The times they are a changin'!

This is not my niece, it's just an example of what I saw a lot of this weekend!

I returned last night from an activity filled weekend at my sister's house. My 14 year old niece had a "Scavenger Hunt" birthday party at the Annapolis Mall Saturday night and I chaperoned a group of four girls. I know we were a little wild when I was in eighth grade, but things are definitely different 28 years later. First of all, we didn't have picture phones and digital cameras. We also didn't have computers with video conferencing. Another modern innovation that we didn't have is Facebook and My Space. Thanks to all these wonderful inventions, a requirement of being a teenage girl is the ability to pose at the drop of a hat. There are a few different poses they have all perfected. There's the coquette pose, mouth open head turned to the side hand up to mouth as if to say "oooh naughty!" The other one is the sideways peace sign with pursed lips, and finally there is the head tilted tongue out to the side pose. Since I served as photographer as well as chaperon for my group, I think I saw the entire repertoire of pouts and poses at least 200 times in the span of one hour.

All in all the party was a success. My group won the scavenger hunt, no thanks to me! I thought I was in pretty good shape until I tried to keep up with a group of hyped up teenage girls. They had to keep doubling back and waiting for me. I was definitely feeling my age.

On Sunday I asked my niece what she would like to do. Her answer, what else? Go to the mall!!! This time I took my 8 year old daughter and my 10 year old niece along for the ride. I won't get into all the gory details, but I have to comment on Hollister. Until yesterday I was a "Hollister Virgin." I've walked by the store many times, but never actually ventured in. Well, when I walked past those gray shuttered doors I half expected to see cocktail waitresses and a dance floor. It was very dark and the music was blaring. I felt like I was on Spring Break! It was so crowded and loud, however, that I started to feel claustrophobic and had to get the hell out of there! Perhaps they should serve the over-40 crowd cocktails to help make the whole experience a little more tolerable! There's a great New York Times article about the current trend in stores targeted towards teens, it's very interesting. (I'll paste a link at the end of this posting!) ***


I got my reward at the end of our mall journey when the girls threw me a bone and let me cruise around Williams Sonoma for awhile. I left with a fabulous Nespresso Aeroccino Automatic Milk Frother which I gave to my sister for her birthday!

I finally managed to get my kids loaded in the car by five to make the trek back to Jersey. It took us 6 1/2 hours to get home. Nothing tops off a weekend at the mall better than sitting in bumper to bumper traffic with two kids screaming, 'I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!!!"

How was your weekend?

Are We Shopping? Is This a Store?; Newest Mall Chains Forgo Displays for Townhouse Look and Shack Chic (November 1, 2006)

The young always have the same problem - how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this by defying their parents and copying one another.

~Quentin Crisp