"If you don't have something nice to say, come sit by me." - Mae West

Well... I survived the party of 2011... yes, my youngest daughter's HUGE dance party that she had last night with her friend for their 14th birthday. They invited all of the 7th and 8th graders at the private school she just transferred from and lots of kids from the public school she just transferred to. So... there were at least 75 junior high kids there. Whew! We even had a DJ sound system, with strobe lights, so it was THE party!

I grew up in San Antonio where we really didn't get caught up in too much gossip. But my town of less than 10,000? Gossip is the main sport here. It never ceases to surprise me at how bad news spreads fast but worse news is like lightning. Where I grew up, most parents didn't get very involved in their kid's lives, but here, (and this is good and bad) the parents are involved in every facet. They are asking, who's dating who, who's parents are getting divorced, blah, blah, blah. Many of the parents are also teachers, so they know a lot of what's going on at their 'workplace.' And there is a lot of drama, always...

The parents of the school we left are so curious why we left, and think there must be a huge reason. We said it was for financial reasons, but all the teachers knew that the biggest girl bully had her sights set on my daughter, and neither of us could take it any more. I begged the principal not to put them in the same class together in August, so she wouldn't be with her from 8 am to 4 pm plus all sports, but he wouldn't listen. And so we just wanted to leave with no hard feelings and no drama, but alas, not possible in this town.

We had planned this party before we made the decision to transfer. But, in spite of that, it went pretty well. The bully did Facebook (to over 400 of their closest friends) to my daughter's new friends that she didn't WANT to go, but that her boyfriend was making her. She tried to get as many as she could at her old school to not go, but to no avail. She couldn't run this party, like she's accustomed to running everything, so that was amusing. So, now I'm looking forward to the next few months of bully-free school for my daughter.

For that, the drama will have been worth it...