In the news

Friday is a work at home day, so I get to watch national morning news before shoving Little IT on the school bus and depositing IT Boy with the sitter.  It was a busy morning…

The Iowa Caucus has finally come and gone.  I’m not very politically outspoken.  Being the product of a liberal NY mother and a raging conservative Texan father there is no middle ground and it’s best not to bring stuff up.  But I do have some opinions that I am going to share here, with the caveat that I am not nor will I ever be a political blogger.  I’m happy that Hillary had a poor finish - I don’t want to see her as the nominee.  Obama had a great speech last night, but I’m still not sure he would get my vote.  He did give a wonderful speech last night - v. impressive and dare I say, Presidential!  Pity about Edwards, since we hung with his wife at BlogHer and all, but New Hampshire could still change things.  Huckabee scares me, because he puts his faith out there as if to say, I believe in Jesus, so you must vote for me.  Either way, we have 9 more months of this, so strap on kids, it’s going to be a bumpy ride. 

Now here’s a true confession for you - I’m a registered Republican.  I don’t believe 100% in the tennents of the party, for instance I believe in the right to choose, and have great misgivings about our foreign policy.  But being registered in the party gives me the right to vote in the primaries, where I feel like my vote does make a difference.  I can weed out the bad and vote for the Republican who best fits my beliefs.

Whoo…too much politicizing…let’s talk about Hannah some more (don’t remind me that I am breaking my no-Hannah blogging pledge).  The wack job mom who entered her daughter in an essay contest to win Hannah Montana tickets was on “Today” with, get this, her lawyer AND psychologist.  For those who missed the story, Club Libby Lu had an essay contest to win tickets.  I’m not sure about the rule of the contest, but I am pretty sure that making up a story about having a daddy who died in Iraq was not sanctioned under them.  Anyhow, the bitch got caught and backtracked saying she thought she was writing a story about the “spirit” of Christmas and didn’t think it had to be true.  Uh huh.  While I am tempted to compare her judgement in writing to her judgement in eyebrow styling, I shall refrain.  Totally totally disgusting - what kind of mother puts her kid in a situation like this?  She had to know that the lying could be discovered, and then what?  Your kid gets told she has tickets and then she doesn’t?  How does THAT make her feel?

Speaking of mother of the year candidates, apparently Britney had another meltdown.  When does it end, dear readers, when are we free of her nonsense?

I think I’m giving up on morning news.  Someone has to have Buffy or ST:TNG reruns on…

 

We survived Hannah!

Could it be that the time has come to STOP writing posts about Hannah Montana?  Since our concert date was last week, that time may be upon us, dear readers.  Although I have been told about soon-to-be rapid sell outs of movie tickets for the upcoming concert movie….

Anyhow, here’s how it played out.  We left 2 hours early for the 50 minute drive and needed every second of that.  I have to remember that in Long Island, if an electronic sign tells you to go a different way than every fiber of your being is telling you to go, do it.  Sorta like the highway signs in LA Story, they were right, I was wrong, and had to sit 20 minutes in traffic off the Meadowbrook waiting for two lanes to become one and to merge into the road in front of the Coliseum. 

Anyhow, we got there and parked right near the exit, a move honed from years of attending Islander games that would save us substantial time later on.  We decided to get our souvenirs first thing, because they had sold out of a lot of shirts and other goodies.  This was the second night at Nassau, plus they opened the arena up the day before the first show to sell souvenirs to those who didn’t have tickets to the show.  An interesting marketing idea, and I cannot decide whether it was generous or greedy.

After purchasing a poster set and a t-shirt (total cost = $45, so I got off easy), we found our seats, which turned out to be four rows from the floor at center ice (I have to use a hockey analogy here because “mid court” doesn’t cut it when you don’t have a basketball team that plays in the arena).  We could see Cassie and her mom and cousin right below us on the floor.  Her cousin had a sign saying “My name is Hannah and it’s my birthday today,” both true sentiments.  

It seemed like minutes before the Jonas Brothers came one.  Actually, it was minutes, five tops.  I haven’t heard that many screaming girls since, well, ever.  I never got taken to cool things like this as a kid, a fact that Little IT was reminded of many, many times.  Thankfully, I had several pairs of earplugs for Little IT, because she has very sensitive hearing and had to leave the American Idol concert at the midpoint due to a raging headache. 

So, Jonas Brothers played, sang, and shook much booty.  There was an intermission between them and Hannah, which we used for a bathroom break.  I was much amused to see the security guards yelling at the moms on the Men’s room line (we were early enough to enter the line to the Women’s room when it was non-existent).  So then it was Hannah, more Jonas, and then the transition into Miley.  The show was pretty decent, if an old person may say so.  Some of the Jonus Brother’s and a few of Miley’s songs had some good rock beats to them, and I enjoyed hearing htem.  But the night wasn’t about me. 

When Hannah came out, it was all Little IT dreamed it would be.  Which meant it was all I dreamed it would be, because seeing her that happy was a splendid thing indeed.  I’m truly sorry for all the other moms who couldn’t get tickets for their girls.  As you can see, the look on Little IT’s face was the best Christmas gift I could have asked for. 

 

Hannah Montana quiz

By how much is my wallet going to be lighter after the Hannah concert tonite?

a. $0 - 50 - Little IT will let you off easy

b. $50 - 75 - not pretty, but expected

c. $75 - 100 - Obviously, i was railroaded

d. over $100 - all parental restraint collapsed.  Don’t tell Mr. IT.

Vote early and often!  I’ll be tweeting from the concert at elleinthecity on Twitter.

 

Because I just can’t go a week without invoking the name of Hannah Montana

IT Update - it seems the Little IT and I will be going to see Hannah Montana after all.  A very kind co-worker (ok, my boss) read my blog and saw that we were in need of tickets, and he was able to get them.  Cassie, her best friend from the “Inside Edition” piece got tickets as well, from a MileyWorld.com post-sale.  Seems they sent out notices to everyone who didn’t use their pre-sale codes inviting them to use them in a post-show sale.  But they got smart - you have to pick up the tickets at will-call the night of the event, and show the credit card you used to purchase them as ID.  I guess they are trying to make up for all the scalpers who got a hold of them.  Hooray for MileyWorld. 

We gave Little IT the tickets for her first night of Hannukah present.  We were going to wait till Christmas, because then I would only have hear about the concert for 2 days as opposed to 23, but c’est la vie.  We know of a few others in town who were getting tickets at the same time, and we figured we’d just go for it.   She screamed when she saw them, but it didn’t really sink in until the next morning when she proceeded to talk about  the concert.  A lot.  Sigh.  It’s going to be a long month.

 

Little IT, Cub Reporter

About a month ago, Little IT came home and told us that she put her name in a hat to be selected as a reporter for the school newspaper.  The next day, she ecstatically told us that her name had been picked and she was indeed on the paper.  She was thrilled and so were we.  We later found out that there was no hat, and the teachers had selected her personally, both for her interest and her ability.  This as parents thrilled us even more.  It shouldn’t have, but yes, we do revel in our daughter’s successes.  Visions of mastheads dancing in our heads, and all. 

She’s been going for reporter training one day a week for the past 4 weeks.  Yesterday was her day to select what she would be writing for the paper (they publish one edition per year).  She told me she would be doing a review of a TV show.  Which show, I stupidly asked.  “Hannah Montana,” she replied.  Oh, of course.

I have to admit I was a mite bit disappointed at first.  She had a myriad of choices for stories, from an interview with the principal where she could ask pointed questions about how he feels about the search for a new superintendent, to a muck-racking expose of the cafeteria staff and how they aren’t living up to their ServSafe training.  But no, she picked Hannah. 

The more I thought about it, the more I came to accept it.  After all, she is in 3rd grade.  There’s plenty more room in the future for the hard-hitting investigative journalism that I know she is capable of.  She’s also following one of the most important rules in writing.  Write about what you are passionate about, what inspires you.  Sure, it’s not Upton Sinclair.  Yet.  She certainly has time for that, and if she can fulfill this assignment, she’s off to a great start.

 

Inside Edition

By popular demand (no, I am not kidding) here is a link to the Inside Edition/Hannah Montana piece on YouTube.

 

Parents up in arms! The high cost of Hannah!

Apparently, I am up in arms, according to the preview on Insideedition.com.  I never knew!

 

Just the facts, ma’am

REALLY UPDATED!  Here’s a link to the segment transcript on the Inside Edition page.   

UPDATED!  They showed a preview of Tuesday’s show - looks like the Hannah story will be on then.  I was on in the preview, so it looks like they used some of our footage.

 If you’re here to read my story of how I was interviewed along with my daughter on the Hannah Montana/Ticketmaster controversy for the syndicated TV show, Inside Edition, these are the posts you want to take a look at.

Here’s the blog post that the producer saw that drove her to contact me in the first place.

Here’s part one of my play by play on the interview

and part two

and part three

Enjoy!

 

This doesn’t usually happen around these parts…Part 3

Continued - more of in which Little IT and I are getting ready to be interviewed by “Inside Edition” about the Hannah Montana ticket controversy…

7:42p - IT Boy, having been asleep since 6:30, gets put in his crib in his room. In the meantime, I meet Holly, the very nice AP who has a camera and sound guy with her.  She asks to use the bathroom, looking very tired from her day.  Everyone is very pleasant.  As they begin setting up, I panic, which seems to be my mode for the day.  Why am I doing this?  Is this some perverse desire for fame for me, or worse, my kid?  Have I become the Dina Lohan of Center Lane?  Am I selling her out in an effort to make her the next Britney Spears?  Do I really think I could get Hannah tickets out of this for Little IT?  Having Mr. IT scowling in the kitchen helps matters not at all.  I settle down with the knowledge that it’s just a fun thing for the girls to do.  Heck, maybe it will help my blog traffic.  Maybe we get tickets out of it for the girls somehow.  How bad could this be?

7:50p - Nice sound guy sets up the shoot with nice camera guy.  They want to shoot us in front of the newly de-cluttered dining room, on chairs.  But we have no chairs that fit the bill.  Mr. IT runs downstairs to find folding chairs.  As the guy puts the mike on me, Holly helpfully points out that I have spit up on my shoulder, and sends me upstairs to change, for the fourth time that day. I switch to a kimono sleeve cashmere sweater which R declares to be the best one of the day. I bemoan the fact that my hair was not done, and wonder how I can go on film that way. And, Julie’s words ringing in my ears, I reapply my lipstick.

Meanwhile, C’s brothers, A and S, who are part time DJs and all-around AV geeks, arrive with their friend K. K is wearing an iPod Nano shirt. The brothers start asking what kind of microphones they are using and what range they get. My geek peeps have arrived. I ponder how I much value I can gain if I update my LinkedIn profile to read Television appearances: “Unwrapped”, Food Network; “Inside Edition”, Syndicated.

7:55 - Little IT and I are in chairs ready to spill our guts about the Hannah ticket mess.  As Holly asks questions and directs our answers, I realize that she’s hoping I’m going to get mad…really mad.  Screaming irrational psycho parent kind of mad.  And I’m really not that way.  Yes, I’m disappointed I didn’t get tickets.  She keeps saying that parents are suing Ticketmaster, that tickets are going on some sites for up to $3,000, doesn’t that make me MAD?  Well, yes and no.  Mad at the scalpers for finding a way to do that.  Mad at Ticketmaster that I’ve been buying concert tickets for 25+ years now and this keeps happening.  Not mad at poor Miley Cyrus, who seems like a decent enough kid living well under a morality clause from the Disney Company. 

Then the producer starts refering to a web article that lists something about the Missouri AG who is suing Ticketmaster alleging fraud, and Ticketmaster suing some ticket broker who has found a way around their systems. All of which, unfortunately, is news to me. Reminded me of the time in college that I was giving a presentation on the PLO in my “Nationalism and Terrorism” course. Yeah, you laughed at me for taking that course in 1988, but now, really, who looks like a sage now? Anyhow, the professor for the course went easy on most kids in the presentations. However, unbeknownst to me, he was a nationally recognized expert on all things PLO. Who knew? He managed to stay awake through my whole presentation (he was the oldest tenured prof at the university at the time, so he took cat naps through most of the other students’ works) and asked questions every third sentence or so. At the end, he asked me what I thought about the latest skirmish between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Trouble was, I was a typical college student in the 80’s. No TV, certainly no Internet, and worse, because I was working so hard on this paper, I had no time to read any newspaper, much less one that would have told me a thing about this latest confrontation. So here I was, up to date on the Dawson’s Field hijackings almost 20 years earlier, but utterly clueless when it came to something that happened about 2 weeks ago.  That was a tangent, but it brings me to this point…How was I supposed to realize that I had Hannah homework?!?

8:15 - Having failed with me, Holly turns to Little IT. Meanwhile, A and K make a run for it, but S wants to stay. Now, whose who know Little IT know that she’s no shrinking violet. However, when the camera turned on her, she became quiet and shy. They really tried to work in some questions that could be answered coherently, but Little IT didn’t give them much to work with. C’est la vie.

8:25 - Holly decides to get some other shots for B roll footage- Little IT and C dancing in front of the TV to a Hannah Montana DVD, the three of us doing homework at the dining room table (look out for the Dummies product placement here), and the girls putting on their identical Hannah Halloween costumes in Little IT’s bedroom. Holly made the girls repeatedly say how much they love Hannah and, in unison, “Hannah Montana, please help us.” I start feeling a little icky and look at R. R with one look says I don’t need a shower, and it’s kind cute. I worry that I am exploiting my child, who has no concept about boundaries, and isn’t that what I am there for? To stop the madness. I don’t, thinking if it’s really all that bad, Mr. IT or R would have stopped me. The person who may have had the best time of all was S, who got to hold the boom mike and talk with the sound and camera guys about how they do what they do. He’s still talking about how much fun it was.

8:50 - Everyone leaves, and I am left with Mr. IT and Little IT. Mr. IT says that they’ll never use any of the footage, because I didn’t get screaming mad on camera and he was proud of me for that. Awww…that made me realize that I probably was doing the right thing all along, and if my moral compass really was challenged, I wouldn’t have let it go that far.

Holly said the story will probably air either tonight or tomorrow. I will tape it - if they edit it so that I look crazy or the girls come out as spoiled brats (which they are not) I won’t let Little IT watch it. R still has the dream that somehow someone will come through with tickets for us. I’m kinda past thinking about that, unless another show gets added to the schedule.  

 What did I learn?  I’m still pondering that.  I guess because my motives for doing the appearance were never solidified, I don’t feel like I accomplished any goal.  Hopefully, Little IT will be excited to be on TV.  And so will C.  If they did end up getting tickets, great.  But as I emphasized to the producer, we didn’t get tickets, but life goes on.  There will be other things for her to get excited about.  It wasn’t the end of the world then, and it certainly won’t be now. 

 

This doesn’t usually happen around these parts…Part 2

Continued - in which Little IT and I are getting ready to be interviewed by “Inside Edition” about the Hannah Montana ticket controversy…

 12:17 - run downstairs to babysitter.  Explain situation.  Explain that I need her to help me get the house, which is “cluttered” on the best of days, in TV show shape.  She reminds me that if the crew is coming at 4:30, Little IT has a playdate that will keep her out till 5:30. 

12:18 - Call the house of the kid where the playdate is.  Get the woman’s MIL, who doesn’t really appear to speak English. Not confident message is received.

12:30 - Call R.  R is the mother of Little IT’s best friend, C.  Leave panicked message on cell phone asking to be called back immediately.  R is the one that bought the Miley World membership in the first place, with the intention of buying 4 tickets at the presale, but y’all know where that went, now don’t cha…

12:45 - R calls me back.  “Are they going to give us the tickets?!?”  No, I say.  “Inside Edition” is a tabloid format magazine show.  They ain’t Oprah.  It’s just going to be me talking about how I could not get the tickets.  Regardless, R says that she and C will be there for the taping.  R has cell phone # for playdate mom.  Call it.  Leave message. 

12:50 - I call my friend Julie to ask her to come and do my makeup.  I planned to style my hair but I really didn’t have the time, being on the phone and all, and it’s pretty dry from the shower right now.  Julie says she will be over right before the camera crew does. 

1-4p - I finish work, while babysitter throws all possessions into pack and play.  Babysitter picks up Little IT at school, intercepting the mom (who she had never met before and had no idea what she looked like) who was trying to take her for the playdate just in the nick of time.  Little IT comes home all confused.  She never knew anything about the Hannah tickets, so she’s getting a little disappointed that we never got them in the first place.  Great. 

4p - I join babysitter in trying to clean up the dump.  Make mental note apologizing to the me of the future who will be looking in vain for all this stuff shoved into unrecognizable locations, cursing the me of the past all the way.

4:10 - Julie arrives, calms me down, and does a wonderful job on my makeup.  “Don’t forget to reapply the lipstick!!” she says as she leaves.  “What are you going to wear?” she asks.  Black T shirt and jeans, I reply, as I strip off the pj shorts and the tie dyed shirt. 

4:20 - Andrea calls.  Camera crew is running late on Marion Jones thingy.  They’re coming instead at 5:30.  I alert R to come an hour later.

5:30 - R arrives.  No camera crew.  Yet.  Little IT and C begin playing in the other room.  I decide to feed IT Boy his dinner.  Cereal, macaroni and cheese, and banana yoghurt.  None of the rest of us have eaten, other than the occasional potato chip. 

6:00 - Andrea calls.  Camera crew still in White Plains.  Not sure, but she thinks they are leaving now.  Politely gives me her cell phone to call her if they’re still MIA.  I get Mr. IT on the phone.  He’s on his way home.  Ask him to pick up dinner. 

6:30 - IT Boy is playing on the floor and falls back and hits his head.  Full disclosure, this happens about every other day.  He’s a little guy learning his way in the world, and doesn’t have the best muscle control.  It happens.  I pick him up to comfort him, and in one honk, he barfs up dinner all over me and the floor.  I rush upstairs to change, at the prompting of R, who strips him down and cleans the floor. 

6:40 - New outfit of Wiley shirt (product placement!) and black capri pants, which while they resemble pajamas are in no way sleepwear.  Mr. IT arrives with dinner.  He’s ranting and raving, but that usually happens when the Mr. returns home.  R at one point tells him to shut up, and suddenly I am glad he is acting up so she can see what I am up against sometimes.

6:50 - Holly, the AP on site calls.  NOW they are leaving the courthouse in White Plains.  NOW.  They should be here in 20 minutes.  I do the math - White Plains to my house on a Friday traffic night?  7:40 on a good day.

7:00 - Little IT and C eat chinese food.  I take a bowl and pig out on vegetable dumplings. 

7:40 The camera crew arrives. 

To be continued.