April Coffee Date
Phew, it’s April! It’s the first Friday of the month, so time to join Coco and Deborah for our monthly coffee date. I’ll be at Starbucks drinking my favorite earl grey tea… and I have a parenting challenge to discuss. It always seems that once spring break is over, the rest of the school year speeds by in a blur. And I can tell you who’s absolutely ecstatic to see this year end… my daughter. All I hear nowadays is how tired she is of middle school. The rules are stupid! They make them wear ID badges! The dress code is too strict! They have assigned tables at lunch! Obviously, it’s practically a prison. She CAN’T WAIT for high school next year. To go along with this new attitude is a new look. Over spring break she cut her hair herself (apparently only losers go to a salon, when anyone who’s on tiktok knows you can cut it yourself for free) and…. dyed it bright red. BRIGHT red. I actually like the cut. I would have gone with a more subtle red, but I’m happy for her sake that it came out the way she wanted. But that’s not all! For the past year she’s been asking to get a septum piercing. At first I said no (of course) but now she’s asking for it to be her eighth grade graduation present… arg. No offense to anyone with bright red hair and a septum piercing. I know it’s a look. I guess it’s just that I’m having trouble reconciling this with the memory I have of her as a cute little girl with long curly hair, who loved unicorns and rainbows, and used to say that her favorite color was “glitter.” Anyway, now she’s fourteen and, well, it’s her nose. I don’t like the look of septum piercings, but that really isn’t enough of a reason to say no, so I guess I’ll say yes. Girls are hard, you guys. If we were having coffee together, I would tell you that Wednesday I did my very last long run before my race- the hay is in the barn! The race is two weeks from tomorrow. I know there’s still plenty of time for me to trip over a curb, get Covid, or end up with a stomach virus the day before the race, but barring any strange disasters, I made it! I should be at the starting line on April 22nd. I’m excited. If we were having coffee together, I would ask if you have anything special planned for the weekend. I’ll be working as usual today and tomorrow, so it doesn’t really feel like a holiday weekend to me. But we’ll make a nice dinner on Sunday and of course my daughter will be getting an Easter basket, as always. She may be too old for glitter and unicorns, but she still likes candy. Would you let your daughter (or son) get their septum pierced? Do you have a race (or anything else exciting) coming up this month?