Stay Cool

We are in the middle of a long heat wave.  To be honest heat like this that lasts more than one afternoon is too long for me.  It's true what they say you know.  It's not just the heat it's the humidity.  You would be wise to look not only at the temperature but the humidity index before leaving your house.  I am concerned about what July will bring if this is what June has to offer.

Today as I rushed my cold milk and hamburger meat to the car from the grocery store a nice teen-aged bag boy said to me "be sure and stay cool!"  I told him to do the same and on my drive home I thought about that saying 'stay cool.'  Remember in high school when kids would sprawl that everywhere in your yearbook at the end of the year.  "Stay cool, and have a good summer" or the other good one was "stay cute and cool"  Like we were planning over the next 3 months to get ugly and lame.  As if someone who is truly cool can just turn their coolness off like that.  Are there nerd classes over the summer that I was unaware of?  And who in their right mind would enroll?

When I was a teenager I was convinced that my parents could teach that class.  They were so not cool.  They were old.  Super old!  My mother had no fashion sense and my Dad was loud and overly confident.  Now when I see old photos of them during that time period I think my Mom had the good sense to dress more classically (she ignored the fads thankfully), and my Dad's confidence was the essence of cool actually.  However at the time I vowed that when I had kids that I would strive to be a cool parent.  I would be Samantha from Bewitched.  I would be the Kool Aide mom that everyone wanted hosting the back yard sprinkler party.  I'd keep up with the styles and take my girls for pedicures.

Now that I have 5 kids and I am in my forties I have to say that being cool is totally overrated.  My 17yr old tells me how uncool I am all the time.  He berated me the other day for parting his hair on the side all through elementary school.  He claims he was too nice to let me know what I nerdy move that was.  Now he is not holding back and he lets me know how un-cool a side part is.  He refers to it as "church style" Who knew I could have such bad taste because of parting hair!?  I try telling my son that his baggy bottomed pants that hang too low are not cool but he has no confidence in my opinions.  He's no gangsta, but if he weren't wearing a shirt we'd all be seeing more that we care to.  Lets just put it that way.  I would love to find a way to restore his confidence in my sense of fashion, but I am afraid that time has passed.  Or perhaps parted, if you will.  Maybe I should have listened to all those classmates who wrote in my yearbook telling me to stay cool.  Between you and me, I've also struggled with staying cute.  In my defense the humidity really messes with my hair.

*update... Big Boy combed his hair this morning Julius Ceasar style.  All combed forward.  It's  especially ironic since my mother used to do this to me when I was 4,  and as a teen I looked at those photos and hated that style!  Very peculiar. indeed.