Um...is it too late for a "Happy New Year"??

Remember that classic Seinfeld episode where Jerry complained about being "Happy New Year'd" in March? Well...thank God I didn't wait THAT long to post on my blog! Its been a pretty eventful holiday season for the Bowdren's. Andy came home from college, where he displayed some signs of maturity....and some signs that he may still be 9 years old. (more on that later) First of all, the biggest news in our home right now is that Kim & Kellie are currently in Washington, D.C. for the presidential inauguration, as Kellie's Taravella High School band was selected as the ONLY high school band in the entire state of Florida to be chosen to play during the inaugural parade. Ha! Take that Sebastian! (Their biggest rival in statewide competitions)
Kim reports that they are having a great time, but freezing their butts off! They left on Friday about lunchtime, and the city of Coral Springs really did things right for them. After a month long drive to raise $150,000 for the entire band to make the trip (including a $25,000 pledge from Miami Heat star Dwayne Wade), with all sort of different fundraisers....the city had the fire department line the street outside of the high school with fire engines and shot the water cannons into the air forming a "bridge" for the kids and their buses to drive underneath. Kim said it was really nice and the kids were really excited. The police department then gave them an escort out to the turnpike and they were on their way!! The band director had decided that to save some $$ for the trip, that they would leave around lunchtime on Friday and drive straight through to Washington DC...thereby saving the money that would've been spent on a night's stay in a hotel on a road (to say nothing of the aggravation that 150 teenagers might have caused the chaperones during a one night stay on the road in a hotel). So, the roadtrip began for my wife...which basically meant a non-stop ride. Or, as Kim put it...."two days....no shower."
Oh my! She called me to let me know that they had arrived....and that, as expected, it was insanely cold there (good thing my daughter brought those thermal socks). Today they visited the Museum of Art and their departure coincided with....the beginning of tonight's festivities.
Translation? As I write this, my wife just called to say that she's standing outside the museum and the buses are not able to get through....uh, and oh yeah....its really, really cold. Kim has already said that if she ever mentions going on another band related fieldtrip.....immediately kill her. I'm sure its tremendous fun (outside of the cold) and an experience that all the kids will remember for their life....but....the truth is, because of the last minute nature of the trip....it hasn't exactly been really well organized. Not to say "I told you so"....but I sort of kept mentioning to the wife this past few weeks that organization didn't appear to be a strong point.

Meanwhile, back to the holidays. Andy came down and stayed about 3 weeks with us. During that time...he spent maybe 2 hours visiting with his family. The rest of the time was spent either playing videogames or messing around with his online gaming. Like they say....youth is wasted on the young. Before he leaves, Andy goes to the dentist for a visit. Kim calls to get the info on things, since Andy is not exactly what you call..."forthcoming" on this sort of thing.
And the dentist procedes to tell Kim that Andy has the early stage of gum disease because he's not taking particularly good care of his teeth at college. Which would be in concert with the fact that he's not taking really good care of his face either. So we sit Andy down to give him the old "tough talk" about his teeth (especially since we spent a fortune getting his teeth STRAIGHTENED when he was younger) and before we began, I asked Andy a question.

"Okay," I said. "I'm going to ask you a question...and you get a free pass on the answer. You won't get in trouble no matter what the answer is. I just want the truth. You ready?"
"Yes."
"Since you left here in August.....tell me that you've brushed your teeth more than 10 times."
"Um.....uh....no."

Yeah...like I said....he's not exactly TOTALLY mature just yet.

Later,
Jeff