—-

M: What do you think are some good rules for kids to follow regarding safe cell phone usage?
P: Don’t talk to anyone that you don’t know. Don’t give away too much personal information. Don’t tell things that may be harmful to other people’s feelings.
M: How does that compare to my rules?
P: They are pretty down.
—-

M: What do you considered sexting?
P: When people send pictures of themselves or talk dirty over the cell phone.
M: Why do you think people do that?
P: Because they are bored.
M: Have you ever sexted?
P: Mom, I don’t even text much anymore.
M: You didn’t answer the question.
P: Mom, I have never sexted before.
M: Don’t ever send naked pictures of yourself. That stuff lasts forever! You never know what people could use it for.
P: Believe me, I know.
M: Do you know people who have send naked pictures of themselves?
P: Yes.
M: Do you know if they regretted it?
P: I don’t know.
—-

M: Do you think you got a cell phone at the right age? (6th grade)
P: I think I was a little old.
M: YOU WERE A LITTLE OLD? Are you SERIOUS?
P: Actually, maybe no.
M: Looking back, I don’t think you were mature enough to handle a cell phone.
P: Yes I was.
M: Then why did I have to keep paying overages on cell phone use? You were not able to handle to rules and instead made me pay hundreds of dollars in overage fees until I got an unlimited plan.
P: Nuh-uh.
M: I am still a little bitter about it.
M: Don’t you think that I was clear with you?
P: Yes, but you were too strict.
M: Don’t you think 20,000 text messages in a month is a little excessive? Can you imagine spending that much time text messaging now?
P: No … I just had no life.
—-

M: Why do you prefer text messaging over phone calls?
P: Because, it’s more casual. Actually, I kind of like phone calls now.
M: You do? Interesting, why?
P: Because it’s quicker. If I have to say something or have a conversation.
M: You never call me though.
P: You never pick up the phone when I call. Sometimes I have to call you TWO THREE TIMES IN A ROW.
M: SORRY, I don’t have the luxury of hanging out next to the phone waiting for you to call when I am at work.
P: That’s why I text you.
M: Okay, that makes sense.
P: EXACTLY. it makes perfect sense.
—-

M: Have you ever had an argument over text messaging?
P: OOOHHHH YEEEESSSS.
M: Oh yes? It sounds like you have a lot of experience.
P: Oh the drama!!
M: Do you do that anymore.
P: No?
M: What changed?
P: I am a different person and I am not wrapped into the drama anymore. I don’t really text anymore.
M: What is the worst argument you’ve had with someone over texting?
P: Probably bitching someone out for getting with my boyfriend.
M: Really? That’s even a bigger argument than some of the arguments you had with your exboyfriend?
P: He and I didn’t really fight over text message. But the other boyfriend and I did.
M: Do you ever regret anything you have ever said over text?
P: I don’t really care. I don’t regret anything.
M: Wow.
P: It takes too much time to regret things.
—-

M: How long can you go without texting?
P: Probably a couple of days.
—-

M: Have you ever used your cell phone to cheat in class?
P: It’s too hard to cheat in class. You get all sketched out. Plus, the teachers are much better at noticing texting in class now.
M: You think so? What about your friend that tried to do it?
P: Well, we were in the cafeteria that day. That’s probably why.
M: How popular is cheating via text messaging?
P: Probably not as popular as the old fashioned way …
M: What is the old fashioned way?
P: The whole looking over people’s shoulders and stuff.
P: Cameras are used though. Some people take pictures of tests and send them around.
M: REALLY? So people can get a preview of the contents of the test?!?! That’s clever.
P: Yes. There are some high quality cell phones out there. But that’s just what I’ve heard …
—-

M: What do you think of parents who don’t give their kids a lot of unlimited text messaging?
P: Depends on the person and whether they wanted to text a lot. It’s up to the parents to make sure the kids don’t go over?
M: WHAT?
P: Now that I think of it, you could probably lower our text message plan.
M: No it’s fine, we are on an unlimited family plan.
—-

M: Do you ever write with (on paper) LOL SPEAK?
P: WHAT?
M: Do you ever find yourself writing in text message shorthand for a report?
P: FOR A REPORT?
M: Yes, like if you were writing a report for school.
P: Only ‘cuz. ‘Cuz it’s so much shorter than ‘because.’
M: Do you ever get in trouble for that?
P: I only do it on notes or things aren’t getting graded.
—-

M: Do you think that a 5th grader needs a smart phone?
P: No. They just need the basics. Smart phones should not be for anyone younger than a 7th grader. But it really depends on the person. If the person was an electronic person …
M: Why would you desire a smart phone?
P: I don’t know, because they are pretty. I mean, I am really fine with what I have.
M: Would you go on Facebook if you had one of those phones?
P: No, because I really don’t like Facebook. I think FB is like a big, terrible piece of website.
M: It’s a waste of time.
P: IT’S A WASTE OF TIME.
M: So many of your friends are on FB …
P: For stalking. FB is just for stalking.
M: Don’t you think that’s kind of weird?
P: It’s better for you to know someone in person than pretend to know them with what you see on FB.
—-

M: Do you hear a lot of cell phone interruptions during class?
P: I do sometimes, but most people don’t use them in class.
M: Do they get in trouble?
P: No, then just turn it to silent.
M: Do you think cell phones should be banned?
P: They are technically banned, but nobody listens. They still bring their phones in.
—-

M: Do you have extra strong thumb muscles?
P: Yes, but they’ve really are much weaker now that I don’t text message as much.
—-

M: Anything else you’d like to tell parents out there?
P: Don’t take away a kid’s cell phone for punishment because it’s just really annoying. It just makes kids mad at you. Make kids do hard labor or something.
M: But that’s why parents take the cell phone away from kids, because it annoys them.
P: You should make kids do hard labor instead. Why would you want to annoy your kids?
M: I think I am going to keep with my punishment strategy. Or I will incorporate both.
P: You would.

M: You know, in the continuum of parenting, I don’t think I am the strictest parent out there.
P: MOOMM. I AM SIXTEEN YEARS OLD AND STILL HAVE A BED TIME. YOU MAKE ME GO TO BED AT 9:30 ON A SCHOOL NIGHT. NO ONE ELSE HAS A BEDTIME.
M: Now that you bring this up, it’s 9:39, so it past your bedtime. We’ll leave our interview here.

Please note: This is a compensated post.

Later this month, as part of a campaign sponsored by LG and BlogHer, I will be interviewing Paige and hopefully a few of her friends about texting, sexting and of course, safety around cell use. And to top it off, because this topic is so important for our kids and their futures, BlogHer will match LG’s donation of .50 to Dosomething.org for every comment on this post. This means Dosomething.org will get a $1.00 for each and every one. Now get to it. What are you waiting for.

When you’ve had an old clunky printer around the house for close to 10 years – You
don’t know, what you don’t know. And I definitely didn’t know, what I didn’t know. It’s
been two months and the Canon Pixma Printer as made my life all kinds of better. I had
never realized how much my old printer was really just a dust collector. I scan things
now. I print. I make copies. It’s pretty ridiculous. Having the new printer is like going from
black and white to Technicolor. Or in my case, like going from dot matrix to Technicolor.
I think it’s swell.

Not to sound too sales-y – but the PIXMA Printer is incredibly intuitive to use because
of the Intelligent Touch interface. I didn’t ever have to open a manual to figure out how
to print something. It was super easy to set up. In addition, the quality of the printing is
amazing. I actually print photos on the PIXMA MG6120. With photo paper, the quality is
comparable to anything you’d typically get professionally printed for you. And thanks to
Vickie’s flower pot/frame craft – I’ve been inspired to start collecting thrift store frames,
refurbishing them and printing out all the photos that I’ve been meaning to hang around
the house. It’s the perfect project for this winter.

Along with the printer, the nice people at Canon also sent me a PowerShot SD4500 IS
digital camera. Paige has already confiscated it. She says I don’t need another camera.
I beg to differ. I don’t have a camera that takes HD videos. I don’t have a camera that
is small enough to stick in my pocket. Sadly, I haven’t even had a chance to take many
pictures or video footage with it. The PIXMA printer comes with software which allows
you to scroll through video footages and print out photos directly from any frame that
you select. I’ve been meaning to try it, but I’d have to pry the camera from my teenager’s
hands.

Yeah, you try doing that.

Text Msg: Did you get 8 for number 10? This is Taylor.*

WTF? I had no idea what the text meant or who this person was, but I felt compelled to respond:

Me: Not sure who this is. This is Giyen.

I got no response.

45 minutes later, the whole world became crystal clear and the meaning of the mystery text was revealed. For those who may see the obvious meaning of the above text, then kudos to you. You are much savvier than I. It didn’t even cross my mind until almost an hour later.

I guess to put it all into context, this week is finals week for the local high school. FINALS WEEK. Taylor is a classmate of Paige’s. Monday just happened to be a math final. If you still don’t get it, I am afraid your teenager will eat you alive for breakfast.

Me: If you are cheating on a test, you are busted.
Taylor: Sooo busted.

I immediately called Paige to interrogate her.

Me: Are you cheating on your finals? I received a text message …BLAH BLAH BLAH..
Paige: What?? I can’t BELIEVE you would accuse ME of cheating.
Me: You’ve had track record for making questionable choices this year.
Paige: GO AHEAD AND CHECK THE TEXT MESSAGE LOGS. I DIDN’T CHEAT. YOU NEED TO CALM DOWN.
Me: I am calling the school on your friend.
Paige: You are being ridiculous. If you call the school and ruin someone’s high school career I will never, ever, forgive you. EVER. I don’t help other people to cheat.
Me: How did he get my number?
Paige: I accidentally gave him yours.

Doh.

*Obviously, Taylor is not his real name. Though we hotly debated it back in forth, my panel of trusted friends and I decided against calling the school. So at the end of the day, he was not – so busted.

*****

Please note: This is a compensated post.

Later this month, as part of a campaign sponsored by LG and BlogHer, I will be interviewing Paige and hopefully a few of her friends about texting, sexting and of course, safety around cell use. I would love to get your questions and ideas on what to ask my real live teenager -  so ask away in the comment area! I know Paige will give you the low down on the topic. Or is it down low?

And to top it off, because this topic is so important for our kids and their futures, BlogHer will match LG’s donation of .50 to Dosomething.org for every comment on this post. This means Dosomething.org will get a $1.00 for each and every one. Now get to it. What are you waiting for.

I can’t remember at what point I turned to the Blue Bonnet – was there not enough food in the house? was there no one to feed me, and did I just eat what I knew wouldn’t kill me (at least not immediately)? or did I just think fake butter was the bomb? I don’t know the answer. All I know is that I remember it and I remember feeling ashamed about it. Even at that age, I knew it wasn’t right. Even the three year old me knew to cover my tracks. Can you imagine a mini me smearing teeth marks off of a whittled down stick of margarine, trying to make hard right angles with my chubby toddler fingers? Completely tragic.

I bring this up now because I am 36 years old and I still have that 3 year old lurking inside of me. Though nowadays, I’ve graduated to butter and hiding my affection for the creamy goodness seems a bit like blasphemy. Lord knows that I’ve tried to overcome my compulsion with food – therapy!  antidepressants! think positive! therapy! perseverance! meditation! acceptance! meat! therapy! gluten-free! CABBAGE! You get the picture. Nothing has stuck – which is really a nice way of saying that I’ve failed at this healthy living thing.

About a year or so ago I decided to embrace my weight and practice extreme acceptance despite what the scale said. For the most part, it has been working. Ask anyone, I am happier and more confident. I am a stronger, more resilient person. Life is truly so very promising right now. I feel blessed, blah, blah, blah.

BUT.

But – my body doesn’t feel good. There’s a disconnect that’s happening with my body versus what is happening with my soul. My soul wants to run a marathon but my body is only equipped to take me to corner coffee shop. Surprisingly enough, these layers of flesh that I once hid behind are now actually hindering me. Not just an annoyance, but actually IN MY WAY. Much to no one’s surprise, this ass is not going to act as a flotation device should I decide to zip line over the Amazon river.

I’ve been thinking (and obviously not writing) a lot about what my next steps in my life should be. I’ve lost my way a bit. I’ve shifted around some commitments. I’ve been making the things that are directly in front of me (work, family, dinner, laundry, sleep) a priority and not leaving any time for, as Stephen J. Covey would say, “the important, but not urgent” things. It’s hard to find the time. But then again, maybe I don’t really need to watch that episode of Glee.

Last year, before my Aunt passed away, she made me promise that I would take better care of myself. She told me two things in the hospital before she died, she said I was beautiful and she told me to take better care of myself. That’s it. THOSE were the words she wanted to convey to me before she passed away. Apparently, I never was a good listener. Or maybe it’s that things take a very long time to sink in. 

On the downhill slope of the year two thousand and ten – the year of flagellating – I am finding that it’s groundhog’s year. The year of repeat. This fall, instead of my aunt, I find my father’s body of 72 years beginning to break down on him. It seems the years of working rotation shifts in a mill to support his kids is coming home to roost. We haven’t had a good relationship and it’s hard to reach out and open that closed door. But isn’t this what daughter’s are supposed to do? Suck it up? The answer always comes back to “yes.”

Life seems so fleeting right now. I am exactly half that age and time has gone by so quickly. I have big dreams. What do I want the next 36 years to be about? What about my legacy? I definitely do not want to spend it talking about how I need to lose 50 pounds. 

That, I know for sure.

As thousands of you in the blogosphere know – November marks NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month – founded by Eden Kennedy of Fussy. I have to admit I am less than enthusiastic about NaBloPoMo this year. I’ve never been successful, but I am attempting to succeed for the third year in a row. “Trying to succeed” has always seemed to bring out the best in me.