The Katie Chronicles; Light and Dark Edition

Katie and I were in the car today for about an hour doing errands and Katie was at full strength. Here are the highlights.

1. Katie had a good friend

-- let's call her Roberta -- who devolved last year into really mean, manipulative, and volatile so the friendship ended. Roberta's family is from another country -- let's say Canada -- and Katie was expressing concern that she would see Roberta at an upcoming camp. I asked Katie, "Weren't Roberta and her family supposed to move back to Canada?" Katie replied, "No, they're not, sadly. [pause] Whoa, I got dark there for a second. Sorry."

2. Later, we were discussing the two fantastic music teachers Katie has had during elementary school. "I really love Ms. Gunter. She has such a good spirit. I really like her aura." 

3. During one of our stops, we noticed a cupcake store was finally open after a long "coming soon" build-up so we stopped in and Katie bought a red velvet cupcake. Later in the car, she took it out to make sure it hadn't melted in the heat. At the same time, the 80s song "Don't You Want Me Baby" came on the radio and she started singing along. When they got to the second verse, I hear "Don't you want me, cupcake? Don't you want me, oh-o-o? I do want you, cupcake, I want you, oh-o-o." Then she was singing along to the part that says, "you better change it back or we will both be sorry," and she says, "Whoa, that's really creepy." Indeed, although I never noticed that when I was a kid. It wasn't until I heard it again as an adult that I got the menace in that line. 

So there you have Katie's backseat insights for Tuesday. We cover the spectrum from light to dark in our car ride conversations. 

The Katie Chronicles: Ten Going On Fifty Edition

Katie has been at Girl Scout camp week and, even though it's a day camp, older girls can stay the night for one night if they choose. Katie had intended to stay the night tonight but I got a call in the afternoon saying she wasn't going to stay. She said she just changed her mind and nothing was wrong, so I went to get her after the camp was over for the evening. On the way home, she told me that she had been getting some headaches and also the girls she would have shared a tent with were talking about how they were going to stay up all night long. They apparently said they were going to make her stay up, too. She told me, "I didn't want to stay up all night. I just want to get some sleep." This is what happens when you're 10 and have middle-aged parents. You have no desire to see what the world gets up to after 10.30 pm. Next, she'll be complaining about the property taxes and grunting when she has to get up from the couch.