February 11, 2007~~11:58 a.m.
Elle.

Honestly, I probably have one of the best teenagers on the planet, but there are things this child does that drive me absolutely crazy.

1. Gum on the nightstand. Why this child feels it necessary to chew gum in bed and then stick it to her nightstand is beyond me. It is DISfuckingGusting. Sometimes (this morning, for instance) she has three blobs of it lined up. It's gross. It's ruining the furniture. And, ick, it's just gross.

2. She is careless with expensive things/takes them for granted. The laptop computer, which was supposed to be a family machine, lives in her room. I regularly see it on the floor or in her bed; these are not places I consider to be appropriate for things that could be destroyed if stepped or sat on. She does the same thing with her portable DVD player, though at least it's "hers". She just assumes nothing will happen to them and I am sure she thinks I'm a huge pain in the ass for making her move them everytime I find them somewhere I don't think they should be.

3. Crap on the floor. Clothes. Cheerleading uniform. Towels. Textbooks. You name it; it's on her floor. Does it bother her? No. Not a bit. In fact I'm quite certain that she'd never pick up a single thing if I didn't make her do it.

Try as I might, I can't seem to get her to comply with my wishes on these things. And, honestly, it's pretty hard to punish a kid who works as hard as she does. She goes straight from school to softball practice to cheer practice (and then, on Mondays, to gymnastics) and still gets all her homework done and brings home straight As. She has a boyfriend now, but is far from the boy-crazy teen I was who let boys interfere with my academics and my social relationships with my other friends.

She's a good girl... but she's driving me crazy.

~Alice