Zippers or lack of same

Something came to mind when I was doing laundry the other night.

I am one of those who goes through all the pockets twice and then pulls up all the zippers and buttons all the buttons before tossing stuff into the washer. As I was doing so, I noticed that all the zippers on my pants were full length and the ones on The Diva's pants were maybe 2-3" long, even on the junior sizes!!! I dawned on me that I hadn't worn pants with such tiny zippers since I was in high school and hip-hugger elephant bells were in style. FYI: yes, I did own a few pairs of those AND I WAS CUTE!!!

Earlier in the day, The Diva pretended to gag when I threatened to make her wear jeans like mine because that was the day I had on a pair of cringe-worthy elastic-waist jeans. (They were the only ones I could find--hence doing the laundry). She screamed "NO WAY!!" and accused me of wearing GRANNY jeans! Well, I do own a few pairs of those, I guess and I get lazy sometimes. There are days when I just am not up to dressing for the cuter Izod or Levi's that I own but I have never been accused of wearing "granny pants" before. I admit that I have caught hell for the "mom" jeans at times, but never the others.

Those tiny zippers made me nervous because the pants aren't Britney Spears show-it-all low, but they do ride below the waist about an inch. They also reminded me that Ms. Thang is less than a year to official teenager status. The clothes are changing subtly and it is sad in a way. I look at the cute little baby and toddler outfits and wish I could buy them again. I already know that even the more stylish outfits in the older girls' department no longer pass muster. She heads straight for the juniors department now, coming back with what can only be called "hoochie" clothes because that is all that seems to be sold in that area. Depressing...

Of course, it didn't help that we used the free kid's birthday coupon yesterday for dinner at Sweet Tomatos. That was her last "little kid" freebie. WAHHHH!

No car = insanity!

Today is a holiday, which means no work.

I don't have a car to go anywhere, though. My car is in the shop AGAIN for the same wiring issue it was in for a few weeks ago. So, if I want my dash lights to work, I have to let the dealer fix it. Meanwhile, my whiny child is working my nerves because she was hoping we could do something fun today. And she won't do the homework she has due tomorrow! AAARGH!!!!!!!!!!

It is almost 2 PM, they promised me the car by noon and now I am worried about having a car for work tomorrow. Craptastic!

This week in Balletland

Well, Mr. K is gone for good. Too many parents complained because of the way he was physically hurting his students. My daughter was always crying because he had a nasty habit of pushing her in the small of her back with his Danskin heavy-duty dance sneakers (or the weird tuxedo shoes he also wore). I heard the last straws were when a classmate of D was picked up off the floor by her neck and then later when the daughter of a cop had marks all over her back. Papa Cop apparently filed charges. But the bad thing is that they waited a month before explaining to the parents that he was not coming back and we were in limbo, because his missus didn't have the common courtesy to let us know what was going on.

The substitute (MB) that taught the class during that time was a godsend, though, because he managed to get a room full of depressed and scared girls back on track and happy to dance again. Towards the end with JK, the girls were drooping and dreading each and every class. They were actually saying they hated ballet and wanted to quit. Now, instead of keeping the sub that made the girls want to be there, they are replacing him with the mother of one of the girls in the class (and a company principal). Most of us have already tossed any notion of impartiality out the window as well as any chance of our girls even being recommended for the scholarship auditions.

On top of that, on the professional side of the house, the artistic director (BS) has left under somewhat cloudy circumstances. No one is talking about specifics, but all his choreography was pulled from this weekend's show and replaced. You can read between the lines in this article to see that it wasn't all champagne and roses at his departure. Oh, and he was actually gone BEFORE "Nutcracker" (right after Thanksgiving, I was told), but they kept it hush-hush because they didn't want any bad publicity.


http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/14/were-going-miss-him/


Of course that brings up the question about "Nutcracker" for this year. BS owns the choreography for the version NBT performs and the rumor mill is going full force about what is going to happen. The company needs the revenue from Hell Month (December) to fund the rest of the year and they are going to have to either pay BS through the nose for his work or come up with something else in a big damn hurry.

Sadly, that likely means that tuition will go up to ridiculous levels (although things like Summer Intensive have gone up big time). And I can't wait to see what "fee" they come up with for the Youth Company next year.

Fern Adair is looking like a plan at this point. I think Ms. D will be taking a class with them this summer--just in case...

Oh, and D still has a mark on her face from the incident at "The Nutcracker" in December. Big ol' red spot on her jaw that you can't miss! And, no--VS-K never asked about her injury or checked on her at all. So much for all that phony "spirit" she tries to sell to those of us who know better. Sheesh!

Sad news--Roy Scheider dead

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/10/obit.scheider.ap/index.html

Roy Scheider died today of what was probably multiple myeloma. I cannot imagine having blood cancer, let alone the pain he must have been in.

Picture from:
http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/188236.1020.A.jpg

Of course all the obits are concentrating on THIS:
I guess they forgot every other thing he ever did in his life or has in the can now:

http://imdb.com/name/nm0001702/

I hope the Angel of Death that came for him was as hot as Jessica Lange was in "All That Jazz".



Of course, I always wanted to be her because I thought Roy was just as hot playing a thinly veiled Bob Fosse and I wanted to get REAL close to him.