So where have I been. . .?

My pretty Girl
Originally uploaded by CyberJazzDaddy.

Oh Where did October go then? What made me fall off the map like that? What the heck was going on during the blogging blackout?

Well, It all began with my little baby girl preparing to put her foot on the first step of adulthood. Even in late September we were beginning to plan for the day she turned 16. The coveted age of the driver's license, that threshold of "real adult" experience and responsibility. We don't really have too many rights of passage in our culture, the American culture. But what I'm sure started out as a bureaucratic afterthought (how to manage all of these new machines and the people who drive them) has turned into just that. This is our coming of age, the gentile Bar (or Bat) Mitzvah of sorts, such as it is.

This picture was taken at homecoming. We had planned for her birthday party to take place the weekend before her birthday, but a few days prior to sending out the invitations, someone at school observed that we were planning the party on homecoming weekend! A very bad idea if you want your teenage friends to actually show up. So we moved it to the next weekend. The wife was very frustrated because the moon wouldn't be full like it was going to be on the original weekend we had planned. Leave it to theater people to worry about how the astronomical backdrop is going to look for a back yard party. And the grandma was a little heartbroken as well, because now the birthday party was going to be happening on the weekend of her wedding Anniversary and she and dad already had plans and reservations set up---so she was going to have miss it, a thought that upset her greatly. Less that an ideal situation, but we had to do the best we could.

So the first weekend of the month our darling Kitten went to homecoming ----with a big group of friends rather than dates (which seems to be becoming all the rage, and I totally endorse the change). They had quite the group, about 15+ people, mostly girls, and they didn't want to deal with the hassle of trying to get reservations or seating at a nice restaurant, so the got drive through and had a picnic in the park beforehand. Then it was off to the flagship event--the Dance.

When they arrived at the dance, there was a boy there my daughter had been crushing on for some time, who didn't return her affection, and who also turned her down when she asked him to be her date to the dance. He had told her he wasn't even going, and yet there he was. When the music slowed down, the group of girls she had been jumping around with stopped and looked at each other like 'what do we do now?' My daughter looked over and saw this boy. She turned to her friends and said, "I should ask him to dance". One of her friends said, "You totally should"! That's all it took. She looked over and called out to him, "Hey, you wanna dance?" And he said yes. It was only one dance but she told me she did get to put her head on his shoulder. She was floating on it for a couple of days---all the while assuring us, "but of course, I'm totally over him".

And of course, she's totally wasn't. And that caused her mother great concern. He's not exactly rude, but he's also not smooth when it comes to dealing with the unsolicited attention of my daughter, so it comes off a rude and self centered. He's not the Big Man on Campus, but he is kind of the big name in the drama department. I feel like he's a potential candidate for the "best actor in school who goes off to LA or NYC to make it and gets a major reality check" life path but that's none of our concern. The thing for us is, we were just worried that our little girl would end up heartbroken at the hands of her own untethered expectations run rampant.

This far after the fact, we are happy to report that she's moved on, and has another young man who had taking a liking to her. A nice young man who shows her respect. Too bad I have that pesky no dating till 18 rule. I'm not kidding, that's the house rule that I've imposed. My kids don't realize it yet, but they have a mean dad.

More to come. . .