My Worst Nightmare

Well, it finally happened--I now have a teenager. Vanessa turned 13 on July 17th and I all ready feel the pressures and problems that accompany teenage-dom. You see, I had been thinking all week what present to give her. After downloading some songs to her i-pod, I listened to them on her crappy stock headphones and I decided to run over to Circuit City and get some Skull Candy headphones for her. So on her birthday she opened her present, was happy, and fell asleep that night listening to music. I thought that was it. I mean, isn't that how birthdays roll--buy present, open present, momentary joy, and sleep? Well, not for a teenager. Evidently, a teenager's birthday just keeps going and going and going. It's kind of teenage Hanukkah--the gifts just keep coming.
With the headphones not being enough, we went out Saturday to see a movie and have lunch. Of course, I should have know better than to take Ana to the Cinemark at the mall. As soon as the movie ended, we were in Dillards looking at clothes. One hour later, we walked out with 4 pairs of jeans and who knows how many blouses for our teenage debutant.
Now, any normal kid would be happy and Vanessa was no exception. She was smiling ear to ear. Since we spent so much money on clothes, I canceled our lunch reservation and we headed over to Costco for hotdogs, pizza, and smoothies. I love Costco--giant TVs, video games, cameras, computers, go-carts--Costco has everything. Whatever we buy at Costco is fine with me because somehow, someway, the product relates to me. But what was coming next was unexpected.
We went through the normal pattern keeping in stride with all the other robotic shoppers who make Costco the weekly routine. We hit the TVs, the camcorders, and then the computers. We were on our way to the video game section when we passed the cell-phone counter. All of a sudden, Ana and Vanessa stopped. I was thrown off. This was not the normal routine and I became confused. Well, that confusion must have taken control of me because before I knew it, Ana and Vanessa were walking out of the store with new cell phones and I was still trying to return to normalcy and make me way over to the free food samples.
So four days later, Vanessa now sits in her new clothes listening to hip-hop music on some killer headphones while dialing friends on her cell phone. Her 5 day birthday/Hanukkah is officially over, but for me the teenage nightmare just began.