Arrived home from work yesterday and she was in great form. Who knew she had teeth, there were actual smiles. Of course it all had to do with Art! Her art teacher reckons she’ll get an A+ for her cd cover which she’s been working on since the womb. Its amazing and she definetly deserves a good grade for it. She was up until 1 working on it, Art is the only real subject she gives 110% to…

So I made her a cup of tea and some toast, she wanted an unhealthy dinner from the chipper as we were going to the parenting meet we organise and could pick up the chips on the way home. Of course, the season that was in, no-one cept P showed up for the meeting so we headed over to Yello for a drink. He was in grand form, although seemed a bit off about something, not sure what. A frantic phone call from the kid exclaiming that there wasn’t a battery in the house and this apparently was the end of the world?

Anyway, calmed her down and told her I would get some on the way home. I knew there had to be batteries somewhere in the apartment, sure isn’t she always throwing them into the shopping trolley. I had a feeling I would open one of the drawers and batteries would pour our!

We got home and watched Tremors with her, a film I haven’t seen in ages. Slagged her off about fancying Kevin Bacon, she was none too impressed. She was texting everyone, trying to find a girlfriend, she’s decided to wants to try dating girls for a while.

She’s got her Blink182 concert tomorrow night with a friend from Athlone which she claims she’s not looking forward to, the two of them seem to have drifted a bit, hopefully they’ll hang out tomorrow night and maybe catch up on all the gossip.

I’m not really in the mood of writing today but I said I’d check in as by next week she could have dropped out of school and formed her own rockband and I know you’d be raging you missed all the updates.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 15th, 2004 at 5:13 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

I survived the weekend! Well, with n amount of sleep, it wasn’t too bad. Friday night we headed to the in-laws down the country. 4 hours drive down to the wilds of the West. Mammy 2 was delighted to see the niece and nephew. I was too busy worrying about the teenager who was having her first night by herself. She wanted a trial run. On the drive down, she rang us to know how to go about cooking pasta.

I had images of her burning the apartment down. Then she went off on a rant about her year head , who’s been giving her hassle about makeup. She wears a certain about of black eyeliner thingy, which in fairness if this is all the year head has to give out about, she can feck off with herself. Getting the kid up in the morning and into school is a feat in itself, if she thinks make-up is top of our list, she can think again. I’m all for rules and regulations but in fairness, she’s doing her best, studywise etc and she decides to wear a small bit of make-up.
It will be interesting to see how today goes.

We calmed her down a bit and she seemed in good form when I rang her later. She was studying in the room as the sitting room had too many distractions.
Travelling back up on the Saturday, I was a bit dubious about how she’d get on at the Bank with her little adventure in whiskeyland the previous week. We got back to Dublin in good time and had enough time to get changed, shower and head out to dinner with some friends.

At the time we were leaving , she was supposed to be back in the apartment with her mate who was supposed to be staying over. On our way to the restaurent, we passed by the Bank and there she was standing with two guys , one of whom had just handed her a bottle of some drink or other. She had just taken a mouthful when she realised we were watching her and spat it out.
She trotted over to us and looked like she’d been upset. Swore to us she hadn’t been drinking and it didn’t appear as if she had. Chatted to us for a bit and told us she was heading home. We opted to trust her and headed onto the restaurent.

That night, when we got home, she told us she had smoked a joint.

Anything that she can try, she will appears to be her philosophy for the moment. We gave her a warning that if anything like this happens again, she is not going near the Bank, ever.
She was fine yesterday, bounched into the room at 11 complete with Santy hat and wanted a full irish breakfast. Needless to say the Budvaar induced headache wanted nothing more then sleep so Mammy 2 got up with her and went over to the shops.

She studied for most of the day, in between demanding tea, a scissors, glue, her cds and her pencils. Shopping was fun, as fast as she dumped it into the trolley we took it back out. Its quite easy to distract her though, just mention something like “Oh, he’s cute” and she looks away and stuff is quickly dumped back on the shelves!
Otherwise , its “But I NEED that” pointing to some sort of plant? What on earth could she need it for, more spells to blow the electrcity? Speaking of which we are down to 2 out of 5 bulbs working in the sitting room.

She was in grand form heading off this morning even though we had confiscated her phone last night. Mammy 2 had put her to bed and was just in bed when she could have sworn she heard the guitar. Sure enough, the kid was sitting in the bed strumming away because she couldn’t sleep??!
As punishment we took the phone. She can survive without it for a few days.
I have a feeling there will be another note today though, she’s skipping Home Ec as she’s getting hassled . We were supposed to meet the counseller to discuss things but last Friday was so mad we had to re-schedule. Hopefully, we can meet her at some stage this week and sort something out.

Fingers crossed everything goes okay.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 13th, 2004 at 5:03 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Yes it is indeed 7.30 of a Friday morning and I am in work! Have to leave early and meet with the kids’s school counseller, oh I am beside myself. She returned to school yesterday for the first time since the incident of walking out and running away and I knew it was going to be hard.

But she stuck it out, although we did get a txt from her around lunchtime going on about everyone picking on her. She hates the school, I know she does, but short of leaving her at home and not getting an education what are we supposed to do with her?
Maybe the meeting today with this woman might shed some light on things. Anyhew, at least its Friday, she’s happy about that.
12,453 pencils were purchased yesterday, she’s big into her sketching or she tells us, she could be using them to make weapons of mass destruction for all I know.

We rented out The tale of Two sisters last night as she wanted to be scared. Little did I realise this would involve a dead arm for most of the night. When she gets scared she tends to grip quite hard on whatever is available. Its a good film, gives you quite a scare as well as having a believeable plot.
It was 12.30 before I got her to bed, as everywhere she went I had to follow. So, it was to the bedroom , then the bathroom so she could brush her teeth and then back to bed where she stressed for an hour over the Junior Cert.
She is werid, she hates school and goes on about hating it, but then she states she can’t study and is going to fail everything when she wants to get straight A’s? I don’t know, I can’t figure her out at all!

And to take a break from that madness, we’re heading down the country to stay with the other mammie’s brother for the weekend..Yay for inlaws! Actual I may have mentioned before the brother and his family are grand, its the mother and her treatment of our relationship, myself and the other mammies that irks me. She’s fine with us being out about everything as long as we do it behind closed doors. I’m her daughter’s ‘very good friend’. If only she knew how good. Ahem couldn’t resist..
Also P is home today from his conference thingy I think, I missed him. I might organise to meet up and go see Gloria doing a choral recital in Dublin Castle on Sunday, I’ll see how the energy levels are.
We’re travelling back from Mayo on the Saturday and heading out for dinner that night with some mates we haven’t seen in ages.
Here’s hoping I have the energy.
There should be some sort of fruit drink out there that you can drink and all of a sudden you have loads of energy to deal with anything the teenager throws at you!
Or maybe a handbook would be good.

On the plus note, went xmas shopping with the Chad yesterday and got the other mammies gift as well as the other sister and one of the kids pressies.
I passed on the subtle hint to the brother that she wanted a hair straightner, needless to say the reaction I got was priceless. Something about what would she be needing that for etc. This was after he rang me to inform me that someone had died down home and he was sure that the kid had went to school with yer man’s brother??
What is with country folk and dying? Mam used to be the same, she’d only ring you when someone popped their cloggs?
Now, I used to live down the country so I know what its like, but surely there’s more to it then wakes and funerals?

Okay, I better finish up, good 2 websites to design and one to update…Oh, I feel so important!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 10th, 2004 at 3:29 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

I set this journal up AGES ago and still have to get around the writing in it, the other half made one update and is all delighted with herself! Cheeky.

The child, even more drama, ran away last week. Left a HUGELY dramatic note, its amusing now, at the time it wasn’t. Lucky enough we listen to all the stuff she talks about and was able to track her down to a house in Dirtee Meath and some 19 year old Twat called Peter. She refused to answer the phone only to say that she’d write when she could.

We got the twats number and he wouldn’t answer his phone. So off to Guards we trotted to report her missing.

Giving her description to the Guards was also quite humourous.

Guard: Can you describe her?
Me: She’s about 5 4, long black hair, black trousers, black top, black everything basically with a , surpriseingly enough black bag with I hate the world written on it.
Guard: I see.

I should have handed him a picture of Wednesday Adams and then maybe he would have understood. Anyhew, fair play to them, they were great and at 12.30 that night, she
was tucked up in her bed.

She then told us about how difficult her farewells were and how she was crying saying goodbye to all her mates.

I cannot equate the moody and surly teenager she has become with the 1 year old that tottered towards me taking her first steps. They grow up so fast and other cliches in reference
to children.

School appears to be causing her bother, I think because the year head is actually Miss Trunchball, I kid you not. If you don’t know who Miss Trunchball is, shame , shame on you I say
and stop reading this and get yourself to the nearest bookshop and pick up a copy of Matilda by Rolald Dahl. Tis a great book and a great movie.

Enough drama for one week you might think, but no, stay with me, my story gets better.
Friday, hangin with her mates and it all appears good, Saturday , myself and the little woman are about to head out to a meet with some peeps when she wobbles in the door.
Spent her pocket money on whiskey and polished off a small bottle?
This made her even more surly then usual, yes, I did say more surly.

Thankfully , there was no hangover on Sunday. I made the mistake of asking did she want to go shopping with me. Three hours later I arrived home. I wouldn’t mind
only it was supposed to be grocery shopping, how I ended up in a shoe shop looking at New Rocks, I’ll never know.

I felt so like her mother that day, she wanted these fancy shows with laces and heels and stuff, so she tried them on and loved them. They were a size 8, she was a size 5.
She insisted that she’d grow into them, I made her wiggle her toe, you just have to do it , and decided there was no way she was getting these shoes in a size 8. The sales clerk
looked on bemused when I handed them back and her pouting lower lip hit me in the face.
Within 2 minutes it was gone and we were off to the next shop.

Oh the fun.

She has been out of school for the last few days, until we can talk to the teacher about moving her out of the class that causes hassle. Or maybe its the other way around!
She is finding it hard without Mam and I can’t even imagine, the poor tike is an orphan at 15. So on a more positive note, we’re onto her third suggestion for a crimbo gift.
First, there was the electric guitar, which apparently has to come with an amp? Okay, people, you’re reading the meanderings from a person who thought the word was rift rather the
riff and said Take it to the bridge a lot, so bear with me!
Then there was the New Rocks, boots that only be described as places where missing people hang out, they’re flipping huge. Now we’re down to a hair straightener and some gothic
tops apparently but stay tuned, this will most definetly change by tomorrow.

My head hurts. The evil Budvar forced itself upon me at the crimbo party last night. It was great fun and a good way to get rid of the stress of the last year. The lads are a great bunch
of people who put up with a lot of crap doing the jobs they do, the least I could do was bring them out for a night. They loved their t-shirts!

Okay, its 15.54 and I have yet to start doing my day job!
Its not my fault I had to spend some time sleeping and then there was lunch and then the doctor. Yip, I have RSI, no its not Rare Slut Indescion, its Repititive Something or other , I can never
remember the name. Anti inflammateries and i have to get physio, someone should just send me out to pasture. Seriously, it would be the best thing for me at this stage!
The doctor ,while a lovely lady, thought we were in for a heart to heart, she’s also the other mammie’s doc as well as the little un, so she thinks she knows us. I had my jacket on and was out the door while she was reaching for the kettle.

Good luck to her.

Meeting up with a mate tonight that I haven’t seen in over two years, looking forward to it in one way as it will be good to catch up but on the other hand, she doesn’t know about Mam and I hate bringing anything to do with her up as its still too difficult, sure we’ll see how it goes. Maybe I won’t have to mention it at all.

We’re heading down the country for the weekend for the other mammie’s nieces bday, a big in-law gathering, I am beside myself! Don’t get me wrong, her family are great, its just her mother can be a bit, what’s the word, overbearing at times. Maybe its the same with all inlaws.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 7th, 2004 at 12:04 pm You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Hello there whoever is reading this……and em….get a life!!!!
ok sorry that wasn’t very nice of me but you have to admit it’s kinda weird reading someone’s diary/journal. But then I suppose it’s no weirder than having one.
Rambling much ?????

I so don’t want to be working today. I’m wrecked for a change and am tired of being tired….if you know what I mean…..

Had a cool weekend with the other Mammy - she rocks
We chilled out and stuff while the teenager went to ‘hang’ with her mates. She’s gas, the amount of energy she uses to be cool without looking like she’s trying, is hilarious! Must be hell being 15 - all those hormones and the kid in you trying to break through while the adult tells it to shut up…..*shiver*

Anyway it turns out she had her first sexual experience. I don’t know how to feel about it to be honest. I know she’s 15 and some people do a whole lot more than have a little fiddle with someone, at an even younger age but I feel kind of disappointed in her. How wrong is that? I mean she’s human and we’re all sexual beings. And it’s pretty impressive that she’s waited until it was someone she likes as god knows she’s had many offers. I mean it’s not like she shagged anyone - just a bit of a grope…….
I dunno, maybe I just don’t want her to grow up!!!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 22nd, 2004 at 11:21 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.