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So we were at the wedding of a cousin recently and this is what my teens were doing. Cell phones and PDAs in hand, they were having a roaring time challenging each other to games, much to the disapproval of an elderly gentleman sitting nearby!

If there’s a way to tear a teen away from their cellphone, I’d like to hear about it. Honestly! Lately we’ve even had laptops on the breakfast table. I had to put an end to that, pronto!

Right, so we’ve got another teen at the crossroads now. Raine will be finishing high school this year and she’s trying to figure out what she wants to do next. Not surprising since school is abuzz with this topic lately, compounded by the fact that colleges are making their promotional rounds at high schools to recruit students for their next intake.

Suddenly it’s got the high school seniors thinking and wondering. One of Raine’s friends wants to be a pilot and that’s shocked her parents into going, oh no, you’re NOT! And they’re having big fights over this . Thank goodness Raine has no interest whatsoever in flying, whew!

We’ve all been at the crossroads before at that age and for some of us, it’s not been the easiest thing. I remember being clueless and then ended up being somehow nudged into the world of computers which I quickly grew to love. So mine has a happy ending.

But yeah, if you choose a field you’re passionate about, there’s a bigger chance you will do well and be happier pursuing a career you enjoy rather than having to drag yourself in to work every morning.

And I’m so excited for Raine. She has a variety of interests – writing, food, design, people – and there are so many ways she could go with these. She wants to dabble in a bit of everything, of course, but she knows she has to pick one to major in.

She’s feeling the pressure now because some of her friends have already decided or their parents will be deciding for them. We’ve been having these long chats, researching different options, exploring different combinations. We still have a ways to go but we’re getting there !

So there we were, stuck at home with Raine nursing the return of a persistent cough and groggy from her cough medication, and Skye hit by a sudden bout of food poisoning shortly after breakfast. Not sure what caused it – we all ate the same thing but none of us were struck down.

Oh no, not another boring weekend! Know that the mall is our second home on weekends. Take that away from us and we become grouchy and edgy, swinging from the ceiling fan and chewing on our toenails. Or better, watching Lady Gaga videos for entertainment !

My teens have long sensed that Lady Gaga isn’t someone I necessarily approve of. So it was something of a shock, to both me and them, that a boring Saturday night found me sitting there with my poker face on, watching the Gaga wreathing and writhing ever so unabashedly on the Today Show !

Sure, she’s bold and talented, I grant her that, and possibly even vaguely entertaining to a shopaholic family with no place to go on a weekend. Still I’d rather she had a little more fabric on her where it matters! I mean, my teens are watching, know what I mean?! Gah!

Raine and 3 of her friends signed up for driving school over the weekend. Yes, it’s just a month since Steev got his driver’s license and now it’s Raine’s turn. The theory part is usually conducted at a center not too far away from where we live. I just assumed since Steev and all his friends had their class there that that’s where Raine and her friends were going to be at.

The driving school has a van to ferry them there which was all well and good.  I was going to pick her up and take her out to lunch. We had it all planned. Except neither Raine nor I expected they were going to be transported to another driving center located in a small town more than an hour’s drive away from the city.

Her text messages started coming in at the rate of 1 per minute. Mom, they’re taking us somewhere far! Where? Dunno!! and our text messages just kept flying back and forth. From some of the names of places they were speeding by in the van, Hip2bDad and I huddled over Google Maps checking out possible locations and calling up for directions.

We weren’t exactly panicked but we were really, really concerned. True, I hadn’t thought to ask but couldn’t the driving school have informed us? Within minutes, we were heading out to look for this place “hidden in some plantations with horses and mountains nearby”. We had no idea where it was. The only thing we had to go by were the sketchy landmarks Raine was texting us.

We sped down narrow roads, winding roads and near-deserted highways like this one:

… and drove past clumps of trees and bare land with no buildings in sight. Living in the city, we’re used to seeing buildings, lots of them and the thought of our princess out there in a place with no buildings was not a comforting one!

It took us 2 hours to find the ’shack’ tucked deep in an obscure spot off the beaten path. It’s absolutely the craziest place to house a driving center! This is the country road leading from the driving center. We could almost reach out and touch the hills and there was barely another human in sight!

We couldn’t even find a place to buy lunch for the girls We had to resort to pulling up at a gas station to grab some bread rolls, potato chips and canned drinks!! It was the best we could do under the circumstances.

After we dropped off lunch, we went home to wait. There was still a half day left to the driving course and the van was to bring them back to the city. To the parents of Raine’s 3 friends, this was not a big deal at all. The girls called home but their parents weren’t unduly alarmed. They were comfortable not knowing where their teenaged daughters had been taken.

Not us. We dropped everything and jumped in the car. We couldn’t not know! We had to see her and know where she was! It was a long day! Raine finally arrived home around 5 in the evening, safe and sound, after a 2-hour ride back in the stuffy, speeding van. She’d been away a whole day but it felt more like months. I’ve never been so relieved to see her!

I had lunch with a girl friend the other day and she ordered this…

Stir-fried pumpkin!

It’s supposed to be good for health. So I’m telling the girls we’re going to have this for lunch next week. And Raine’s smart reply is this :

“I simply won’t eat anything that turns into a carriage!”

Heard any smart remarks about food? Share it with us. It’s the weekend and we could all use a good laugh .

A group of Raine’s classmates are organizing an outdoor photo shoot for the graduating high school seniors sometime next week. This bunch of 17 year olds are going to get dressed up and have their photos taken at the mall (why the mall? beats me!) by a professional photographer.

My dear princess isn’t keen. It doesn’t surprise me, considering that Steev wasn’t that keen about stuff like that either when he graduated high school 3 years ago. But he being a guy, there was probably less pressure on him. Well, he did go to his high school prom but he came home early and wasn’t that impressed!

Raine tells me she doesn’t want to go. She thinks it’s blah, a waste of time, it’s not really her scene. Says she’d rather stay home and read a good book or hang out with us. I’m okay with whatever she decides. She definitely has a mind of her own, my middle child!

Our resident Miss Party Planner is hard at work planning our school break agenda. That would be Raine. Right now, she’s making movie ticket reservations and a list of our favorite places to eat.

My 3 teens specialize in different things. Miss Pizza Order-er, Skye does all our calls for pizza delivery. It just took her 2 calls to become a pro. Both the girls help me do research on various topics like fashion, dog food and hemorrhoids treatment for articles that I write.

Mr Techie, Steev takes care of the technical side of things around here, including organizing our family movie nights. And guess what? He’s just gotten his driver’s license and he actually drove us home from our grocery shopping this afternoon. Cool, huh?

For the past few weeks, Steev’s been working part-time at a service center. His job is to help the customer get a number, fill out a form and wait their turn.

Now if you’ve been reading my posts about Steev, you’ll know that besides being a total geek, he’s also a very friendly young man with impeccable manners and a really engaging smile.

So it’s not surprising that when customers approach him with technical questions, he’ll happily explain away though that’s entirely his own attempt at providing the best service he can, rather than part of his job specification.

Since Steev started work, he’s been like the shining star in a room full of dowdy service clerks who are grumpy and not too polite. In fact, several customers have openly commended Steev on his friendly disposition and willingness to answer questions as opposed to said clerks. That’s my son !

Sadly though, that’s the problem right there. The service clerks, fearing that they won’t look too good now that Steev is there, are making life miserable for him. The senior witch complained to the boss that Steev is flouting work rules which she claims is creating a bad image for the company. Say what ??

As a result, Steev’s had all his privileges revoked and said witch is watching him like a hawk. He’s been told not to be too friendly with the customer, not to answer their questions, not to use his cell phone or his computer even when there are no customers.

I feel really sad it turned out to be such an unpleasant experience for Steev. He’s 18 and raring to go and obviously he’s no match against a 40-something who’s an old hand at office politics. I’ve advised him to just do what he’s told, nothing more, nothing less. If they don’t appreciate his efforts, so be it, it’s their loss. I mean, what else can I tell him? *sigh*