Gogatsubyo!

Thanks to Medea, I figured out what my problem is! I had completely forgotten about gogatsubyo! That has got to be it. I mean, I lived most of my adult life in Japan, so it makes perfect sense that my internal clock is calibrated to that country`s seasonal depression.

Thanks, everyone, for the advice yesterday. The whole unpleasant experience was a real wake-up call. Until now, I had told myself that X`s problems were just kid stuff, and figured I could stay out of Daughter`s issues with her friends. But I realized that like it or not, I can no longer pretend that nothing is wrong. Rather than an isolated incident, the X/Y debacle had been building for a while.

Yesterday, when X`s mother came to drop off Daughter at our house after the sleepover, she asked me, "Do you know exactly what X said to Y?" And I told her that X had told Y, "You can`t come," in a taunting tone of voice, even though Y was already crying.

"Oh! I will have to talk to X about that," said X`s truly nice and therefore totally oblivious mother. Great start, but.....enough? Who knows. Anyway, I don`t want my Daughter to think that it`s okay to ignore it when her friend does something like that to another friend.

Can I just tell you how relieved I am that there`s only two more weeks left of school? I am really, really ready for this year to be over.

Okay, graceless segue into another depressing subject: yesterday, I found an old tape of a CNBC broadcast of me, doing a live report from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That was something I did from time to time, when I worked in Tokyo for the news organization that rhymes with Cow Bones.

I sounded like an idiot, as most people do on live television, when they are not used to being on live television. But can I just say, I looked really good? I swear, I looked 20 years younger -- and the tape was from 2000.

So the tape proves it -- having our last baby aged me about 15 years.

Sigh.....