The High Cost of Self Esteem (but I'll pay it) !

My youngest is my only daughter.

A total gift in her self.

An average student, but a tremendous young person. I have never seen a girl that enjoyed a math tutoring class as much as she did (it was her very own social club) but it did greatly improve her grade.

Last year she decided to try out for the track team...went to practice every day for two weeks...gave it her all...and was cut on the last day to be replaced by three girls that came to the last two days of the tryouts.

My sore point was "Let her make the stinking team...she doesn't have to run in every meet, but if my girl wants to run...LET HER".

It totally crushed her, mainly because they took her picture with the track team for the yearbook one day and cut her the next.

This year...half way through the year she volunteered to try out as a sub for the Winter Guards (the fancy dancy flag twirlers).

She tried out for the sub position and HOT DOG was asked to finish out the year in their remaining competitions.

The director/choreographer/leader and obviously part time teacher told me when I went to pick her up that she had caught on very quickly and even helped out some of the girls that had been on the team all year.

He told me that I looked so familiar to him and when Massey told him where I worked...that was it! He said I had waited on him several times at the restaurant and that I was a fabulous (a word I think he uses a lot) server. I thanked him and gave my standard reply "I didn't go to college for nothing"!!

He gave the me forms to fill out and some information sheets. Then he hit me square between the deposit slips with "The cost is six fifty", I knew immediately that the decimal point wasn't after the SIX. I think that I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
He quickly came back with that since she was joining halfway through the year we could work out a payment plan with a discount.

Hopefully this means $325.00

As far as a payment plan, I felt like telling him to get in line...I am already on so many payment plans that I feel like the next twenty years have been mapped out for me.

I felt like adding...since I am such a fabulous server, you'll need to be uppin those tips when I wait on you too.

I told my husband that the joy in my daughter's face and the total elation of being good at something and being encouraged was enough for me...I'LL DO IT!!

I can pick up extra shifts and work seven days a week if need be...to have a child not only WANT to be a part of something but actually excel at it is reward enough for me.

The only downside is that if she is THAT good...next year I'll be shelling out the entire $650.00.

I look at it this way...I never had to buy HER braces...both the boys cost me $3500.00 a piece. They aren't in Winter Guard...but they both have an extremely winning smile (thanks to Mom).

All that matters in the end run is that she feels wonderful and a part of something that means the world to her.

I just wonder what precious metal this flag she is twirling is made of? $650.00...

PLEEZEE...talk about inflated pricing!!

I may end up in a bail out package before it is all over...but my little girl is happy, and to me that is all that truly matters.

The Secret Life of Bees

Monday is my only day off, and for the past two weeks I have worked on Monday as well (I did take one day off to move my sister into her new house, but that wasn't really resting).

Today was my first full day off in over three weeks and I took the day to read "The Secret Life of Bees".

I cannot express what a wonderful day I had reading this book. It touched my heart and touched my conscience.

I first heard about this book on my family website from a cousin, and today when picking up a book for my daughter at Barnes and Noble, I picked up a copy of "Secret Life..." and came home to an empty house, the kids were at school and the husband was at work, so I sat down to just read a couple of chapters.

I paused to feed the dogs and cook dinner, but I spent the balance of my day reading this book.

I finished it in six hours (with interruptions for taking care of my family) and consider it a day well spent.

It was possibly the most moving book that I have read in years.

To think how far this country has come, to think of where we emerged from (segregation) and why it has taken us so long to get here...baffles my mind.

To think that a person is a lesser person because their skin color is different totally offends me.

I went to the only fully integrated high school in our small town and had as many black friends as I had white.

I feel blessed to have gone to this school, because it raised me to know that people are people...it is what is inside your soul that matters and what is in your heart that counts.

With the new President elect...I pray that America will stand up to the task at hand...Support our president and end bigotry and partisan thinking.

We need to be a nation of Americans, not Dems or Repubs..we need to be a nation standing together and working for the same goal...To keep America the great nation that is has been and the great nation that it can continue to be with the right leadership (That's where you come in Obama) Make me and all of America proud...and be SO successful that your name won't even bring up a spell check on my computer in four years!!

Til next time...COTTON

My Yankee Connection

One of my faithful blog readers is a wonderful friend that has escaped the heat and humidity of the south, to return to her New York roots. She has three young kids and a wonderful husband.

She and I became acquainted when we worked together in a restaurant as the dayshift waitresses of a local restaurant. I had worked for the company for over ten years...moving from one store to another...managed one store for several years, and came to a new store that had opened since the owners had started to sell franchises.

We worked for a boss that can be summed up in two words..."BIN LADEN". He suffered from the Napoleon complex in a HUGE way (no pun intended....well, maybe a "little"...another pun)!!

He could be as sweet as silk..and then BAM!!! He could sling on that turban and seem to have an M-16 hanging over his shoulder in a matter of a few seconds.

Talk about a hot head!!

Needless to say, I enjoyed pushing his buttons more than I should have, and bore the brunt of his temper quite often.

We had liquor permits that we had to have on display...a drivers license size card that showed your picture and name.

I found a picture of ole Ossama Bin Laden one day in the paper that was the exact size of our liquor permit picture. I taped it over our boss's picture on his permit card.

Everyone that worked there thought it was not only hilarious, but VERY appropriate.

Our tyrant of a boss (who actually COULD be very nice, but had a fuse as short as his stature) took five dollars out of my paycheck for "tampering with the permits".

He should have known better, having known me for almost fifteen years.

I went right back to the newspaper, and found a picture of the pop star "prince" who was at the time going by a symbol instead of his name. When the press referred to him , they called him "The Artist Formerly Known As". By the way....How ridiculous was THAT?

So I find me a pic of Prince that exactly matched the size of my liquor permit photo...taped it over my own picture, and in the exact print that had shown my name on the card...taped over my name "The Waitress Formerly Known As".

BAM!! He took fifteen dollars out of my paycheck. And threatened to fire me if I touched another permit on the wall.

My friend and I had many , many hours of fun tormenting our "little" Napoleon. It was always on the sly and always just under the radar, so that we couldn't be fired.

She and I "ran" that place...we just let him "THINK" he was the boss. The bond that we formed in that short period of time will last a lifetime, and although she has moved miles and miles away from me...she will be close to my heart forever.

We had nicknames for all the regulars and other employees (only known to us) and shared a million laughs together.

She had a baby...moved back to New York...had two more babies...and is living out her dream of being a MOM...one that she was born for. She is a compassionate, articulate and intelligent woman, and I feel proud to call her my friend.

We speak to each other only once every year or so, but thanks to the internet, we have been keeping in touch more and more.

The years that I worked with and spent with her are precious to me. I can bust a gut thinking of some of our antics...and sometimes wonder if "OLE" Napoleon ever got over the anxiety that we inflicted on him on an almost daily basis.

Friends are a treasure to me that I will never take for granted. If you are my friend...you will be my friend for life. You will always be in my heart and soul.

If you are my friend...know that I will always love you and that I will always be there for you...now, tomorrow or ten years from tomorrow.

To my sweet "JO JO"... Thanks for the memories, thanks for loving me and thanks for reading my petty blog. You of all people know how much my writing means to me, how it fills me with satisfaction and gives me a place to show my heart.

I hope that every one has an outlet that they enjoy as much as I enjoy ... relish and appreciate... this vehicle, vice, space of my own, "my baby"...my BLOG.

Because of my friends, because of my family, because of my wacky interpretation of life... I am here...writing all of this to all of you!

And HEY !! Thanks for reading it. It means a lot to me...more than you could ever imagine.

Till next time...COTTON