Lonely in Your Nightmare

I have a reason for choosing this song title, so it's only semi-random at this point. Although when it popped into my head in the first place it was completely random. Yesterday I had to go on Alyssa's field trip. On the wonderful bus ride to NYC I was listening to my MP3 player and Lonely in Your Nightmare came on it. Beth told me this was one of the choices of songs fans could vote for for the 'members of the fan club only' concert they are playing next month.

So as I was listening to all the cold out on your stone range, barren in your garden, heat beneath you winters, I thought, "huh, no way Simon is going to remember those lyrics." I don't even remember those lyrics and he was having issues with Friends of Mine on the last tour. I've seen him completely forget New Religion...and Beth it is NOT hard...which I also know all the words to. But whatever, I guess we'll see. It was just a random thing that popped into my head.

The field trip...I hate field trips. I never went on them with my kids when they were in public school and I was glad to get out of the classroom because it meant I didn't have to go on them with my class. But since my kids are now in Catholic school the rule is that they have to have a chaperone, if it is not you, you have to arrange it and send in a letter letting the school know who is responsible for your child. I assume this is because most of their trips include huge blocks of unscheduled time in major cities. Rob went on Brandon's trip last Friday to Inner Harbor in Baltimore-I already did that trip two years ago when Alyssa was in 6th grade.

The 8th grade trip is to NYC to see a show. This trip cost almost $200. We had to be at the school at 6:45 to leave at 7, there is isue number 1. They school uses the same bus company and there are always problems. There were two busses, one was nice, one was old and junky. The boys got to go on the nice bus, my opinion on why that was-one of the boys in 8th grade's mother is the teacher chaperone/class advisor. Of course, she's not going to put herself on the crappy bus, so the boys got the nice bus. Way to teach your son about being gracious to women. ;-> My seat didn't latch so if anyone bumped the back I got slammed back into a completely upright position and every time we hit a bump it bounced back and forth. Did I mention I get motion sickness? By the time we got there I was completely on the verge of puking.

We're on the NJ Turnpike, behind the other bus, people flying past us, we get pulled over! "Random inspections" that was a nice 15 minute delay. One of the mom's was freaking out because we had a time schedule for our tour of Rockefeller Center and we paid for it, etc. Yeah, it was 9 and we were about an hour away and our time was 10:45...we'll be fine woman, sit down. The girls didn't even notice what was going on at first that's how clueless they are. They were busy singing their graduation song, completely off key. I don't know who picked that song, but they sounded terrible and I can only imagine how much worse it's going to be with the boys singing. Ugh! I have that to look forward to next.

Our bus driver was perhaps the worst driver ever. Apparently the gas pedal is a switch, it is either on or off. Which made my seat bounce back and forth even more. Same with the brakes, off or on, suddenly. And the air conditioner was also either on or off, no happy medium. We were all either freezing - as in even the father's on the bus were pulling out their jackets, or it was stifling. I may have to change Brandon to a new school just so I don't have to go to DC next year!

We get to Rockefeller Center in plenty of time for our scheduled time-there is a bus only lane through the tunnel so even though it was completely backed up it didn't matter, we went in that lane. As far as I knew, we were supposed to have a tour, but all that happened was they sent us up in the elevator to the observation deck. I am not sure how much we paid for this "tour" I think $9, but it surely wasn't worth it. The itinerary had us there until almost noon but we were all ready to leave at about 11. We had from then until 1:30 to do whatever we wanted and get to the theater.

We went to some stores with Alyssa's friends, both named Ashley and their mothers. That was fine. I really didn't care, I was ok with just letting the girls do what they wanted since it was their trip. I think the whole idea is dumb because the kids don't spend time with each other. They only see each other if that's what the parents want to do. I think Great Adventure or something like that would be a better option. But no one asked me. Then again, I don't go to the 8th grade parent meetings either. All these trips are "traditions" anyway so I doubt it would make a difference if I did go. We had lunch and then went to the show.

The show was The Lion King. It was nice as far as shows go. I think I am "over that" right now. I used to be into going to these things but by the time it was over I had a headache and my butt hurt from sitting for three hours. Again on this being a dumb field trip, the tickets weren't even all together. Ashley W and her mom got there about five minutes before we did because I think she was trying to lose us and she hustled across the street in Times Square when the light was turning and I made Alyssa and Ashley F wait. Instead of waiting on the other side, which I would have done and I know the other mom would have, she just kept going. She was acting weird so whatever. She could have said she'd prefer to just go off on her own. I don't care, like I said, it was Alyssa's day and I wanted her to have fun.

The tickets we got were together, the four of us, but that was it. No one from the school was with us. After the show we saw Ashley W in the lobby and her mom was all "come on" and at that point I didn't want to deal with her either. I had already told Alyssa that I didn't think we were going to spend our two hours after the play with them because her mom was being weird. Plus Ashley F had said "Ooo Sephora" when we first got there but since Ashely W's mom didn't want to go there, we didn't. So I told Ashley I knew where the one in Times Square was and if it was ok with her mom we'd go there. When we came out of the play it was pouring, the girls were all three talking but then W's mom was all "come on" to her so I said to the girls "let's take a minute and figure out what we're doing so we can get there quick since it's raining.

We went to a few stores that the girls wanted to go to, they wanted McDonald's so that's where we went (W's mom nixed that idea for lunch-no idea why, seemed reasonable to me) then we went to Virgin MegaStore because it was still pouring and it was really all that was left where we could actually kill a good amount of time. We were right where they told us to be for the bus. Our brilliant driver went a whole block down and we had to run down the street to get on the bus and of course, at the time he showed up it was really pouring. We had all pretty much dried out while we were waiting for him and then got wet again. Of course, while we were waiting and could have walked down to where he actually stopped, it wasn't raining that much. Jerk.

It was 10 by the time we got back to the school. So I didn't get home until 10:30. Aly stayed at Ashely W's house. I asked her if she was still sure she wanted to do that after whatever was going on. At one point she and F were whispering about W - I didn't understand the explanation as to what was going on. I think it was "8th grade nonsense...she's controlling" something like that.

But I have to go eat something because I am going to Brandon's counseling appointment this evening. Fun fun. I think I need to get myself back on the schedule. If I feel like it I'll tell you all about that later. Or not.