelets that are creeping up the forearms of school kids across the U.S. And starting this week, all 800-some kids at my son’s elementary school in Raleigh, N.C., were commanded to leave at home their collections of rubber band–like bracelets, which retail for about $5 per pack of 24. What could possibly be so insidious about a cheap silicone bracelet? 

“It’s a distraction,” says Jill Wolborsky, a fourth-grade teacher at my son’s school, who banned them from her classroom before the principal implemented a schoolwide ban. One student stole some confiscated Bandz from her desk, choosing them over the cash in her drawer.  Students fiddle with them during class and arrange swaps - trading, say, a bracelet with a mermaid for one with a dragon - when they should be concentrating on schoolwork, teachers say. Sometimes a trade goes bad - kids get buyer’s remorse too - and hard feelings, maybe even scuffles, ensue.

That’s what prompted Karen White, principal of Snow Rogers Elementary School in Gardendale, Ala., in October to become one of the first administrators to forbid students their Bandz. “We try not to limit their freedom of expression and what they wear, but when this became a problem, I knew we had to nip it in the bud pretty quickly,” says White, who has since extended an olive branch in the form of monthly Silly Bandz days.  (more)

GREAT!  Thank god school is almost over and summer is here.  I hope she enjoys wearing them at school today, because it will probably be the last day I allow it.  Maybe I will go get her a pretty braided barrette for her hair and work on trying to bring those back!!!

My friend that I grew up three doors down from, since the time I was three years old, Jeff Laughead, texted me last night to let me know that his sister had found this old poetry book from Elementary School and had mailed it to him.  I vaguely remember the book.  It was a book being put together between ALL the local Elementary Schools and anyone could submit poems and hope that they would be picked to be published in it.  My poem got picked - I was in the 5th Grade.

He sent me photos of it last night and it was cracking me up.  He uploaded a lot of the photos to Facebook also - there are lots of poems from lots of people I have known for a very long time - and every one of them is hilarious!  I was quite the poet… but now, at 34 and with kids of my own, I wonder what the heck the man feeding the colorful ducks in the park was REALLY doing…

When I turned 16 and was legally allowed to not only drive, but get a job that would give me money, I did so immediately… well almost immediately, the summer after my birthday.  My first job was at a tourist shop on the strip down at the beach called “Holiday Department Store.”  I spent my time there folding “Virginia Beach” t-shirts, printing “Virginia Beach” t-shirts, working the cash register and stocking the store.  I worked with a great group of people and got to spend my time down at the beach, which made me happy. 

Every day, in order to get to and from work I had to drive through two ten cent tolls and a twenty-five cent toll.  The small strip of interstate known as “The Expressway,” which dead-ended at the Oceanfront, at that time, was a toll road.  It pretty much sucked having to pay this every single time I drove to the beach - which was literally just a 10 minute drive.

One day in particular, I was sitting at work, when it dawned on me that I had ZERO change on me to get home with after work, yes there were alternate routes that I could have taken to avoid the tolls, BUT at 16 years old, you took the route that had no guesswork involved in it and was a straight shot to your destination.  I remember sitting there actually thinking to myself and wondering if my Nissan Sentra would fit between the toll booth and the bar that went up and down when you paid (which by the way, I would later find out that NO, my Nissan WOULD NOT fit through that space, without getting an enormous scratch down the side - lesson learned).  When it was time to close up the store, I went outside to start wheeling in all the carts that were in the front of the store that held multiple cheapo “Virginia Beach” novelty items.  When I got to the second cart, I noticed a vinyl zippered pouch in one of the bins.

I opened the pouch and found several hundred dollars in cash AND thirty-five cents - the EXACT amount of change that I needed to get through the tolls and get home!  IT WAS AWESOME!  It was like I was meant to find that money!!!  There was nothing else in the bag, no I.D., no receipts, nothing.  I took the thirty-five cents out of the bag and totally pocketed that right then and there, then took the bag to my manager and let her know that I had found it.  She told me that she would hold it in the office for a week - if no one claimed it, it was mine since I was the one that found it - you know… finders keepers!  I knew that money would be mine, the thirty-five cents was a sign.  No one ever claimed it and I got to keep the money, which was like winning a million dollar lottery to a 16 year old.

That was my ONE lucky moment in my life and the only time I have ever found money.

If you had to pay for each thing you have done - how much would you owe?

1. Smoked pot — $10
2. Did acid — $5
3. Ever had sex at church — $25
4. Woke up in the morning and didn’t know who was next to you —$40
5. Had sex with someone you met on Internet — $25
6. Had sex for money — $100
7. Ever had sex with a lover of different ethnic background — $20
8. Vandalized something — $20
9. Had sex on your parents’ bed — $10
10. Beat up someone —$20
11. Been jumped — $10
12. Crossed dressed — $10
13. Given money to stripper — $25
14. Been in love with a stripper — $20
15. Kissed someone who’s name you didn’t know — $10
16. Hit on someone of the same sex while at work — $15
17. Ever drive drunk — $20
18. Ever got drunk at work, or went to work while still drunk —$50
19. Used toys while having sex — $30
20. Got drunk, passed out and don’t remember the night before — $20
21. Went skinny dipping — $5
22. Had sex in a pool — $20
23. Kissed someone of the same sex — $10
24. Had sex with someone of the same sex — $20
25. Cheated on your significant other — $25
26. Masturbated — $5
27. Cheated on your significant other with their relative or close friend -$35
28. Done oral — $15
29. Got oral — $5
30. Done / got oral in a car while it was moving —$25
31. Stole something — $10
32. Had sex with someone in jail — $25
33. Made a naughty home video — $15
34. Had a threesome — $50
35. Had sex in the wild — $20
36. Been in the same room while someone was having sex — $25
37. Stole something worth over more than a hundred dollars — $20
38. Had sex with someone 10 years older — $20
39. Had sex with someone under 21 and you are over 27 — $25
40. Been in love with two people or more at the same time — $50
41. Said you love someone but didn’t mean it — $25
42. Went streaking — $5
43. Went streaking in broad daylight — $15
44. Been arrested — $5
45. Spent time in jail — $15
46. Peed in the pool — $50
47. Played spin the bottle — $5
48. Done something you regret — $20
49. Had sex with your best friend — $20
50. Had sex with someone you work with at work —$25
51. Had anal sex — $80
52. Lied to your mate — $5
53. Lied to your mate about the sex being good — $25