Erin and I are batching it while Beth is away for a couple of days. we went out to lunch yesterday, at a so called deli. the high school was only half day yesterday, so, tho it was after 1 when we went in, the place was loaded. so many teenagers, especially on the loose, puts me on edge. the buzzing energy and explorations are almost overwhelming. I noticed, in watching the Mock Trial competitions that Erin's team was in, that there's a difference between school kids and those taught at home. the social hierarchies are more heavily enforced in the school kids. you can almost see the weight on all of them. at the table next to us were 2 girls sharing intimate information about each others' cellphones, talking in Valley Girl inflections. the cellphone certainly has changed things for teens, as well as everyone else. Time this week wonders how kids can get anywhere in school what with cellphones, iPods, Gameboys and all that, but I've wondered before that. lots of the kids held the phones in their hands even when not using them. in fact, Erin pulled his out. one boy started to sit down and another pulled the seat out from behind him. I was amazed how much mileage that prank got. the victim sat slowly, sinking to the expected seat, then slowmo down to the floor. everyone, especially the perp, kept laughing and recounting the funniest aspects of that jape as if it were the most Wildean of bon mot. the perp was older and bigger, so there was the necessary sense of bullying tho largely it was all goodnatured. I have to say, the boys seemed like White Male Poet Blogger in waiting. the interactions and insistences seemed so so, if you know what I mean. Erin, with Aspergers (a form of high function autism) would be a mark in school, because he's sweet and innocent in a way that that social hierarchy devours. I don't mean to sound bleak about the kids themselves, but there's a great deal of potential out there that aint being addressed at all. it's not something I easily aver, but I do believe people die every day for lack of poetry. middle class aspirations are so plain and straight.