Those Horrible Lying Teenagers

I work with teenagers...for some reason. Actually, this year marks my 10 year anniversary of doing so. One of the "perks" of working with kids is that every now and then they will ask you to do stuff with them. It is a great honor and very humbling as a 37 year old to be asked to hang out with high school kids by high school kids. That is, unless they hate you.

Two of these devil children invited me to hang out with them at a "Christmas party type event" at the local YMCA on Saturday. I asked if it was going to be like the last event they duped me into (also at the Y) which was the worst concert I had ever been to ever (yes, I used ever twice). They assured me that in no way was this going to be anything like that event. They even went so far as to describe in detail the games we would be playing. Very clever.

So to the YMCA I went. Outside in the rain, 20 very scary children stood smoking cigarettes and who-knows-what, but I thought, "Well this is a rough side of town, so I guess it's pretty neat that the Y gets these kids for games". Duh. I found Cheech and Chong in the lobby and they went on and on about the night's events and how much fun they were having. The "karaoke" event was about to take place in the next room and they were "waiting their turn" at the mic. So, we went in. Up front I saw speakers, lights, guitars...keyboard...drums. Hey, wait a minute...

Duped again. Not only was this another heavy metal screamer show, but it was the absolute worst heavy metal screamer show ever. I can say that because Fred and Barney have duped me into other shows before. I can compare. It was also the most, uh, "athletic" show I've seen as well. I've never been to a concert where I feared for my safety. Or felt that I had to watch the crowd. But I did. Little teeny-boppers were thrashing, kicking and catapulting over each other the whole show. I left and went into my car to listen to some Christmas music in the freezing rain. I went back in after a while, said goodbye to Tom and Jerry and took off, lamenting the sad state of music (and what passes for music) these days.

I'm also thinking about revenge. I should invite them into my world. Like making them go to church with me or watching me work. That'll fix 'em.