Star Gazers 2007

Well, Kelsie has just been picked up for her first ever school dance. Actually, that’s not entirely true. She’s been to a couple others dances before, but she was in jeans and red canvas Converse hi tops, so it wasn’t “formal.”

Tonight’s shindig was formal, complete with the shopping for a dress, not finding what she wanted, fight with Mom, finally settling on a 50’s style dress, having the zipper come out a few days before the dance (and having to return it and go through the drama of buying the same dress a size larger only because her size wasn’t in), almost losing her boyfriend’s class ring, realizing where she left it, calling to confirm it was there (at a friend’s house; it was), getting ready, then sitting for 14 minutes waiting on him and freaking out the entire time.

When all was said and done, she and her boyfriend Jacob left for the dance (transported by his parents) without a hitch, and order was restored at Casa de Wally.

Click here to check out the gallery of pics (taken with my crappy digital cam; I seriously need to get another one).

star gazers, dance, kelsie, shawnw

And then, like, you know, like, he was, like…

Like. It’s my 14 year old’s favorite word. It grates on me like fingernails on a chalkboard. Like a fork scraped on an empty plate. Like Fran Drescher’s voice.

It also makes her sound like an idiot. Seriously, it’s every other word for her.

So, a new law has been passed. She gets five “like’s” a night (for this week; next week it goes to three) and once they’re used up, telephone time goes bye bye. Once phone time is gone, if she continues… well, we’ll get creative.

Do you have a word that just comes out without you realizing it? I use “good one” and “nice” too often. I’m trying to curb that.

shawnw, kelsie wallace, like

Kelsie’s Big New York Adventure part 2

Kelsie calls me again yesterday afternoon.

“Dad, you will not believe what I found! We were in Chinatown, and we went down this alley, and there were all these tables full of, like, Prada purses, and all kinds of stuff. For cheap! I pretty much spent all my money there!”

“You do know that’s not real, right?”

“What!? They said it was…”

“… It’s not.”

“Oh… well, the stuff I bought looks really sturdy so I should be fine. I bought a ton of stuff!”

prada, new york city, chinatown, shawnw, kelsie

If you see a single glove just hanging around near the Empire State Building…

My daughter called me from New York City. She’s on a trip with the band and they were visiting the Empire State Building today. The call went something like this:

“Dad?”

“Yes.”

“I lost Mom’s glove.”

“… Ok …”

“… I dropped it off the top of the Empire State Building.”

“… Ok …”

“We were up on top and I was leaning on the rail thingy and the wind whipped up and it went flying and I didn’t mean to drop it and do you think she’ll be mad?”

“… No. …”

“[sigh of relief] Ok, cool. Bye!”

Click. End of call.

empire state building, new york city, isotoner, shawnw, kelsie