Jennifer and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Days

The day started off with spiders. I hate spiders. For some reason the house has been full of them lately. And not just the tiny little ones, or the dust ones, but the big fat-butted ones. My dad mowed our lawn recently. I think he scared them into the inside of the house. One jumped out of the dishwasher soap bucket while I was filling it and made me cry (seriously!). I told my husband we need to move.

There's a 1st grade teacher at Lila's school that many people are complaining about. "She's tough, she's mean, she's insensitive," they all keep saying. "Make sure Lila doesn't end up with her!" They keep telling me. So at PTA during the "questions, comments, and suggestions about our school" segment - I brought it up.
"What's going on with this teacher?" I asked. "I've been hearing a lot of complaints. I'm starting to get concerned for Lila next year."
*crickets chirping*
Did I mention almost every other parent on the board is a 1st grade parent? No one said a word. I felt like an ass. A giant, fat-butted spider ass.
The principal shot me down and said that PTA meetings were not a good place to discuss these matters, even though it's a parent-teacher organization and there's no other forum around to discuss this stuff. We moved on and I felt this big. Stupid parents. They left me twisting in the wind.

There was another spider in the living room before I went to bed. I kept one eye on American Idol and one eye on him. I left a note on the door for my husband to kill him. "Take no prisoners!" I said. And I meant it.


Violet and I had music class this morning. That went well, except for the fact that I was wearing socks with holes in them and we have to take our shoes off in class. I tried to hide the holes, but Violet kept saying "Look a big hole! And another one there too! Are there holes in your shirt too Mom?" Which there wasn't, but you know everyone was looking just to see if there was. They all looked like they got dressed right out of the Lands End catalog and the kids were all sporting Baby Gap. I had holes in my socks and Violet was rocking the Hand-Me-Down chic look. Oh, and she wouldn't let me brush her hair either. Then Violet kept plucking the teacher's guitar while she was playing a song. Nancy (she's the teacher. Very nice, lovely voice) had to keep flickingViolet's hand away. Oh, and there was that one incident when Violet got bored, pulled her pants up to her boobs and said "I look like Nanny!" Apparently Nanny needs some Lands End Lo-Rider Trousers.

When I got home from music class there was a message on the machine from a parent that was at last night's PTA meeting. I called her back and she gave a small chastising for bringing the subject up. "That's not really what I feel PTA should be about. I'm uncomfortable talking about a teacher behind her back." Did I mention she's one of the parents complaining? She did agree the subject needs to be discussed, but not there, and she has no idea where. She's a nice lady, very friendly and all, but I think she needs a spine. Can she get that at Lands End?

There was a spider over the bathroom door this morning. I had to kill it myself and I hate doing that. I also had to throw a stack of books at a big black ant, too.

Terrible. No Good. Very Bad.
An Alexander day