See, what did I tell ya?

Remember how I told ya my family was going to go to the restaurant on campus where I could have my corned beef and cabbage and green beer on St. Patrick's Day? Yeah, well, it didn't happen. First my husband ended up coming home much later than any of us expected and by the time we got to the restaurant, there was an hour wait. So, good-bye green beer. I still did manage to get the corned beef and cabbage, though. We went to Old Country Buffet, which my daughter calls Old Man Cafe. Next to Chuckie Cheese, I think this is her favorite restaurant because she always wants to go there. Of course, the food wasn't as good as it would have been if we could have gone to our restaurant of choice, but beggars can't be choosers. This is actually the first year where I didn't make the St. Patrick's Day meal myself. Now that I'm working close to fulltime, I just don't have the energy to do a big homecooked meal during the week. Anyway, so I'm still running a zero on the green beer. Maybe next year. Maybe next year.

I was out Friday because my daughter was home sick from school, which means either my husband or I is also home for the day. It was my turn this time. Her glands were really swollen and her tonsils were large and inflammed and she had a croupy sort of cough, so I kept her home for the day in the hopes the illness wouldn't be made worse by over-activity. It seemed to work, her glands are much reduced in size and she's not coughing so much. Although, the tonsils are still swollen. When we were out to dinner Thursday night at Old Man Cafe, my daughter told us how she and her friends had been attacked that day at recess by a group of other friends. There's a little bit of background on this one. My daughter and her friends (which are mainly boys) like to have Pokemon battles. They're pretend battles that they make up in their minds, so there aren't any cards or action figures involved. It's just them saying they have a certain Pokemon with certain powers and whatnot. So they battle. One of my daughter's friends (her best friend, as a matter of fact) apparently doesn't always follow the rules and he "uses" Pokemon that aren't allowed or gives them impossible powers. At any rate, he comes up with scenarios that can't be beat, so he always wins his battles. Most of the boys and my daughter have become very frustrated by all of this. We've told our daughter to tell her friend she will no longer play Pokemon if he can't stick to the rules. So it seems on Thursday, this friend defeated one of the other boys with his tricky tactics. Once the battle was over, my daughter, her friend and another boy were walking along when a group of boys led by the recently defeated boy descended upon them like a Hun horde. One boy grabbed my daughter and pulled her away. A couple of the other boys grabbed the second boy and dragged him away, and then the henchboy of the angry loser grabbed my daughter's best friend and started kicking him in the stomach. All these kids are in the same class, and my daughter thinks of all of them as friends. So while she struggled to break free of the boy holding her so she could run to help the boy that was being kicked, she was really freaked out by the entire incident. Eventually, a teacher called them all to her and she reprimanded them, but I don't get the idea that she really saw what was going on. Anyway, as my daughter told us this, it became clear to me that she was afraid this would happen again. She was very upset to be attacked by her friends, but really, she was more concerned about the future. So I called her teacher Friday morning to explain what happened so that perhaps this could be used as an opportunity to explain why organized lynchings on the playground are not a good idea. The teacher said she would pull all the boys aside to find out what had happened and to make sure they understood this sort of behavior will not be tolerated. My daughter is relieved now and is no longer fearful. The teacher is supposed to talk to my daughter today to tell her what was said. As a result, none of the children will be allowed to play this Pokemon game anymore because it's obviously something they get too emotional about. The thing I find really interesting is that even though these kids have established certain rules about how to play, they still let the "cheating" boy win. You'd think they'd say, "That doesn't count because you can't use that Pokemon." They go along with whatever he comes up with. I don't know. Kids are weird but, hopefully, this entire thing is in the past now.

Once my daugther had finished telling us the entire story, she said, "I feel so much better to get that off my chest." My husband and I told her we were very happy she came to us and that she should never be afraid to talk to us. My husband told her if a boy grabs her like that again, she should head-butt him and get away. Basically, he told her that she could do whatever was necessary to get away and protect herself and even if she got in trouble at school, she wouldn't be in trouble at home for defending herself. The other thing my daughter said is that she was very "happy that they didn't kick [my friend] in the weiner."

"That would have been very wrong," she said.

"Yes, it would have been," I agreed.

It was made more humorous by the fact that she put her hands over her heart in relief as she relayed this information. She spent the rest of the evening saying, "I am so glad this day is over."