Tis the season..ho.ho.ho.

I think I enjoy the holiday season because there's a theme. Chanukah: Blue and White (and silver or gold), candles. Christmas: Red, Green, Gold....(or jewel tones...that's always beautiful)...the trees,...I love Christmas trees...being Jewish there's not much opportunity to get involved here, but I've had them "for Al's kids", and decorated the crap out of it (red, white and blue...an NYC theme...little cabs, everything.) New Year's Eve! I am dying to throw the ultimate New Year's Eve party. This year would be all "white". I was inspired by something in a magazine and I love the idea of White and Champagne accents and although I am frequently too tired to put MYSELF together, I can spend countless hours, creating menus and decor for an event. I love a theme.

Needless to say, not everyone shares my enthusiasm for participating.

My husband has learned to go along with it. He used to worry I was going crazy or "a bit over the top" but honestly, compared to events I've been to, my little soirees are budget oriented (usually) and the intention is to make them easy. I'm going to figure out a way to make it a part time or full time situation someday: with character/costume rental, photographers, exotic locations, the works.

My husband has a large extended family and one never knows exactly who will be at Christmas dinner, so the challenge becomes to get a little gift for everyone...something that says,

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, we've been busy suing people.

'Tis the season to default on your rent, apparently.

Some people are really struggling, for them I feel bad, and we try to assist them, with temporary rent reductions or other assistance, but others....well, some people look for any excuse to "get over", and to those people we say...

"Govern Yourself Accordingly"

More on this later. :)

Well...that didn't take long.

As of Friday, she was missing 4 assignments in English, 3 or 4 in Math, and 3 in French. 3 weeks ago she was written up for "cutting" a class. We already gave her the "Class President is held to a higher standard" speech.

Not two days prior to my receiving this information (the teachers email me.), she was caught lying about not attending her afterschool Forensics club. I had asked her how the club went and she told me, "Great...we finished our hair analysis,...." and proceeded to describe the project she's working on. Which would be nice, except the teacher called me at home to tell me she didn't show up. She opted to hang out at the basketball court instead. Why didn't she attend this club she supposedly likes? Because she had heard others wouldn't be there due to doctor's appointments and "didn't want to be the only one there".

I very pointedly explained that the teacher's time was worth WAY more than hers and she should have had the courtesy to tell the teacher PRIOR to the club that she wouldn't be there, so the teacher could go have a life.

It's so annoying. I bought Halloween costume materials for her so she could go run around with her friends...and her father let her stay out till almost midnight. And it's the lying. I just can't take it. She actually had the nerve to write her father an email saying he just didn't understand how hard it was to be a teenager, (!) and that she wants to be on the honor roll (I guess they just put you there if you ask, you don't actually have to DO homework), and that we don't appreciate her.

Damn straight I don't appreciate her. Just when I think things are looking up, she screws it all up. I am not speaking to her, for the sole reason that I don't want to hear a word out of her mouth, because I'm sure it will be a lie. Also, I am out of patience and restraint. I told her that if she wants to be a loser, she should move back to Florida where she'll blend in, instead of wasting the opportunities provided to her in New York and embarrassing herself and everyone else. (I'm sure I'm going to hell for that one, but I'll be with all the other step-parents who finally snapped.) I'm tired of listening to myself rant about her, and the only reason I don't hurl a hot iron, or television at her head, is because I dump all my wrath and ire in this blog. (lucky you guys.)

She actually had the nerve to email her father and tell him that it wasn't her fault she didn't do her homework. (So it's WHOSE fault,exactly?) That her school is hard and she has so much going on...(Like???? we KNOW she's not doing homework.)

She didn't KNOW she was missing homework, because her teachers (All of them) didn't tell her. hmmmm....What about when you're in class?? Do they HIDE this information? What about when people are turning in assignments or going over them in class....where is she for that??? How does she not know she is missing homework? Oh yeah, because she's lying.

She made up a lot of work yesterday and then her father let her watch a movie. He figures she's off today for Veteran's Day so she can do her homework today. I said she should do all her homework now and get to watch the movie SECOND, as I feel he's not sending the right message, but he shot that down, so I give up. She's allowed to have her phone (but she can't use it...if she uses it THEN we're supposed to take it away..sure that makes a lot of sense.)

He's rehearsing in the studio in Brooklyn tonight (Band gig on Saturday night) and he actually told her that I may want to see her homework.

Well, I don't. I quit. I want nothing to do with it. It's all bullshit anyway. If he's interested in whether or not she does anything in school, he can check her work. He's TAKING HER WORD for it, that she's completed her assignments (Her word = ZERO) so he's going to be the one losing his shit all over the place when he finds out that she's screwing around in school.

The Results are In !!!!!

SHE WON!!!! :)

Jr. Class President Campaign Blitz

It's probably overkill, but we don't care. We are now fully engaged in shameless pandering. We had a small crew of kids over at the apartment assembling cards, candy and ribbons. We paid them in pizza and soda. I bet my boss wishes he could pay me in pizza and soda and get me to produce 1/2 as much. It'll never happen.

Next she finished the t-shirts, also pretty snazzy, if we say so ourselves. And we do.
And the buttons have all been assembled and are ready to be distributed.

Between all these things, plus the bookmarks , magnets and TATTOOS (They are sooo awesome...See previous post to relive the excitement!), I'd say our campaign materials, which we started on Saturday, look pretty swanky.

The only unfortunate thing is the video. We got the testimonials done, and her boyfriend, to make a long story short, committed to being able to assist, and then kept us waiting in vain, until we ran out of time and had to proceedwith our other projects. That's another post, another time, about life lessons, unmet expectations and being responsible for our own happiness. But she feels accomplished! She's going to test the reaction to the giveaways tomorrow, people will be wearing the shirts, using the bookmarks, displaying tattoos, and so forth. If we need more, we'll make more...If she doesn't win, NO ONE can say she didn't try her best. I think she'll be ok, regardless of the outcome, but I'd love to see her win.

Campaign Blitz tomorrow

OK...we didn't finish the video, because her BOYFRIEND who committed to assist, crapped out on us and we lost our opportunity. We would have done it without him but he assured us he was coming and we went on with other things while we waited, in vain, for him. (Long story short.)

This was a lesson in always remembering to honor yourself, and to be responsible for your own happiness. Men always take care of themselves. Actually there were a couple of lessons here and if she learns it now, she won't be learning it when she's 40. People do what they want to do. He made a choice to be somewhere else instead of doing what he said he'd do. She didn't break up with him(boo), but she drew a line in the sand. We'll see.

That being said, we had a nice little crew of friends show up to help assemble candy to give away.

Campaign Headquarters, Sunday night

The election is on Friday. They really don't give the kids much time or incentive to campaign. Very little information was given out and they are off on Tuesday and Wednesday for the Jewish Holidays. My how times have changed. I used to have to bring a note to school explaining my absence on Jewish holidays and even though there were other Jewish kids in my school, no one else knew what the holiday was for. Maybe it's because it's New York, with so much cultural diversity, maybe they just teach them about all the holidays. Or maybe the school district got sued. Who knows?

Anyway, we've raided the craft store, and have created buttons (see pic above), bookmarks (they were fun, but I'm not sure how effective they'll be stuck inside books.) T-shirts and magnets. We're not completely done, we plan some candy giveaways (We're going to somehow personalize candy with campaign information overnight.) but we're making progress.

We are working on a video to be shot in the apartment tomorrow night. I have never edited a digital video before (only VHS "back in the day" and it involved machinery). I downloaded Microsoft Movie Maker, and hopefully can teach myself to use it. The video will be a sit down type interview format with another student acting as "host", asking our "candidate" questions. She is also going to shoot "testimonials" at school tomorrow. If she doesn't get mugged for the camera, we should be able to incorporate it into the video.

I'm not sure whether she or I are having more fun...ok, I'm sure, I am. But seriously, how cool are the "Presidential Tattoos"?