Sunday Stealing: The Seriously Random Question Meme (Part II)

Another Sunday, another round of Sunday Stealing :-) This is the second part of a meme known as "The Seriously Random Question Meme"


21. Have you ever had a garage sale?
Well, we call them "yard sales" here in New Hampshah, but, yes, I grew up in a neighborhood of annual yard sales.

Funny story, actually ... one of my neighbors had a huge box of books left over, and she put them out on the side of the road with a sign that said "FREE". I, of course, went over and started perusing.

They were all the sort of romance novels that are pretty much soft core porn throughout. I brought the box home and read them. I think I was six or seven. This explains a lot ;-)

22. What color is your cell phone?
I have a Droid 2, so the "color" is actually based on the case. I've been through a red case and a blue case (I'm very hard on my phones), and the one I have now is a different type. It's black, which is fine, but it's all rubbery and awkward-feeling. However, after breaking two of the hard plastic cases from dropping my phone (a lot), this ugly case has the benefit of actually protecting it.

23. What is the last alcoholic beverage you had?
Captain and Diet.

24. Are you happy right now?
I just woke up ... I'm neither happy nor unhappy. Let me have more coffee, then I'll decide.

25. Who came over to your house last?
Probably a friend of my mother's. I live in the attic of her barn (heeheehee), so I don't exactly have people over a lot.

26. Do you drink beer?
If I'm in the mood for it, or if it's one of those "we're going to hang out at a bar for a long period of time and you don't want to lose control and/or do anything stupid" since I tend to drink the hard stuff really quickly and beer is more of a sipping kind of thing.

27. Have your brothers or sisters ever told you that you were adopted?
Not that I know of ... we had far better ways of tormenting each other ;-)

28. What is your favorite key on your key chain?
No offense, but that has to be the dumbest question I've ever seen on any meme anywhere. I have a car key, a house key, and a classroom key. They are what they are. I don't favor one over the other. Do most people?

29. What was the last movie you watched at home?
I haven't watched a movie at home for eons. I wanted to watch Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome last night, but I fell asleep on the chair watching a DVRed NCIS episode instead. I think the last movie I watched at home was Star Wars (A New Hope).

30. What is in your pocket?
Nothing ... I'm in my pajamas.

31. Who introduced you to your bf/gf/husband/wife?
I'm single ... is it really necessary to rub it in ;-)?

32. Where do you hurt?
I really don't hurt anywhere, which is kind of surprising since I slept in the recliner last night. Maybe I should do that more often :-)

33. Has someone ever made you a build a bear?
Um ... no. We're more of a Vermont Teddy Bear family.

34. What’s something fun you did today?
Well, I've only been awake for an hour or so. I cuddled with Belle (on the recliner, when she jumped on me to wake me up). That was pretty fun. And drinking coffee, that's always a magical experience ;-)

35. What is your favorite aisle at Target?
I like to randomly walk up and down aisles at stores like Target or Wal-Mart. My sister and I actually turned this into an art form when we were younger. You find random tacky crap that you can't believe a store would actually sell, you laugh at people ... great fun :-)

36. When is your birthday?
October 26, 1976. I am a Scorpio (and, yes, I am a Scorpio lol).

37. Is there anything hanging from your rear view mirror?
Nope.

38. How many states in the US have you been to?
The entire eastern seaboard (from Maine to Florida) and a little bit westward. That's about it. I haven't had enough coffee to count them.

39. What kind of milk do you drink?
Simply Smart skim milk (it's in a green carton and doesn't taste like skim milk ... it's pretty cool stuff :-)). Because of my stupid pancreas, I have to be really careful of my fat intake.

40. What are you going to do after this?
Drink more coffee, take a shower, take Belle to have lunch and go to the movies with her father, go back home, write final exams, go to the cemetery and share the love via flowers, work on the summer reading website, call my father at some point, find various ways to procrastinate ... you know, the usual ;-)

Do Teenagers Get a Bad Rap?

I have the opportunity to interact with teenagers virtually every day. The school year goes without saying, of course, and then there's summer school. Oh, and the incidental fact that my precious Addie is about to turn sixteen.

Yeah, I guess you could say I'm kind of an expert at the adolescent beast.

When people hear that I teach high school, I inevitably get some form of, "You must be very brave." The thing is, though ... nope. It's not bravery and it's probably not stupidity or masochism or any of the other negative stereotypes tied to teenagers.

Adolescents are young adults ... they are forming their moral cores, their values and beliefs, and learning the skills--both academic and real life--that will serve as the foundation for who they will be as adults.

Honestly, it's a true honor and privilege to be a part of that.

I was reminded of the bad rap teenagers get when I took the girls school shopping at Target the other day. We got binders, looseleaf, pens, pencils, and that sort of thing for Addie, then we got Belle some clothes. Addie a few shirts. Me a couple of things. Oh, and a birthday present for a party Belle was going to later that afternoon.

Anyway, our basket was pretty full. One of those weird ingrained things my mother passed on to me is the need to watch the cashier ring everything through. I've gotten double charged for things on more than one occasion, so I always watch just to be sure. Belle was clinging to my arm, but I suddenly noticed that Addie was nowhere to be found.

"Where's your sister?" I asked Belle.

"She went running outside," she replied with a shrug.

Just then, Addie came back into the store and walked over to us. She started putting the bags into the cart, and I couldn't help noticing that she was near tears.

I waited until we got to the car before I asked what was wrong because, like me, Addie is going to cry if she's close ... and she hates crying in public.

Basically what happened was that there was a woman with four children in the next check-out line over. One of her children was in a wheelchair, and she obviously had her hands full on many levels. When she went to leave, trying to push a wheelchair, balance a toddler one a hip, and keep track of two other kids, she forgot one of her bags at the cash register.

Addie saw what had happened, told the cashier she was going to catch up to the woman, grabbed the bag, and went running after the woman. The woman was extremely appreciative for Addie's help and thanked her very much.

The Target cashier? Not so much. She basically told Addie that she was wrong to do what she did and that it was basically stealing. Even though Addie's motives were obviously pure (the cashier saw her chase down the woman in the parking lot and hand the bag over), the message that my daughter got was that she was wrong to try to help someone out ... and that she was worthy of an assumption of guilt simply because of her status as a teenager.

Now, I hate helicopter parents as much as anyone. I cannot stand it when parents have this idea that their kids will always tell them the truth and go all Mama Grizzly when told that their child cheated on a test or something.

I also have no illusions that my children are perfect. I could easily write blog posts chronicling the negative sides of both my daughters. I don't do that because it feels wrong to me, but I am not one of those "my kids are perfect" parents.

This incident just really bothered me ... mostly because it really bothered Addie. I think this was the first time that she was unfairly judged by an adult, with the irony of course being that she was going out of her way to help a poor woman who would have had a hell of a time trying to get her kids all buckled in just to have to go back into Target to get a stupid bag.

There are bad teenagers, and I won't argue that. However, there are also bad adults.

Is it fair to judge all teenagers by a stereotype that, when push comes to shove, is really pretty unfair?