8/26/06---Something to make you feel old

So the other night...before the first day of school for the kids, Kim & I sat them down for the old pep talk....telling them how important it was to really focus, since both of them were in high school and their grades would REALLY start counting on their transcripts...ya know, that sort of thing.

So after the first day of school, I get home and ask the kids how school went.  They both said it had been a good day and that all their assigned homework was already done.  Well....we were off to a good start.....until......

So later that night...I don't know, around...9ish....Kim is looking at some of the paperwork that they had brought home and calls Kellie out to the living room.  She's looking at the itenarary for Kellie's Introduction to Law class.  Now, let me first tell you that in the course of that little "pep talk" we had with the kids, I told Kellie that she had really better be ready for a lot of writing and reading in her law class---because, ya know, that's what lawyers do.  So Kim asks Kellie if she had any homework for the next day....Kellie says no....and then Kim points out on the itenarary that there is a project do for Friday....Kellie has to find 3 articles in a magazine or newspaper dealing with a legal issue and then right a 200 word summary on each article.

"So did you know about this?" Kim asks her.
"Yes."
"So when were you planning on doing this?"
"Well I have the rest of the week."

Again at this moment allow me to point out that on Tuesday and Thursdays the kids have band practice and don't get home until around 8:30.  Which doesn't leave a lot of time for homework when your bedtime is 10pm.

So Kellie is trying to figure out what article to look into...and since of course, dear old Dad works at the courthouse...figures I can help.

"Well, right away," I tell her, "you can do one of the papers on the guy they arrested for killing JonBenet."
"Okay."
"There's been tons of stuff on that in the newspaper over the last 3 days or so."
"Okay."

Dramatic pause.

"Who's JonBenet?" she asks me.

And then I remembered that JonBenet was murdered when Kellie was 4 years old.
Man...has that much time gone by?

So Kellie is writing her paper...and I'm trying to explain to her just how crazy the media coverage was of JonBenet's death....and I actually said the following:

"It was on every newscast.  It was like....it was like O.J."

And then she asked me if I was talking about that guy who got arrested in Miami last year for hitting the guy in traffic and broke his sunglasses.

Nicole?  Ron Goldman?   She had NO IDEA.  Because, of course...she was 4 years old when that event happened.

And I felt very old.

Later,
Jeff