Attitude

One day in and the attitude has begun. I'd like to say I'm shocked and surprised, but I'm not. Miss Sassy mouth MS has a lot of hard lessons to learn ahead of her. Mimi isn't playing around this year. She's home from school and off and running after vowing there was no homework and announcing that she liked 6th grade.

I've spent the last hour filling out various forms that are repetitive and pointless. Does anyone ever buy the school insurance? I can remember bringing home that little envelope form when I was in grade school. My parents never signed my siblings and I up for it. I suppose if you don't have any insurance at all it would be a good thing. I put on my stern MiMi face and made sure she understood the discipline policy. I confiscated her cell phone (they most definitely are NOT allowed on campus) and attached the $5.00 for her locker.

Finally, I wrote the note to the teacher that explained that she will not be in school on Monday. Please give her all assignments so that she can complete them while she is on a trip to North Carolina over the weekend.  Why, you might ask would she be permitted to miss the third day of school? I ask you to think back with me for a moment.

It's the week of February 16, 1964. I was barely 10 years old and over the top for a mop top rock and roll singer from Liverpool, England. I was living in Miami, Florida that winter week when the Beatles descended upon Miami Beach - more specifically the Deauville Hotel on Collins Avenue. I didn't get to go to the concert. My family didn't have the means to afford tickets to the Ed Sullivan Show that was being taped there featuring the Beatles. But, I slept with my aqua blue transistor radio with the faux leather case under my pillow listening to "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", "She Loves You" and "I Saw Her Standing There". I wrote many letters and addressed them to Paul McCartney, Liverpool, England and gave them to my dad to mail for me. I stood at the raffle desk in Burdines at Dadeland Mall and filled out hundreds of tickets to win a "Meet the Beatles" album - which I won. That Sunday afternoon my dad suggested that we take a family ride. We sometimes did that and ended up at the Dairy Queen for a vanilla ice cream cone. This Sunday afternoon he had another destination in mind. He drove us to Miami Beach, right up to the front door of the Deauville Hotel, stopping and letting me get out and kiss the sidewalk. Even today, I still have a hard time believing that happened. It was very out of character for my dad to do something as wild and crazy as that was. There is a country song on the radio today by Bucky Covington that tells of his dad saying "I love you" the only way he knew how. That was a huge expression of his love for me and obviously one I've never forgotten.

My MS'ers idol of the moment is a mop top pop singer from Canada. Justin Bieber. She has CD's, tshirts, poster and fan magazines featuring this cute little YouTube phenom. She's "in love" with him. Silly?....I can't say that it is. It may have been many years ago, but I still remember how it felt. So, when her best friend called this afternoon and invited her to take her own afternoon drive, this time to North Carolina to go to a sold out Justin Bieber concert with her, what to YOU think my answer was?

Baby Baby Baby Ohhhh like.... Baby Baby Baby Ohhhhhh like..... Baby Baby Baby I thought you'd always be mine!