I hadn't noted yesterday's date until I was buying groceries that morning. I chuckled silently to myself as the checker and the shopper in front of me talked about the perils of leaving the house.
When I look back at 2009, I'm going to think of it as the year when EVERY day was Friday the 13th.
Of course, that's an exaggeration. The Mills family has had some good days this year -- even some that could be described as "fun."
But I had a really hard time finding happy posts to link to in the last sentence. I struggle with keeping a positive attitude in the best of times, and thanks to the triple whammy of problems with health and home and recession, 2009 could not even remotely be described as a good year.
Megan was feeling the same way on Thursday. For one thing, I had to get her out of school a little early to go the dentist. But her sad mood was deeper than dental dread.
"You're going to be mad at me," she said.
That got me worried.
"My new shoes were stolen," she said, nearly choking back tears.
She loved those shoes. We spent a lot of time shopping, and when we couldn't find the pair she wanted, she went online to the Converse website and created a custom pair that was just her own. It cost about twice what I would have paid at Target.
Our middle school has a uniform requirement, which is one of the things we parents like about it. I feel we've had an easy time of school shopping because of it. But Megan is finally starting to think about expressing herself through clothes. I know that will sound funny to moms of kindergarteners who always want to dress up in fairy princess costumes, but my daughter never went through that phase. She wasn't the kind of kid who cared for wearing fancy dresses; she never played with makeup. (Although she did love to make a mess in the bathroom, creating new "perfumes" by mixing together all the scented shampoo/bath oil/body wash/etc. she could get her hands on.)
I think all that time she spent in gymnastics left her with little energy to contemplate the image she was projecting to the world. Now, she's got plenty of time -- but little opportunity. The only items where the school allows her some creativity are in her choice of backpack... and shoes. So I gave in.
It took about three weeks for the shoes to arrive. Thursday was only the second day she wore them. When she finished PE class, she discovered that someone had taken them out of her locker. No, it was not locked.
"I never lock it. No one ever takes anything," she said. She knows now that some people do, if you come to school with something they want.
"It doesn't matter if they lock it up," our dental hygienist said sympathetically. "My niece has had two cellphones and an iPod lifted from her locked locker. These kids are criminals. They know exactly what to take and how to take it."
We're shopping for shoes again. This time, she's going to settle for whatever is on sale.
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