The exception

it was parent-teacher conference this week. It always falls on a Tuesday, which is Jeff's basketball night, so I usually make the rounds by myself.

Up to now, Alison has always gotten good reviews. Good student. Participates well. Helps other kids. Sometimes rushes through the instructions and doesn't score as highly as she could have had she followed directions. (genetic; sorry.)

This year, there was a new theme: her spunkiness. Her entertainment value.  Both traits I've enjoyed for years but she seemed to have hidden a bit. It seems this is her break-out year when she's hit that level of freedom to be herself.

She's a cheerleader for the football team.

She's playing basketball.

She's on the spell bowl team.

She's Genie in the 7th grade production of Aladdin.

She is still, however, a prude. Mrs. Aragon AKA Drama Coach, Band Director and All Around Fabulous Person, is hoping Alison will be a genie like "I Dream of Jeannie."  We talked about how close to that costume my Ali would go.

I informed Mrs. Aragon that sadly, I doubted Ali would bare her midriff. Since she could talk, she's been telling men of all ages and body types to put their shirts back on.

Alison is currently insisting that her costume be more like Disney's latest genie, voiced by Robin Williams. I reminded her that she IS a girl.  No matter. She even suggested that we find a way to glue on a goatee.

"I am not wearing that costume that looks like a, well, can I say it Mom?" she asked.

"I don't know what you want to say," I said, then sighed and said, "Go ahead."

"Like a stripper. I am NOT going to wear that!"

So anyway, I also talked with her homeroom/math teacher, who she adores. He's a hard-ass so we like him, too. He's one of those teachers we'll hear her quote years and and years from now.  I was telling him that I was worried her extra curricular activities would affect her grades and that we'd been talking about it.

He tells me that last year, everyone involved in the 7th grade play suffered a decline in their grades. No exceptions. I told Alison, and warned her that her father and I wouldn't be happy if her grades fell.

"There were no exceptions?" she asked.  

"None," I said.

"Well, Mom," she said. "I intend to be the exception this year."

We shook on it. And as everyone knows, when a genie shakes on it, he/she means it.