So Halloween went well. My house was "Nightmare Before Christmas" -ish with my decorations, music, and fog machine. People even took pictures of each other in front of my house. But, I couldn't help but feel irritated when a group of cholos (easily in their early twenties) walked up with their pillowcases seeking candy, costumeless of course, and start blazing in my front yard, just feet away from my kids. Seriously, WTF? I blew out my jack-o-lanterns and told everyone that we ran out of candy. The fun was over.

Am I the only person who puts Halloween decorations up on Halloween day and takes them down once the candy runs out? I can't put my stuff up early, it ruins the effect.

This year we're doing a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. I've got my black tree to decorate, my characters to paint, a million jack-o-lanterns to carve, and my "special effects" to create. This weekend it's all about ordering pizza and the kids fending for themselves. Mom's busy.

Oh yeah, if you haven't seen the Tim Burton short "Vincent," you've got to see it. -->

I went to a school function for my kid this weekend. It's so weird. I went to the same elementary school with some of the other parents and now our kids are in the same classes (sometimes with the same teachers that we had). Mike, who went to a different elementary school in the same town, went to school with some of the parents, too. Not only that, but I met my kid's teacher's husband and sister-in-law -- I knew them in elementary school. AND NOW I find out that my kid's social studies teacher taught my husband (and she went to that SAME elementary school as a kid, too). What is this? Little House on the Prairie? Doesn't anyone ever leave this town???

What was my motto again? Oh yeah, DON'T FUCK WITH ME! Well, today, someone did. And let's just say, she'll never eat lunch with me again. Awww, I'll miss the experience of ducking from her flying food. I'm devestated. Really. I mean it. For real. Uhh... yeah.

I've got a new motto. It's simple and to the point... DON'T FUCK WITH ME! People are learning the hard way that I can be a force to be reckoned with when adequately pissed off. Don't let my 5-foot stature fool you. The only peace I find is when I gaze at Paul Banks on my blog. Mmmm.....

Today was the worst day I've had this school year. When the bell rang at 2:35, I wanted nothing more than to run to my car and start the weekend, but no. There sat one of my little "darlings," after school serving his second detention in two days. Talking to him, and to his mother, grandmother, etc. is like talking to a brick wall. If your kid is a giant asshole, don't you try to step in and help him? When I tell his mother to look into testing for him, she acts like I'm asking her to donate a vital organ or something. Nobody wants to hear that their kid is a jerk, but isn't worse to just stand by and let him continue to be one? The kid is 8-years-old for fuck's sake! How hard is it to start by taking away his gameboy for a week? How about no t.v. for the weekend? Is that so difficult? Some people SHOULD NOT BREED if they don't want to bother raising productive human beings. People have got to remember that once the cute, little, cooing baby gets older, it becomes a kid that needs guidelines and structure in order to not get screwed in the head. I'm a teacher, I'm supposed to help educate the child. I'm not some kind of prison guard who is supposed to rehabilitate the criminal mind. I dealt with a kid like this last year (whose parents were also in complete denial). Can't I get one decent year without a future serial killer?